Make:

Hi, I'm the founder of a start-up company that is focused on developing more efficient processing methods for making high performance Fibre Reinforced Plastic components, often generically called composites. The term composites is a bit imprecise in describing the sort of materials we work with, such as aligned carbon fibre reinforced plastics, but I'll use it from now on.

We're looking for someone who has a genuine interest in designing, making, programming and testing mechatronic systems so if you are on this forum, then there is a good chance you fit this description. We're about to take on a workshop in London (near Oval tube station) and set-up a prototype production facility for composite components and structures. The sort of equipment that we're looking at installing includes things like an Industrial robot fitted with a machining spindle for a machining cell focused on some of the machining/trimming requirements associated with producing composites components. Rapid prototyping machines will also be around and will range from more affordable models, e.g. FDM (BFB-3000), LOM (Solido SD300), SLA (Form 1, ETA March/April) up to commercial machines from 3D systems.

We'll also need to either develop a range of processing equipment in house, or buy equipment in and integrate it into our systems. We are looking to automate as much of the workflow as possible by integrating the devices into plant level control systems. If making and/or hacking such systems together is something that sounds interesting to you then please read on.

In the past we have needed to modify equipment to enable us to test concepts. An example of this is as follows. We needed a machine that could print in a soluble material, like PLA, to test a moulding concept. We looked at Dimension FDM printers but the software they came with didn't allow for printing in PLA, only the support structures could be printed in PLA. As a result went for a BFB-3000 but found that warping and part peeling was an issue so we knocked up a heated build platform with PID control to mitigate the problem. Another example is a need we have had to simultaneously acquire data from a test machine, strain gauges and extensometers while also controlling cameras to enable us to do some Digital Image Correlation of composite samples being loaded to failure. The commercial systems we had access to couldn't handle all these data acquisition and control requirements so we put together our own system.

You will also be required to learn to produce composite components, and to do so on a regular basis.

If a job doing work along these lines sounds exciting to you then please send a copy of your CV and a cover letter to jobs@factechnology.com

Please include details on any projects that you've done along the lines of making your own machines, hacking hardware together, writing programs for your own projects, etc...

We have licenses for a range of commercial software packages for both general and composite specific Engineering applications, e.g. Femap, NEi Nastran, Laminate Tools, etc... We’re also looking at purchasing licenses for packages like MatLab/Simulink, LabView, Delcam Powermill, and possibly others. If you have experience with CAD, CAM, FEA, programming packages then please provide info about it. Experience with other packages and languages would also be good to know about. Same goes for getting hardware to run code, be it a sketch for an Arduino or G-code on a controller for a router.

Experience with machine/computer vision would be a plus. So would practical experience in CNC machining (if you've got it, please provide details such as what CAM software was used, how many axes were you using, etc...?).

In addition to work related to the above, you will be required to work with and support members from our commercial and manufacturing Engineering team, we are a business after all. The sort of work that this might entail is costing out the up front and life cycle cost of a piece of equipment. You will also be expected to help in cost/benefit analysis for a range of tasks. Something along these lines might include evaluating the additional cost of using a higher power servo in a machine to potentially increase its throughput. To do this you'd have to evaluate the additional added value by researching the utilisation time of such a machine, how much of a constraint on its productivity is due to the speed of a servo, etc... and weigh it up against factors such as what would be the additional cost of sufficiently stiffening other components of the machine, do any other components need their specs changed to facilitate this, etc... to determine what the effect would be on the cost to purchase, operate and maintain such a machine.