Precision career [22/05/2009] Where there is rotary motion, there's a bearing. Barden Corporation makes super-precision bearings for F1, medical and space duties. Engineering Apprentice explains "There are still great opportunities for young people going into manufacturing in this country," says Dr Graham Stirling CBE, managing director at Barden Corporation (UK), a market-leading manufacturer of annular super-precision bearings, based in Plymouth. He continues: "Not all manufacturing is going overseas to lower labour cost countries. Plymouth, like the rest of the UK, has world-leading companies thriving on innovation, knowledge and lean manufacturing processes. There are still lots of positive stories to be told about British manufacturing." The Plymouth plant has recently invested in a number of new grinding and superfinishing machines. They include production machines for external and internal grinding of inner and outer rings, and for super finishing of running surfaces. The investment is focused in three component production cells, each of these dedicated to serving specific parts of the super-precision market. Barden manufactures its bearings to ISO P4/P2 (ABEC 7/9) tolerance standards; the highest standards available in the industry today. However, because of the nature of the company's focus on customer 'specials', many of the bearing features do not fall within the standard limits expressed in the ISO and ABEC standards. "The ISO/ABEC dimensional envelope – four microns on bore and outside diameter – is not an issue for us," explains Richard Offer, Barden's manufacturing engineering manager. "A lot of Barden's product is special and doesn't fit into the characteristics that the standards define – an integrated flange, housing or shaft may be included. Here, the geometry and tolerances are customer- and- application related, and some features most definitely exceed ABEC 9 requirements. "That's where Barden excels: standard, high-precision features, married to special attributes tailored to specific applications. That's our contribution to the bearings industry. "We are critically interested in roundness and the nature of roundness errors, plus surface finish and the definition of running surfaces. These things are not written down in any ISO standard – they're at the heart of what we do in production. With the new investment, we are now leading the way in design and precision tailored to customer requirement. You won't find any bearings anywhere in the world as precise as ours," he adds. Image: Roundness is a main focus for barden TRAINING AND PEOPLE Investment in people and training is equally important to Barden. Since the company was established, it has regularly recruited engineering apprentices and continues to do this today. Stirling is adamant that more young people in the UK need to be attracted into the profession. "Too many think UK manufacturing is a decaying industry, with dark, grimy workplaces and oily machines. We've got to celebrate the success stories as they do in other countries, where a career in engineering is revered." In Plymouth and the southwest as a whole, Stirling is actively involved in encouraging more school-leavers into engineering careers. He is chairman of the Plymouth Engineering Skills Council, a partnership between engineering employers, schools, colleges, universities and business support organisations, which is dedicated to securing the future skills requirements to enable manufacturing companies in the area to compete in the global marketplace. He continues: "We have to accept that the so-called skills gap is a very real problem for UK engineering, especially for regional employers where the workforce is less qualified than the national average. However, I think there's an understanding amongst employers that, to achieve engineering excellence, we need to put in place the right training and development opportunities. "At Barden, we've spent a lot of time and effort on providing the right training for our employees. That's a very important area, as it means we can keep up in this fast-paced industry. It also means our staff are more motivated and more enthused about engineering as a whole. We have a major focus on leadership and continuous improvement programmes. We also offer comprehensive on-the-job training, which can lead to formal qualifications. I think, if more people knew about the kind of opportunities that are available to them in this sector, it might be more attractive." According to Stirling, it's about informing them of the types of projects they could become involved in and demonstrating to them that engineering can be a fast-paced, rewarding and modern career path, with real prospects for those who are willing to grasp them. Indeed, for the current crop of engineering apprentices at Barden, it couldn't be more stimulating and rewarding. Barden engineers are designing bearing solutions for leading-edge technologies, including military aircraft, helicopters, Formula One racing cars and dentist drills; even robot arms for assisting surgeons with medical operations. Image: New machinery at Barden is helping it manufacture bearings of the highest precision. The Phoenix Mars Mission is an example of the kind of high-profile projects that Barden is currently involved in. The company supplied super-precision bearings for the robotic arm of the space probe. Since spring 2008, the 2.4 metre robotic arm has dug up the frozen polar ground around the landing area. The bearings provided the robotic arm of the probe with the flexibility it required to carry out these tasks ATTRACTING YOUNG BLOOD "And it's not all about nurturing employees with existing skills," Stirling points out. "It can also be about attracting them in the first place, too. Barden is working with various employer-led and government initiatives in the region to encourage students and graduates to consider engineering. Apprenticeships and placements are one way in which we're looking at getting young blood into the sector. Another is by supporting groups who go into schools and other educational facilities to try to raise the profile of engineering." Trevor Morris is product engineering manager at Barden. He joined the company more than 45 years ago as an apprentice. "My father was a mechanical engineer, so I was always going to follow suit. I was an apprentice at Barden for five years. "One of the great things about working for Barden is that it has always looked to promote from within the company, which means that apprentices have always had a good chance of climbing the ladder. It's also a very rich, rewarding experience to work here. One day, you can be designing a bearing solution for a medical application, the next you might be developing a bearing for an autosport application. It really is that diverse. "We're also lucky that design and manufacturing are located together on a single site, which means, as design engineers, we get to work very closely with production. Engineers are therefore able to see their concepts right through the complete design and production process, to finished product." First published in Engineering Apprentice, Spring 2009 Related Companies: The Barden Corporation UK Ltd