The group of 30 students are all studying degree courses within the Department of Materials at Oxford and the trip was organised by Dr Lewys Jones FRMS, the Post-Doctoral Research Associate for the faculty.
A full factory tour was arranged which demonstrated the production process of Tufnol laminates from start to finish. This included viewing the impregnation towers where the resins and reinforcements are combined together to produce ‘prepreg’ before it is moved to the main press shop and converted into standard form. Students were able to learn how the sheets are produced in sizes of up to 200mm thick, the process of tube and rod rolling and the moulding section.
The tour then moved onto Tufnol’s machine shops to see how standard product is converted into the finished machined product. This demonstrated the various stages of conversion and the methods used to achieve this, including sawing, ‘thicknessing’, shaping, turning and use of the very latest CNC machining techniques.
Roy Thomason, managing director for Tufnol, said: “We were delighted to welcome the students from the University of Oxford to our factory, who were all very enthusiastic during their visit. Our factory is unique to the UK in that no other company has a facility like ours which includes manufacture from scratch with prepreg production through to the standard product and finished components, all taking place under one roof.
“We know how important the development of the next generation of materials scientists and engineers is, not only for our industry, but also for UK manufacturing as a whole and always try and get involved wherever we can to help with the education process.”
Jones FRMS said: “Our students thoroughly enjoyed the visit to Tufnol and found it to be extremely informative and useful for their related courses. While classroom study is important, we appreciate the support of industry helping us show our students real life production techniques in action. This on-site industrial exposure is invaluable for those interested in a career in materials science or engineering.”
