Beaminster and Sir John Colfox joint 6th engineers participate in Industrial Cadets initiative

Six Year 12 students from Beaminster and the Sir John Colfox joint 6th form attended a celebration and assessment day at Bath University to end six months of hard work.

The project was introduced to the school and students in October by the Engineering Development Trust, who have set up the Engineering Education Scheme (EES).

The scheme is aimed at getting more young people well informed about the role of engineers in society, and to gain some first-hand experience of being engineers, and is part of the Industrial Cadets initiative, set up in collaboration with HRH the Prince of Wales.

The students selected to represent the school were Tommy Green, Jo Jones, Tim Girling, Thaisan Chant, Ben Cantrell and Dan Halford, all 6th Form Physics or Design Technology students, who had shown an interest in pursuing a possible career in engineering.

John Hunter, a highly qualified and experienced engineer from Amsafe Bridport, worked alongside the students to design, build and test a solution to solve a sample real life mechanical engineering-based problem.

This task was given to them by Amsafe Bridport, with the aim to try to improve the ultimate strength of an existing quick-release coupling which is used primarily to hold cargo and vehicles safely and securely on the deck of large naval vessels.

Over the last six months, the team of students spent a significant amount of time researching suitable materials and alternative design solutions.

From their research, they developed their own set of ideas and designs, and attended a two day fabrication workshop in January, which was held at Bath University within their mechanical engineering department.

With the help of the engineering team at Bath, the team were able to build their prototype designs as 3D printed models.

The student's project culminated in great success, with the team testing their built designs and seeing a 39 per cent increase in ultimate strength capability compared with the original supplied by Amsafe.

The team's efforts were celebrated at the Celebration and Assessment day, where they showcased their work to a panel of leading experts, and faced questions from the panel, where they were commended and received excellent feedback from the judges, as well as the Industrial Cadet Gold Level Award.

Mr Crossland, head of science at Beaminster School, who led the team, said: "As their Physics teacher, I have been very impressed by their performance and am incredibly proud of them all.

"It has been an extremely rewarding and interesting project for all involved, and something which the Beaminster and Colfox Joint 6th Form will continue to participate in with future Year 12 students who may be interested in engineering as a possible career path.

"I would like to thank Amsafe Bridport, and John Hunter in particular, for all his time and effort in supporting our students, and also to local metal fabrication firms Bridmet and Townsend Engineering who supplied materials."