My Career in Three Objects

My Career in Three Objects; Instron Universal Testing Machine, Bolt Cutters, Milky Bar

The majority of my working life so far has been at the company I currently work for, TWI, which specialises in welding and joining, and other associated technologies. I did, however, spend some time working in the Royal Navy and with the Ministry of Defence straight after university.

Welding and joining is vital in almost all engineered structures so I am lucky enough to deliver technical projects across a wide variety of industries and sectors. No one project is the same as another, which keeps me on my toes and engaged!

My main expertise is in mechanical testing, specialising in fracture toughness (a material's ability to resist crack propagation) and structural integrity assessment, which takes up most of my time. However, I am also involved in delivering various TWI training courses and supporting its education outreach programme.

Image: Instron

Object 1: Instron Universal Testing Machine

This type of machine has taught me that when it comes to solving engineering challenges, you should view everything from different angles and perspectives. Just because something is designed for a certain job doesn’t mean it can’t be adapted to meet other needs!

I have been working in the area of mechanical testing for a decade and the universal testing machine is the one that I rely on the most to be able to deliver work for my clients. Although it is a simple push-pull machine, with an enquiring and creative engineering mind it can be made to perform all manner of tests. 

Although simple tension and compression tests using the standard grips are its bread and butter, by designing and manufacturing suitable jigs and fixtures, all manner of tests can be carried out. Projects I have worked on over the years using this type of machine have included:

• Bend tests to measure the fracture toughness of a material for oil and gas pipelines;

• Torsion fatigue and shear testing of pins for nuclear applications;

• Surface friction tests on bolted metal assemblies for structures operating in severe environments;

• Dynamic load tests on waste transport containers;

• Testing niche engineering components to destruction for the defence sector.

Object 2: Bolt Cutters

A basic item can be used to solve a complex problem!

While I was studying for my A levels, I participated in the Engineering Education Scheme. This is a national programme, where teams of sixth form pupils work with engineers from a local company over the course of a year, to solve a real-life problem. Our team of five worked with two engineers from Sellafield to develop a manual method of attaching lids to drums of radioactive powder, so they could be temporarily stored. Our final solution used bolt cutter handles with a modified set of jaws, to deform the lids so they curved under the lip of the drum opening. We also developed another set of jaws to allow removal of the lids when the time came the empty the drums.

Our efforts were handsomely rewarded, as we made it to the national finals, attending an exhibition and awards dinner in London. We ended up placing second in the final (so close!) and it is an experience I won’t forget. This scheme really helped me develop so many skills required of a good engineer, and gave me a great foundation to build on, first at university and subsequently at work. I think back fondly every time I use or see a pair of bolt cutters!

My Career in Three Objects; Typhoon, Type 45, Lilium Demonstrator

I joined BAe Systems as an Apprentice in January 1971, then spent many years working for the company - but was fortunate in that time to move and change jobs with the company very frequently, giving me tremendous opportunities to grow and learn while also giving me financial stability and making my moves simple and low risk. After 38 years with BAeS and experience in the US and Asia as well as UK / Europe, I then moved into what was expected to be retirement, but turned into a fascinating - and continuing - series of full and part time jobs.

Object 1: Eurofighter Typhoon

I first worked on what became Typhoon when it was only a vague concept, then moved in and out of the project over many years as it developed. As the UK Programme Manager I began to be exposed more and more to international collaboration and developed friendships in Germany, Italy and Spain, then in 1996 was appointed as MD / CEO of the Eurofighter Company based in Germany, which allowed me to relocate to Munich with my family and to take on leadership of the programme. After three years in-post I returned to the UK, spent some years in other jobs, then returned for a second tour in Germany this time as Eurofighter COO. Among the highlights of my time with Eurofighter were negotiating the development and production contracts, signing the production contracts, and choosing to name the aircraft Typhoon - but under these public highlights there were many years of detailed work on the design development certification and production of the aircraft, working with many parts of the worldwide industry and customer community. Trying to summarise what I learnt over these years is beyond me - I learnt much about working with international colleagues and cultures, about all aspects of aerospace development, and I learnt much about seeing life through the eyes of my customer. Being able to see situations from multiple perspectives is a key skill, well worth developing but often not easy.

