£3m engineering department opens in Cambridge 30 May 2014

A £30,000 robotic arm controlled by MP Julian Huppert has officially opened a £3 million engineering and manufacturing department in Cambridge.

The robotic arm, part of the new engineering facilities at Cambridge Regional College, unveiled a plaque to mark the occasion.

The new department has been equipped with 3D printers, robots, manufacturing workshops, welding and fabrication areas, CAD/CAM engineering design software, PLC technology, pneumatics and hydraulics. It also has a materials testing laboratory, and process instrumentation and control systems.

Dr Huppert, who was presented with a spanner made on one of the new 3D printers, performed the opening ceremony in front of employers, staff and students.

"This new facility is a brilliant initiative and it is great to see engineering coming on in this way. I hope it will be used to generate more skills and train apprentices," he said.

Dr Paul Woollin, research director at The Welding Institute, agreed, and added: "There are not enough young people going into the profession. We need the PhDs and the boffins, but we also need the people to run the equipment and turn the boffins' ideas into reality."

"We have excellent relationships with employers in the engineering sector and we consulted them before investing in these superb new facilities to make sure we would meet all their growing training needs," commented Alan Ward, head of engineering at CRC.

Brian Tinham

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