Make UK Manufacturing Awards 2021 have shortlisted Agemaspark in 2 categories - Innovation and Developing Future Talent.
The North East, Yorkshire and Humber region awards dinner will be held on Thursday 7th October at The Crown Hotel in Harrogate.
The Innovation award celebrates innovations executed through new products, processes, markets and business models. Such innovations will be governed by strategic intent and have driven greater productivity, efficiency and or business growth, within the last three years.
The Developing Future Talent award has been developed to recognise those that have done the most to promote diversity, develop talent and build skills amongst their employees. This could also include promoting engineering and manufacturing careers through activities within the community.
Agemaspark have worked on a number of R&D projects in the last few years including a joint project with TWI and Rolls Royce on the repair for seal segments for their aerospace engines. During operation the aerospace engine blades come into contact with the outer casing leading to wear over their operational life. The previous repair method was to machine out the existing honeycomb seal and braise in a new strip which prolonged the life of the engine for a short time. The new method that the joint project developed was to remove the honeycomb section, laser deposition weld the honeycomb structure on and then EDM solid sink the profile. The previous method took 4 hours per segment with the new method taking 1hr 40 mins per segment. This new repair method has now become the recommended repair method for engines.
Throughout the engineering sector there is a recognised annual shortage of up to 59,000 graduates and skilled technicians to fill core engineering roles. To ensure the long-term future and potential growth of the business, Agemaspark needed to ‘grow’ their own engineers and train them to the unique combination of skills needed in the business. The apprenticeship programme was part of the company structure right from the beginning in 2002, Managing Director Paul Stockhill looked to recruited 1 or 2 apprentices per year, only missing a year or two. Because of both the unique nature of each engineering job and to provide cover where necessary each of the apprentices spends time in each section of the business learning all the different elements. Two of the early apprentices Sam Buxton and Paul Preskey have stayed with the business continued to develop their skills and are now part of the senior management team along with Paul Stockhill.
In 2014 Paul was invited by Doncaster Council and Baker Dearing to look at supporting a bid for a UTC. He became a full member of the project steering group in 2015-16 and was part of the bid team that secured the go ahead. Paul became the Vice Chair of the project group in 2018 to see the design and build of the school and Agemaspark became a founder member. When the utc opened in September 2020 Paul became Vice Chair of the local governing board and an active member of the business employer committee to help create projects through the year for all of the year groups. Paul and other members of the senior management team have been supporting the engineering department with sessions on solid-works CAD design in the college and online and have several planned for the future.
For more details on the Make UK Manufacturing Awards please visit the website on https://www.makeuk.org/news-and-events/awards-and-competitions/manufacturing-awards