Burnley College holds ‘Meet the Manufacturers’ Open Day

Two Mazak CV5-500 five-axis machining centres on display at Burnley College’s recent ‘Meet the Manufacturers’ event

Yamazaki Mazak UK Ltd helped showcase the future of metalworking at Burnley College’s recent ‘Meet the Manufacturers’ Open Day event. Held as part of the Burnley College Engineering Expo event on 21-22 March, representatives from Mazak were on-site to meet current and prospective students, industry professionals and engineering enthusiasts and demonstrate the latest innovations in advanced manufacturing.

The event featured live-cutting demonstrations on several of the college’s Mazak machine tools purchased in recent years following the formation of the Lancashire and Cumbria Institute of Technology. Taking centre stage were two CV5-500 simultaneous five-axis machining centres, one of which was equipped with robotic automatio, alongside two VCN 410 Matrix Nexus vertical machining centres and a Quick Turn 250 Matrix Nexus high-performance CNC turning centre.

A key highlight for visitors was a live demonstration of Mazatrol DX, which extends the functionality of Mazak’s widely popular PC-based SmoothCAM Ai software to provide rapid and automatic quotations, automated part programming, virtual machine simulation, and machine process analysis and optimisation.

Burnley College offers a range of Level 4 and Level 5 qualifications, along with a series of upskilling and re-skilling programmes, including HNC and HND courses, as well as short-term skills ‘top-up’ courses such as two-week intensive five-axis training courses and a 30hr CNC manufacturing and tool manufacturing course.

The latter are both products of an Advisory Board recently set up by the college, which provides a forum for local employers to feed into the curriculum and ensure the courses it offers are closely aligned to the needs of industry. Mazak also works closely with the college to provide technical best practice advice and has welcomed students on tours of its “state of the art’ European Manufacturing Plant in Worcester.

Karl Hargreaves, Yamazaki Mazak’s area sales manager – North West, said: “Burnley College is one of the most innovative educational establishments in the region. Its approach, not only to investing in the very latest in advanced manufacturing technologies, but constantly evolving and refining the relationship between industry, education and the next generation of engineering talent, is something to be admired. The Meet the Manufacturers event is the latest example of this innovation in action, and it was an initiative we were delighted to support.”

Mazak was one of several manufacturers and suppliers who supported the event, alongside Additive-X, Measurement Solutions, Guhring, Trident Foams and LC Automation.