In-Comm Training has joined forces with Hyfore to develop an Advanced Manufacturing Technology Centre next door to its current site in Aldridge in the West Midlands. Hyfore specialises in producing workholding equipment – vices, clamps, chucks, fixtures and jaws – for the engineering manufacturing sector.
This will be a world-class training hub that will provide an extra 420 Apprenticeship Trailblazer places between now and 2022.
It will also provide more than 1,200 upskilling courses in prototyping, R&D, operational excellence and data analysis.
The new centre will be equipped with world-class Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine tools. (CNC is the automation of machine tools by means of computers executing pre-programmed sequences of machine control commands.)
It will also house a robotics line and fluid power stations (fluid power uses fluids or air under pressure to generate, control and transmit power), a dedicated electrical and electronics section, material testing, material handling and grinding capabilities.
The centre will also provide a 16-seater Mastercam and CIMCO (Computer Integrated Manufacturing Company) CAD/CAM (computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing) studio to help students to develop their design for manufacturing skills.
This is an initiative which should be replicated in all our major cities if we are to have the advanced manufacturing sector that an independent Britain needs.