Gwent-based water management solutions company Asset International has boosted its engineering design team with the appointment of two young professionals with proven skills in their respective environments.

Sunny Rupalia, 24, joins from Birmingham prototyping firm Protolabs, while Richard Harlow, 25, comes to the company from Cardiff-based ecodesign research consultancy Ecodesign Centre.

Both engineers will add to the Newport manufacturer’s computer aided design capacity as it expands its work across multiple sectors in the UK, including housing, sewerage, water supply, biogas, drainage, flood defence and ecological heating.

Asset International is the world’s top manufacturer of Weholite large-diameter plastic pipes, which it uses to develop a wide variety of water management solutions for leading-name clients.

Sunny’s work with Protolabs, which designs and builds injection moulded parts for new products, gave him extensive experience of CNC and CAD technologies, making him an ideal fit for Asset, where he will use the same software to design bespoke solutions on diverse projects.

He has already supported the launch of a new over-ground storage tank, which has become a hugely popular part of Asset’s portfolio.

Richard aims to use his extensive design experience on Welsh Government and European Commission environmental and sustainability projects, to support Asset’s substantial work in these fields of activity.

Asset managing director Simon Thomas said: “As the company continues to expand into new sectors, we need highly-skilled design engineers to sustain the technical excellence which is so important to our clients. We’re therefore very pleased that two very talented professionals are joining our team.”