Frank Wardle is Managing Director of UPM Ltd – a research and development company specialising in Ultra Precision equipment. He has more than 30 years of practical experience in bearing research, initially with the rolling bearing companies Ransom, Hoffman and Pollard (RHP) and SKF and later with the air bearing manufacturer Loadpoint Ltd. Throughout this period he was not only responsible for research into ways of improving bearing performance, but also for developing new commercial bearing designs and some of the machinery used for their manufacture and testing.