Two new business partners are on the verge of a major breakthrough which will revolutionise the way steel is welded underwater around the world.

And when it comes off it will be thanks to The Business - the Telegraph & Argus pink weekly newspaper - that it happens.

David Keats, 42, has recently joined forces with entrepreneur Brendan Larkin to set up a new firm to help bring his welding idea to market.

Mr Keats contacted Mr Larkin when he read an article about him in The Business in June. In it Mr Larkin said he was prepared to look at financing innovative ideas.

Now the two of them are working on a revolutionary device which will allow repair work to be carried out under water on steel structures such as oil platforms. They have formed MOS Speciality Welds Limited, based in Shipley, which is expected to net sales of millions of pounds when the device is marketed and sold around the globe in the next few months.

Mr Keats, of Hightown Lane, Cleckheaton, is the world's leading authority in underwater welding and travels the world doing specialist work for global firms.

He said: "I have been doing wet welding for years but it is not suitable for load-bearing structures such as oil platforms. Dry welding costs millions of pounds to carry out. It involves building a steel structure in which a diver can operate.

"Our plastic 'bubble' does not need the steel chamber but creates a dry environment around the welding arc which is suitable for dry welding which can be used to repair load-bearing steel structures," he said.

"When the device comes off in the next 18 months, we will be able to market it across the world and it is expected to bring in sales of millions of pounds."

He will use the contacts he has made across the world to sell the device and build up the business to such an extent that the firm will be able to employ more people.

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