New jobs are being created at a water technology hub in North Yorkshire being developed by an advanced engineering company.

Synthotech, based in Harrogate, develops monitoring and leak detection technology for utility companies, tapping into robot technology to slash work times and costs. The business designs and builds advanced pipeline inspection systems and robotics to detect leaks and fix pipes.

The robots can be deployed remotely for long distances, speeding up the investigation process, and its AI-capable robots are designed, developed and manufactured in the UK. Now a new technology centre is being created which will create eight jobs, after it secured £7.3m of funding to be used for water and multi-utility no-dig technologies.

The centre’s development also comes as the firm releases its latest innovation, the SynthoCAM H20 – a CCTV inspection system which allows water networks to inspect drinking water pipes to make sure their pipelines and working effectively and are free of leaks, without interrupting customers’ water supply.

The innovation will prove significant for Synthotech’s clients, as leakage from underground water pipelines is a big challenge to the water industry, with an estimated one fifth of all treated water being lost, adding up to nearly one trillion litres a year across the UK. Synthotech’s innovation division, Synovate, was recently awarded two contracts in Ofwat’s Water Breakthrough Challenge worth £5.8m and it will use its latest robot technology to identify and repair links from within live water mains, without the need for extensive excavations, thereby minimising interruptions to water supplies.