RK International supports youngsters who want to 'Have a Go', at Worldskills 2011

"We are expecting over 150,000 visitors to the overall event but what is particularly important and of interest to the 11-to-19-year-olds is the 'Have-a-Go' area," said Andy Knight, senior sponsorship manager WorldSkills London 2011. "Here they will be actively involved and gain at first-hand an appreciation of how technology is applied to modern engineering to encourage them to consider taking up vocational training." The 'Have-a-Go' event is being staged at the ExCeL London exhibition centre 5-8 October, and RK International's sales and marketing manager, Simon Rood, will be demonstrating, alongside the two technology partners, how a Europa Milltech CNC 2000VS turret milling machine having a Heidenhain Group CNC control and manual toolchange can produce a vacuum mould, with the machining cycles projected on a large screen. A completed mould will be used by C R Clarke, a successful manufacturer and supplier of vacuum forming equipment to the educational and industrial market, to enable visitors to produce a moulded race car from an acrylic sheet. They will insert the sheet into the machine and start the cycle, then trim any excessive material from the process and be able to take the finished moulding home. Heidenhain will also be showing visitors how measurement of lengths and radial positions are made and, in particular, demonstrate the measurement of a human hair, in order to show them how to appreciate what micron technology means in real terms. As part of the appreciation of radial measurement, Heidenhain will also be emphasising that if you could hit a golf ball from 22 km away, you could achieve a hole-in-one, providing any error in taking the shot was less than 1 arcsec. RK International is hearing the same concerns over the lack of skill and interest in engineering by younger people from many people. "It is so important to give younger people an insight into the wide range of vocational skills available through engineering and manufacturing that we decided to invest our services to support WorldSkills London 2011," said Dick Aldrich, RK International's sales director. Added Simon Rood: "RK International has gradually built up to achieve major success in supplying the educational and training establishments with equipment and, as an Official Supplier to the WorldSkills London 2011 event, we will install 28 machines for the Mould Making Skills, Manufacturing Team Challenge and Polymechanics Automation Skills competitions."