Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr School wins EESW award

A team of students from Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr School in Swansea has won the 'Project with the Most Commercial Potential' from The Engineering Education Scheme Wales (EESW) for developing a mechanism that automatically checks the weight of containers before they are lifted by production staff.

Rhys Griffiths, Daniel Jones, Dewi Kalsi, Dafydd Lloyd and Tomos Sleep were the five students that made up the winning team. Their solution was based on a device with a locating clamp on each end to enable the device to be fixed to the handles located on the sides of the parts container. Strain gauges are used to detect whether the weight of the container is above or below 25kg.

Team captain Daniel Jones said: "Due to the time we spent at the Schaeffler plant learning about specific project management tools and techniques, we knew how to develop our ideas into a working prototype."

This is the ninth year that Gwyr has won an EESW award working with Schaeffler UK. Schaeffler's manufacturing plant in Llanelli acts as an EESW 'link' company and each year devotes time and resources in advising students on their selected projects.

"We are delighted to win another EESW award," said Rhys Browning, Head of Physics at Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr School. "We'd like to thank Derrick Lewis and his team at Schaeffler for their continued support over the last nine years. The valuable experience and skills learnt during the competition will aid the students in their future careers."