Cannock based aluminium recycler Norton Aluminium this week opened its doors to a visit by PHD Engineering students from the University of Birmingham, interested in broadening their learning with a hands on site visit, by invitation of Norton Aluminium Managing Director Andrew Fogarty. The visit is part of an ongoing relationship with University of Birmingham which goes back now ten years in the continued pursuit of metallurgical excellence in the field of aluminium smelting and applied learning in a real industry environment."
We wanted to give something back to the engineering community by engaging with one of our local Universities these students are committed to a career in the sector as graduates and when approaching their doctoral thesis, can take on and apply live industry experience from their visit to a successful smelter and aluminium ingot manufacturer the feedback from our team and the students is tremendous said Andrew Fogarty.
With ageing workforces and a general lack of understanding of the opportunities in our sector within education and the wider business community, sharing what we do with aspiring young engineers and professionals is a duty all employers in manufacturing and engineering firms in the UK have. We find it to be beneficial to our existing team as well, with our plant manager Trevor Bird and process manager Wayne Harrison leading the visit we are able to share our different levels of expertise with the students who can take this knowledge into their future careers.
University of Birmingham Student Uriel Tradowsky commented; We not only saw every step from cradle to grave, but were provided with a lot of insight, we could see the team are really proud of what they are doing and I understand why now. Taking all factors into account from buying aluminium scrap, planning and preparing, melting, refining, casting and finally selling is an important job to create high quality products.
Plant Manager Trevor Bird said in our view its all part of our social contract to engage with engineers of the future, some of whom may go on to use aluminium. There are lots of aluminium related research projects going on across the UK which can have direct income potential for us, the opportunity to rub shoulders with progressive companies who have aluminium requirements or arsing scrap, and some leading edge research that we can apply to our products or processes that will improve our competitive edge. It was a pleasure to spend time with the students, Norton Aluminiums shop floor team were very proud to be involved, we all here at Norton aluminium are looking forward to our visit to the University of Birmingham in the not so distant future to view the AMPLab where the students study. We are keen to understand the research in advanced processing of metallic and ceramic materials in laboratory conditions. Our team would like to thank all the students for giving us this opportunity to discuss the future.