Trainee consultants gain chiller insights
19th September 2016
UK: Apprentices at consultants Arup are gaining gaining valuable knowledge of chillers and air handling units through a placement scheme with Daikin Applied.
The tie-up between the two companies is now into its second year and, with the third placement in the last two years just completed, a total of fourteen young have passed through the Daikin Applied factories in the UK and Italy.
“Our aim is to share our expertise both through in-house apprentice scheme, graduate programme and our consultant placements so that we can help shape and inspire the engineers of the future,” explained Daikin Applied chiller product manager James Henley.
The engineer placement is run as part of the ARUP graduate engineer training scheme, where Daikin Applied facilitate a three-week factory placement. The latest selected group of young graduate engineers completed their three week placement in August. During their time with Daikin Applied the graduates spent one week at the Daikin Applied UK air handling unit manufacturing hub in Cramlington followed by two weeks in the company’s chiller factory in Cecchina, Italy (pictured above).
The programme is said to have proved to be so popular that future placements already have a waiting list of applicants.
The placement programme itself is focused on product knowledge, best design practises and quality assurance. This approach is said to be designed to ensure that the experience is both enjoyable and rewarding for the engineers. The placements encompass classroom-based lectures and real involvement of the factory shop floor so that theory can be put into practise.
“Designing an AHU on paper, that fits in a plant room at 2.5m wide, 3m tall and 7m long is very different from seeing the finished physical product and realising the potential logistical issues that may be onsite, either now or in the future,” said James Henley. “The shop floor hands-on experience is essential to giving the engineers the real application knowledge and not just the theory.’’
With more ARUP placements going forward and the launch of our consultant learning workshops, Daikin Applied are looking at helping future design engineers develop a sound understanding of the HVAC industry.
