COVID Lockdown restrictions have certainly put a damper on many of our plans for 2020, including the postponement until 2021 of MESNZ’s annual National Maintenance Engineering Conference. However Tuesday 13th October saw the first MESNZ Network evening of 2020 finally go ahead at SAFE Ltd’s Drury Engineering workshop.
The evening kicked off with a great presentation from Martin McElwee of Emirates Team New Zealand, who shared some interesting engineering insights into the design and development of the incredible AC75 Flying Monohull set to defend the Americas Cup early next year. The commitment to cutting-edge engineering design and innovation was evident for all to see and left everyone looking forward to some amazing America’s cup racing in 2021!
Continuing on with the theme of cutting-edge engineering excellence, Bill Buckley of Buckley Systems Ltd, shared the latest updates of their Boron-Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) Cancer-Killing Machine. Bill, in his classic Kiwi understated way blew the audience away with the incredible results from early testing offshore. With 300/350 terminal cancer patients receiving successful treatment in initial trials for fixed cancer patients, Bill left everyone wondering how to speed up the development process so that a machine could be installed here in New Zealand. To have such incredible technology being developed and manufactured right here in New Zealand is to be celebrated and points to a bright future for the domestic manufacturing sector in New Zealand.
With this backdrop it was an absolute treat to have Bill then present the annual $5000 Bill Buckley Engineering Scholarship to Kian Manilal, from Auckland, with this year’s award sponsored by Competenz. Kian is heading to Auckland University in 2021 to study Mechanical Engineering and we look forward to checking in with Kian as he prepares to make his mark on the industry.
No Network evening at SAFE would be complete without their famous roast meal, with pork, beef, lamb and chicken all slow roasted in a large industrial heat-treatment furnace, complete with all the usual vegetables and trimmings. It was no surprise to find the bones picked bare at the end of the night!
The night ended with hot forging demonstrations, including a 500 kg open space power hammer, 1000 kg drop hammer and 500 Tonne press. Led by Kian, our scholarship winner, several young future engineers had the chance to try their hand at independently operating the power hammer, and all showed greater control and finesse than some more senior engineering colleagues on the night.
The opportunity to reconnect with industry peers and forge new relationships left everyone thirsting for more network opportunities as part of our COVID recovery plan. To this end MESNZ has responded and announced plans for a new Pop-Up Training and Trade Expo event to be held on 18th November at SAFE’s workshop in Drury. This will be a free one-day event including technical and training presentations, and an opportunity to talk with leading industry suppliers and service providers with table-top trade stands. There will be plenty across the day to appeal to the engineering and maintenance managers right through to new apprentices at the start of their careers.
Save the date, and make the most of possibly the only chance in 2020 to get your team engaged ready to make 2021 the best year you have ever had.
For more information please e-mail info@mesnz.org or call MESNZ Chair, Dr James Neale 0272555659.
end
