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[December 2004]
Steelite Man Wins £2,000 Industrial Award
The trustees of the Pottery Mechanics Institute (PMI) Trust Fund have announced the winner of the 2004 Bursary Award for Industry.
Chris Sawyer benefitted from this year's UK Ceramic Bursary Award in the Industrial Category of this prestigious award scheme.
The judges said they were looking for achievement, innovation, leadership skills, teamwork, improved productivity/efficiency and commercial advantages to boost the British Ceramic Industry in the future.
The PMI Bursary Award has been presented to Chris Sawyer for his work in the Robotic Dipping Cell Project at Steelite International, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, for glazing of cups/trays. This included looking at the current form of manual hand dipping and the health and safety implications to the design, build, testing, modifying and implementation of a robotic machine.
After implementation, the project entailed monitoring the performance and faults while continuously building solutions, e.g. the gripper and gaiter design, and the method by which the robot operates and is programmed.
The advantages of this system of glazing are flexibility, speed, simplicity, reliability, consistency and with no loss of glaze in the process. It is a highly innovative application and brings new and further opportunities.
The PMI award, which recognises up and coming young people in the ceramic industry, is in the form of a bursary to further aid the winner's own personal future development. Steelite International is delighted with Chris Sawyer's success and has stated its intention to match the PMI Bursary Award of £2,000. Joint discussions are already under way regarding development opportunities with visits to companies around the world to look at 'best practices' in order to see how they could be applied to the ceramic industry in general and Steelite International in particular.
On being presented with the award by PMI Trust Fund Chairman Dr John Till and fellow trustee Dr Kevin Farrell, Chris Sawyer said: "Winning this bursary award will help me to finance my investigation into 'best practice' in other industries both at home and abroad and will allow me to consider further applications for robotic automation. My mind will be opened to the opportunity of being instrumental in furthering the business ambitions of Steelite International".
The PMI Bursary Awards to young people in the UK ceramic industry are made on an annual basis and the deadline for receiving completed applications is 28 May each year. For more information, e-mail PMI Secretary Susan Buchanan at: kelly.buchanan@btinternet.com
ENDS