Catnic is a

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

-based building and

construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...

products manufacturer which developed and

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

ed a

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented/structural item. In the case ...

History

Catnic was established in 1969 when Brian Robinson took his idea to

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

Alfred Gooding. The company conceived, developed and pioneered the steel lintel designed for the house building industry, and soon won a major share of the UK market. The name 'Catnic' came from Brian's two children, and . In 1982, Catnic were involved in a landmark patent case,

Catnic Components Ltd v Hill & Smith Ltd ''Catnic Components Ltd. v. Hill & Smith Ltd.'' 982R.P.C. 183 is a leading House of Lords decision on the nature of a patent and in particular the methods of claim construction. Background Catnic Components had a patent for a steel lintel, u ...

, which brought about a decision from the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

Today

Having been sold to

Corus Group Corus may refer to: Places * Çörüş, Gazipaşa, a village in Antalya Province, Turkey Facilities and structures * Corus Quay, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; an office tower Fictional locations * Corus, a fictional world that is the setting for the ...

, Catnic have developed other steel-based building products, including Qwikpost. The Catnic range is sold throughout the UK by a network of builder's merchants, DIY outlets and garden centres. The market in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

is serviced by Catnic GmbH, and in the rest of Europe, the Middle East and the Far East by a network of independent distributors.

External links

Company websiteowned the Indian company TATA Steel
Caerphilly County Borough Manufacturing companies of Wales Tata Steel Europe {{Wales-company-stub