Colchester Student centre lathes, a Harrison Alpha CNC combination lathe, Clausing turret milling machines, pedestal drills and bandsaws fill the workshop, accompanied by a range of Pratt Burnerd International chucking solutions.
Commenting upon the reason for choosing 600 UK, Scarborough UTC principal Tim Englefield says: “We wanted machines that represented the standard of machine tools that local companies are using. We wanted our learners to be able to walk out of the UTC with an education that will enable them to walk straight into a local company and feel completely at home with the technology being used.”
“When we look at the characteristics of a machine, it’s a combination of factors that are important. As a government funded organisation, whatever we choose has to have a high ‘value for money’ factor. We want machines that are built to last and robust enough to take regular and heavy use from students whilst also delivering the ability to perform to a high standard.”
The Colchester Student 2500 lathes feature a geared headstock. The Harrison Alpha 1350XS lathe with CNC capability, so students can pre-program machines in the computer suites at the college. The Harrison Alpha CNC combination lathe has a range of built-in educational training options from manual to CNC turning, aided by working with conversational programming, 3D graphic displays and standard ISO programming capabilities. Both are fitted with Pratt Burnerd Super Precision manual chucks. Clausing 2VS turret mills, KC1016VS bandsaws and EKL25 pillar drills completed the package.
The Scarborough UTC is one of 48 of the new type of vocational college in the UK. It accepts students from 14 in a standard curriculum of maths, science and English as well as three engineering qualifications. These include engineering manufacturing, engineering design and electronics and control systems.
