A recent £6.7 million investment by Farnborough College of Technology in its Aerospace, Automotive Academy has created one of the very few training establishments in the UK able to deliver further education in engineering up to BSc Honours in aeronautics, manufacturing, motor vehicles, electrical, electronic and aircraft maintenance.
Opened in January 2010 and linked to the University of Surrey, a key area of the 30,000 ft² facility is its dedicated training area. Here, apprentices from industry and full-time students taking further and higher education courses can learn their trade and perfect their skills.
Head of engineering, Stuart Murray was keen to achieve a long-term relationship between the equipment supplier for installation, service, support and training as well as its ability to provide a turnkey package.
It was RK International of Erith in Kent that ticked all the boxes with the college and won the total package worth in excess of £250,000. Also within the contract were certain pieces of equipment for the sheet metal workshop.
Said Murray: “RK's involvement with OEM, subcontract machining companies and the success of past educational projects meant they understood the bridge we were planning to build: to provide students with the most appropriate training to meet the needs of the industries they will be or are already involved with.”
Altogether, RK International supplied and installed seven Colchester Student 2500 and one Triumph VS 2500 1250 centre lathes, a Harrison Alpha 1350 XS electronic flat bed lathe, a Fanuc Robodrill T21iC vertical machining centre (VMC) with a full range of control and software options plus three of its own Europa Milltech 2000 universal knee and column milling machines with digital readouts.
www.farn-ct.ac.uk
