Alex Austin
Alex is a member of the ISE/101/05 Indentation Hardness Testing Committee at the British Standards Institution. He has been part of the delegation to the International Standards Organisation advising on the development of the standard ISO 6506 Metallic materials - Brinell hardness test and is the chairman and convenor for the current ISO revision of the standard.
Alex’s industrial pedigree can be traced back to 18th Century Bohemia, where his forebears ran a foundry supplies business and in his work at the British Standards Institution he has used his extensive knowledge of Brinell testing in the UK’s steel, oil and gas industries to ensure that the interests of the end user are appropriately represented.
Alex has been Managing Director of Foundrax Engineering Products since 2001. A skilled negotiator and commercial manager, Alex leads a team of engineers and technicians with skills ranging all the way from traditional toolmaking to embedded software systems, and he is currently engaged in bringing the next generation of Brinell hardness testers into production (the first of these was launched in 2021). He recently expanded the production team and purchased a new factory space to cope with increasing orders, particularly for Foundrax’s custom-designed, custom-built, bridge-type hardness testing machines.
