production world
Try laser
marking before
you buy
USERS can now assess a laser
marking system for minimal financial commitment.
Electrox is introducing a ‘Rent-To-Buy’ scheme for its
customers which will enable a company to have a
laser marking system for under £213 per week. Users
can have the laser for twelve months, at the end of
which they can either purchase the system for the
balance outstanding, re-finance the scheme, or return
the laser to Electrox with no penalty. The scheme is
designed to provide first time users with an even
easier entry into laser marking technology and to
enable existing users to extend their facilities for
minimum cost. www.electrox.com
Accurate cut-off saw eliminates waste at alloy producer
HEREFORD-BASED Special Metals Wiggin is targeting process repeatability and reduction of waste from its cut-off operations for high nickel, high
performance alloys. It has turned to sawing machine supplier Burkett Cutmaster and strategic partner and special purpose machinery builder Ripon
Technical Services to deliver an automated sawing and bar/profile handling system. This outperforms the pre-existing manual cut-off capability on
reliability and accuracy, thanks largely to a MAG-TS incremental linear encoder supplied by Newall Measurement Systems. In terms of accuracy, the
MAG-TS encoder (±0.025mm) far exceeds any applications required by Special Metals Wiggin. Installed in February 2007, the capability of the system
is well inside normal cutting tolerances of 6mm, potentially saving the company several millimetres of material with every cut. www.newall.co.uk
Bursary could reverse skills decline says CBI
THE UK’s biggest business group says urgent action is needed to reverse a
decades-long decline in the study of science, technology, engineering and
maths (STEM) subjects and meet the needs of a changing UK economy;
2.4m STEM-qualified staff are needed by 2014. A ‘golden carrot’ bursary of
£1,000 a year should be given to science and engineering undergraduates
as part of a five point plan to double the proportion of students taking these
subjects. CBI wishes to see:
■ The brightest 40% of 14-year-olds automatically opted into separate
physics, chemistry and biology GCSE courses instead of the stripped-down
science now studied by most (8% of 16-year-olds currently take three
science GCSEs).
■ £120m of new funding to pay for one-to-one careers advice at ages 14,
16 and 18, which will help challenge misperceptions about science and
engineering degrees. The CBI says companies also need to take further
steps to encourage young people into these careers.
■ Better-equipped school science labs. A quarter of labs are unsafe or
unsatisfactory according to the Royal Society of Chemistry, yet much of the
£200m allocated by the government to solve this remains unspent.
■ More specialist science teachers to inspire youngsters. Currently, one in
four schools for 11- to 16-year-olds do not have a specialist physics teacher.
Whilst new £5,000 ‘golden hello’ payments are starting to increase the
Zeiss partners CECA initiative
CARL Zeiss and the Centre of Excellence in Customised Assembly (CECA) at the
University of Nottingham are collaborating to assist UK Industry, with delivery of the
UK’s first Zeiss F25 CCM. Developed for micro-parts QA the F25 delivers repeatability to
an accuracy of less than 50 nanometres.
The CECA Precision Manufacturing Centre opened in March and provides
companies with access to breakthrough technologies and customisable manufacturing
solutions without high investment costs. The Zeiss machine is one of the first F25
CMMs to be used in post-development phase anywhere in the world, and complements
an range of equipment at the facility which includes Zeiss’ new multi-sensor measuring
machine - the O-INSPECT - and the Zeiss Stemi-2000 stereo microscope.
CECA is a collaborative project between the Universities of Sheffield, Loughborough
and Nottingham. Its three technology centres focus on Large Scale Assembly, Digital
Engineering and High Precision Technology. The facilities at Nottingham are available
for projects ranging from research and development of new product designs and
manufacturing techniques, to pilot production of low-volume, high value products, as
well as specialist training. www.zeiss.com www.ceca-uk.cm
10 MWP september 2007
number of science graduates training as teachers, more resources are needed.
■ Bursaries for STEM students worth £1000 per year towards their tuition
fees - at a total cost of around £200m a year - to reflect the importance of
these skills to the UK economy.
Businesses fear that many young people are unaware of the higher
earning potential and rewarding careers that STEM skills can unlock.
Starting salaries in the science sector average £23,000 a year, against a
£19,000 average for graduates across all sectors - while over their lifetimes,
chemistry and physics graduates can expect to earn at least £60,000 more
than other graduates. Science and engineering companies are already
struggling to fill posts: 80% of engineering or industrial companies, and 67%
of energy, water or utility companies expect a shortfall in overall graduate
recruits this year.
Graham Love, CEO of global defence technology and security business
QinetiQ, one of the largest recruiters of STEM graduates in the country,
says: ‘STEM skills are vital to our commercial success and should be of great
concern to us all because they underpin our ability to tackle some of the
greatest global challenges we face. At QinetiQ we have seen the number of
applications per graduate vacancy halve in the last five years and concerns
about future skill levels resonate across the defence and aerospace sector.’
www.cbi.org.uk
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