As well as being the UK’s largest manufacturing technologies showcase, MACH 2018 plays host to an Education & Development (E&D) Zone specifically designed for students aged 11-19. The E&D Zone will bring together advanced engineering companies and educational institutions from across the UK, with the aim of shining a light on the vocational education and training that is imperative to closing the skills gap around the world.

The E&D Zone is once again supported by Sandvik Coromant, a supplier of tools, tooling and solutions to the metalworking industry. Kim Olander, marketing manager, says: “Engineering knowledge and skills are in short supply and we need to secure enough skilled people in the future to meet demand. Sandvik Coromant is proud to partner with the E&D Zone once again. We hope to enthuse young people about the vast range of careers that engineering can offer them.”
For further information www.machexhibition.com

A six-figure funding package from the Royal Bank of Scotland has helped to support the acquisition of Bryn Precision (formerly SZ Gears) by Caerphilly-based firm JR Gilbert Engineering. Since a management buy-in that took place in 2012, directors Nick Robbins and Colin Beavis have expanded the business significantly from employing three staff to 33, while turnover has risen from £240,000 to £1.5m in the past five years.

The acquisition of Bryn Precision has secured six jobs and resulted in the recruitment of two new members of staff. Operating from a 10,000 sq ft site in Blackwood, Bryn Precision not only expands the JR Gilbert Engineering business but strengthens its offering with the addition of a niche gear-cutting facility. JR Gilbert now has the ability to produce a range of gears, sprockets, splines, rack and pinion sets.
For further information www.rbs.co.uk/corporate

Business in Europe is booming for Master Fluid Solutions and the company is underpinning this growth by expanding its sales team.

The first appointment in this wave of investment is Steve Busby, who joins the company’s European team as business development manager, UK. A qualified engineer, Busby joins Master Fluid Solutions from Oxford Flow, a designer and manufacturer of pressure-control equipment based on technology developed at Oxford University. His base will be Master Fluid Solutions’ European sales headquarters at Needham Market.
For further information www.masterfluidsolutions.com

Aldershot-based FT Gearing supplies the global defence and aerospace sectors with gears, miniature gearboxes and safety-critical components for wing-surface actuators, engine controls, instrumentation and fuel pumps. Many years ago, the manufacturer tried broaching the bore profiles in steel worm shafts to transmit the drive to thrust reversers, but the length-to-diameter ratios were too high and the tools broke frequently.

So the company put the work out to a wire EDM subcontractor in the Midlands. The service was expensive, partly because the firm needed to have Nadcap (National Aerospace and Defence Contractors Accreditation Program) approval, which is a requirement of primes such as Boeing and Airbus, as well as tier-one aerospace companies, all of which FT Gearing supplies.
Today, the situation has been turned on its head following the arrival over an 18-month period of three Makino wire EDM machines at an FT Gearing satellite facility close to the company’s main facility. The machines were supplied by NCMT, UK agent for the Japanese machine builder. Within six months of the first arriving, the gear specialist had gained Nadcap approval, while the latest EDM machine installed mid-2017 provides capacity for internal development projects and a subcontract wire-EDM service.
Managing director Graham Fitzgerald, who started the business with his father Des in 1978, says: “We chose U3 wire eroders from Makino after we employed a skilled EDM machinist that has a lot of experience operating machines of the same make and rates them highly. He says that ISO programming on the Fanuc-based control is far easier than on some other EDM machines that employ two languages; the macros are simpler to create and operations like rotation and mirror imaging are straightforward.”
For further information www.ncmt.co.uk