It takes a very special kind of machine to find out the answer to life, the universe and everything. This machine is also very large and very expensive and is being built in Geneva.

It is called a Large Hadron Collider and scientists at the European Nuclear Research Centre (CERN) hope that it will provide the answer to how the universe was formed, by exploring the structures of matter and energy.

When it is fired up in 2007, the £4.4bn device will smash atoms into each other at speeds of more than 1.2 billion mph and the results will be analysed in a bid to cast light on the Big Bang theory of how the Earth was formed.

All very impressive, but it takes a lot of kit to make such a machine and that is where relatively small companies like AS Scientific Products come in.

The Abingdon-based firm specialises in cryogenic engineering, making pipework and equipment capable of operating at extremely low temperatures. It has won a series of contracts for the Large Hadron Collider project much of which was designed at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory as part of a relationship with CERN that stretches back 18 years.

Those deals worth £1.6m, £1m and £200,000 are worth a year's turnover to the firm and they enabled it to construct a second building at its home on the Abingdon Science Park.

The work is highly specialised and, as sales director Paul Wiggins explained, very few firms are capable of producing the equipment required for this sort of project.

He said: "In reality, we are competing against three firms in the whole of Europe for this type of business.

"It is very niche but still competitive and there are not many contracts like it around."

AS Scientific was set up on Abingdon's Radley Road industrial estate in 1976 by Colin Hillier, who had originally started his career at Oxford Instruments, before specialising with Thor Cryogenics.

Because of its specialist nature, the company designs, builds and installs its equipment and has built up its reputation as a result, with repeat business forming a major part of its work.

As well as CERN, clients include the JET nuclear fusion research programme at Culham Laboratory, near Abingdon, the Diamond Light Source science facility being built at Chilton, and gas companies such as BOC, Air Liquide and Air Products.

One of the firm's bigger markets is in the semiconductor industry, with companies using Air Products' equipment to test microchips to extreme temperatures using liquid nitrogen.

It all sounds very complex but at the core of AS Scientific is engineering expertise honed in Oxfordshire.

Mr Wiggins said: "Like many of us, Colin Hillier was a Harwell apprentice and all the movers and shakers in this company are engineers, not businessmen.

"They have time-served skills that have been built up by providing engineering services to customers."

And such expertise spreads far and wide, with some of the company's most significant export markets being in the Far East, bucking fears that traditional skills are being lost to the likes of the Chinese.

Mr Wiggins said: "We are exporting to China and provide more pipeline to Taiwan than the UK and Europe put together.

"The Chinese are very good at copying equipment but when it comes to the analytical side, the skills are not there yet."

Other markets include South Africa, Israel, India and Malaysia. But with traditional apprenticeship schemes no longer in existence, it seems such a valuable commodity could run dry in the long term.

Mr Wiggins said: "There is no question that when the Harwell apprenticeships stopped, it created a skills shortage.

"At one time Rover, Lucy's and BT all ran apprenticeship schemes but now it is difficult to even find a college for welders.

"And the Formula 1 teams are prepared to pay a much higher rate than we can afford."

It is a subject that is close to the heart of Mr Hillier himself.

He said: "If you look at our workforce, it is growing older there are not many youngsters around.

"Fortunately, staff turnover is fairly, low thanks to their commitment to the company and the work they do."

One problem looming on the horizon is the end of the CERN contract in 2007, and a lot of work will have to be done to replace it.

But AS Scientific is confident its reputation for excellence, as well as its work in a field that is pioneering, will cement its long-term future.

Contact: 01235 533060, www.asscientific.co.uk