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13/07/2010
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Paul Fanning speaks with Iain Chisholm, development engineer, Moog Controls
 How did you get into the engineering industry?
I started engineering when I was 16. I came out of school and into an engineering technical apprenticeship. And from there I did all the training you need – City & Guilds, NVQs; HNC; HND – all sponsored by the company I was with at the time, a company called Benfords, which is now owned by Terex. That was making dumper trucks and tarmac rolling machines, which is where I started off my life in engineering.
How did you find yourself in your current position?
Having worked in Terex around all the various departments, I ended up working in development engineering. And that was mainly doing the hydraulics on the dumper trucks and tarmac rolling machines. I then made a move to Eaton Hydraulics and work as a development engineer doing mobile hydraulics. My experience working there and in the mobile sector got me the job in Moog Controls, where I've been for 5 years.
What does your role with Moog Controls involve on a day-to-day basis?
I work as an applications engineer, so on a daily basis, I'm dealing with customer enquiries, service issue, problems with machines. We also do programming on control systems. A lot of my day-to-day work is concerned with the Wimbledon roof – doing the servicing on there and looking after it during the championships.
Apart from the Wimbledon roof, what are some of the more interesting projects you've worked on?
I did work in motorsport hydraulics for a while, which I enjoyed for about a year and a half. I was working with Ferrari on power steering valves, doing release valves for Cosworth Racing. So I was working closely with the teams and doing development work, which was really good fun.
I was involved in a commissioning system out in China. It was a readout system for a water turbine. The major challenges of that was that I was in the middle of nowhere in China and we were dealing with a Chinese customer, only a few of whom spoke English. So we were trying to commission a heavy industrial system in the middle of nowhere. Eating with chopsticks for three weeks – I almost forgot how to use a knife and fork!
What have the main challenges been in working on the roof at Centre Court?
The main challenge with the Wimbledon roof project was that it was such a big installation for Moog and there's a hell of a lot of equipment on the roof that has to interact with other company's equipment, which was a big challenge. And then there's the mechanical actuation system, which has to deal with the mechanical side of the roof. So trying to get everything together was a big challenge. The whole project as far as Moog is concerned, took about four years.
Has the industry changed much since you joined?
I think the major step forward since I've started has been the development in CADCAM, c omputer systems and control systems – being able to programme from your laptop. The communications as well. We're a very large company and have to deal with engineers all round the world all the time. Obviously, the internet allows us to do that now.
And project management, to be honest. There's now a big emphasis on doing all the planning up front, whereas when I first started in engineering it was just 'go and do the job and if it goes wrong, we'll work it out later'. Now it's completely different.
What are the big issues facing the industry?
I think the biggest issue at the moment is getting young people. There are apprenticeships around, which I still think are the best way to get into engineering. But you don't really see enough of them. It's so important to get new blood in. There's a perception that engineering's a dirty industry and it couldn't be further from the truth.
A lot of companies now are going into schools. There are engineering qualifications you can do in school now that I think are really capturing the imagination of young people.
How do you see the industry going forward?
I think the biggest problem we've got is the decline of the manufacturing base. However, the UK is still a really good place for research and development. We take really big steps forward in that area and, using our expertise there, we can outsource. I have a feeling that over the next few years, a lot of manufacturing is going to come back into the UK as it gets more and more expensive to outsource abroad.
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Author
Paul Fanning
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