It is with pride and passion that RPM staff talk to the youngsters of today with the hope of inspiring them to become the skilled and experienced engineers of tomorrow.

On the 24th August 2015, students from Long Bay College visited the RPM work shop for a very informative tour of the site.

The tour began at the start of the tool design and build process, with a quick look at how tool design software is used to create the different stages and components of a tool, namely Creo Pro Engineer.
RPM Design Manager, Simon Eccleston, was able to put into perspective the level of knowledge required to complete a tool design at RPM, giving the students a good indicator of what is expected in design as a career.

 

 

Jamie Hewlett, who has been with RPM for 28 years then took up the tour. He is always happy to share his knowledge and experiences of Engineering with young and enquiring minds. He has a unique way of imparting information in such a way to keep the young audience totally transfixed.

 

The students were shown around the factory with an introduction to CNC machining. One of the highlights of the tour was a demonstration of our two million dollar, 5 Axis CNC machine.
The demonstration included showing the students how it was possible to move the machine table and spindle in conjunction with each other, using “fancy mathematics,” to create a unique curve finish. The machine can actually machine a perfect sphere.

 

 

 

The Long Bay College students were able to watch Graphite Electrodes be loaded and machined, then were whisked around to the assembly side of the workshop to show how these electrodes were used and how moulds and dies sets worked and were put together.This showed the traditional sense of engineering, and gave more key information to the students on what was involved in tool making and engineering in general.

 

 

 

 

Finally the Long Bay Students saw first hand, one of the injection mould tools actually working. The moulding machine was running to produce a recently designed product for one of our key customers.

 

 

The students were exceptionally pleased with their learning experience and were blown away by the technology involved in producing products.

The Long Bay College Visit to RPM was a success and hopefully encouraged more young students to think seriously about Engineering as a career.

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