Apprentices at Olympus Engineering have gained unprecedented levels of tooling competence to boost their learning and careers at the Stoke-based company after Walter GB offered free training and awareness in tooling and production technologies.

By transferring some of its ‘Engineering Kompetenz’ skills to the eight apprentices, “Walter’s in-depth tooling expertise has given a massive boost to the youngsters’ production engineering knowledge base”, says Olympus Engineering’s quality and technical manager Will Mitchell.
The apprentices and Walter GB spent 30 minutes a week over a three-month period covering subjects such as manufacturing economics, the fundamentals of metal cutting and cutting-tool applications, as well as discussing a production environment case study. Walter has been supplying the 157-employee, £16m turnover business with a range of tooling for some time. Indeed, for the past 12 years, Walter has been the company’s main tooling integrator, an arrangement that has included the provision of onsite tooling vending machines.
For further information www.walter-tools.com

A budding engineer from Birmingham has secured the main prize at this year’s In-Comm Training Awards after helping his firm secure a game-changing contract.

Adam Burgoyne, who is a new product engineer at metal pressings and stamping specialist Brandauer, was named as the ‘Outstanding Apprentice of the Year’ after earlier picking up the title of ‘Learner of the Year for Engineering & Manufacturing Technologies’.
The double-haul marks the 21-year-old’s impressive development and his role in helping to identify the measurement equipment required to secure the company’s first-ever pharma contract for the Middle East, a project that could be worth in excess of £1m annually. He was joined on stage by colleague James Arnold, who impressed judges with his maturity and determination to drive sales at sister business CB Cable Clips to take the ‘Learner of the Year – Business Support Award’.
For further information www.in-comm.co.uk

Schunk is preparing for the next step of its global growth, with around €85m set to be invested at locations in Brackenheim-Hausen, Mengen and St Georgen in Germany, along with Morrisville in the US, by mid-2020.

The move will create around 42,000 sq m of additional production and administration space. The process started with the US plant in North Carolina, where the new buildings were officially handed over a few weeks ago. As well as expanding the production area, Schunk Intec USA created a generous new administrative building that, through its open architecture, encourages and inspires creativity and lateral thinking.
In addition, €40m is being put into the Competence Centre for Gripping Systems in Brackenheim-Hausen, just 5km from Schunk’s headquarters in Lauffen. The expansion will cover an area of 22,000 sq m and represents a doubling of the existing production area. Schunk is also investing another €30m in the Competence Centre for Lathe Chuck Technology and Stationary Workholding in Mengen, in the district of Sigmaringen. Here, 12,000 sq m will be added for production, research and development. Finally, €5m will be invested at the St Georgen site in the Black Forest, where the production area will double with an increase of 4200 sq m.
For further information www.schunk.com

Having supported users of Citizen sliding-head turning centres for almost 30 years, Floyd Automatic Tooling now has a permanent presence at the new Citizen Machinery UK facility in Brierley Hill.

The company kicked off its residency by exhibiting at the recent open house staged by Citizen in Brierley Hill, which attracted around 300 visitors.
“The expansive range of collets, guide bushes, grippers and machine accessories are continually expanding into specialist solutions that can solve issues for sliding-head turned-part producers which no other UK company can supply,” says managing director Richard Floyd. “This capability has been acknowledged by Citizen with this permanent booth. We probably have the most comprehensive range of tooling and accessories for sliding-head machines in the UK, and our ever-closer partnership will provide opportunities in the future to combine the resources of Floyd Automatic and Citizen Machinery for product presentations, machining trials, project support, and assistance with special applications.”
For further information www.floydautomatic.co.uk

Chester Machine Tools has completed another large installation of machines in the Middle East for a company specialising in oil refinery.

The engineering team from Chester completed the build, commissioning and training on a 3.2 m double-column vertical boring machine with 30-ton table load capacity. This machine was supplied in addition to a large 1 m stroke slotting machine, three 80 mm radial drills, several lathes with up to 6 m centre distance, and universal milling machines.
Anthony Edwards, sales and operations Director says: “We specialise in the supply of machine tools to the international energy sector, providing a product range and network of customer support that meets the highly specific manufacturing requirements of our clients. The construction of the bespoke Chester 3.2 m double-column vertical boring machine and large-scale installation of metal-working machines is a testament to our engineers and the products we supply. We export to over 70 countries worldwide and are proud to add this installation to our increasing blue-chip portfolio.”
For further information www.chestermachinetools.com