Object 2: Type 45 Destroyer

At the end of 1999 I was asked to return to the UK and move from CEO Eurofighter to MD of the Type 45 Warship programme, and within 2 years I had taken over responsibility for all of the BAeS naval interests including warships, submarines, naval weapons - and shipyards / factories in Scotland, Cumbria, the South West and South East of England. The Naval sector faced many severe problems at that time, and much change was needed, quickly. Throughout several years Type 45 was a successful, modern project which provided challenge and satisfaction as I had to work through the many difficult problems elsewhere in the group, and bring more modern practises and structure into Naval design and management. There were some very dark days at that time, but the experience of some years in such a different and difficult environment provided me with some great opportunities and memorable experiences, and helped me grow my own resilience and persistence in the face of uncertainty - which was a key learning from that period. Life is often like a roundabout, and hanging-in through the dark, shaded times is essential to allow you to enjoy the brighter times which do come round when you make it back into the sunshine.

The photo shows a Typhoon flying past the stern of the first of 6 Type 45s, and brings together two of my three objects - a photo of which i am especially proud

I first thought about the concept of a career path half a lifetime ago, when I was at school picking out which A-Levels I would do. My father, and grandfather had both been in the legal profession, so I knew one thing for sure – I did not want to become a lawyer. I can’t remember why but I decided that Engineering looked interesting and so, without any real logic, decided that would be my chosen career.

The financial crisis had just happened and my sister’s experience graduating that year, and being launched into the worst job market in a generation, highlighted to me the importance of having a differentiated CV. I therefore opted to do a Year in Industry for the double reason of gaining the “CV points” of 12 months work experience over the majority of my co-graduates, alongside delaying my graduation by a year, putting it firmly into the middle of what I thought would be the next economic cycle. I spent a year at the Naval Base in Portsmouth designing warships in an office that was right next to the giant building where they were being built – an engineering nerd’s paradise of seeing the physical construction of your work close up.

At University, I was inspired by talks given by alumni of their own entrepreneurial journeys and certainly thought at the time “I want to do that” – but didn’t give much thought to the what, when or how.

In my final year, I was far too busy working on a student-led project, where we designed and built a solar powered car, to offer career planning more than the bare minimum of brain space. I applied to two firms, both with links to the solar car project, and accepted the first one to offer me a job without much further thought. My mother’s passing during my final year consuming any brain space that might otherwise have been set aside for dreaming about founding a company of my own.

The career that I ended up stumbling into was Structural Engineering Consultancy. It was fun, technically interesting and taught me a huge amount about how the commercial world operated in reality. However, I was slightly dispassionate about it and resented my ideas and hard work being used by clients to make or save money, while my reward remained the same, irrespective of the effort or quality of work.

The opportunity to found a start up came 3 years later, when two of my old solar car team colleagues were in need of a co-founder. While it was a huge decision to quit a job with a salary to do something where there would be no pay cheque for 12 months, and there was a high likelihood of failure – the excitement and enthusiasm, even the concept generated, ultimately made it a no brainer.

Five years on, I am more entrepreneur than engineer, spending a little too much time reading contracts, but weirdly loving it.

Object 1: Santa’s Little Helper – Line-Following Robot

“The power of combining software with hardware, and a good bit of teamwork.”

In the second year of undergraduate Engineering at Cambridge, students take part in the Integrated Design Project – a team-based coursework to build a line-following robot to carry out a task. For our group, the task was to sort parcels by shape and deliver them to the correct “chimney” on the test area. We were randomly assigned a team of 6 and had to design, build and deliver the robot’s mechanical design, electronics and software. I would have naturally gravitated towards the mechanical tasks but it transpired that so would 4 of the 6 of us. I ended up taking on the robot Software with my lab partner Ben and I also took on the team project management responsibilities.

Our overall design was fairly good – we opted for a side-loading design philosophy, different to most other teams, which fundamentally reduced the number of turning movements we had to make, simplifying the task considerably.

During testing, however, we found out some “quirks” in the mechanical design which did not quite behave as planned. The distance between the line sensors and turning axis of the car made the line-following logic very sensitive. As the robot had already been built at this point, we had no choice but to fix these issues in the software.

We went on to win the competition, teaching me two key things; I could lead a team, and that software had the power to improve good hardware design. I also met Yang…

Object 2: Resolution – Cambridge University Eco Racing’s 2013 Car

 “Failure is an option”

In my 3rd year at Cambridge, Yang persuaded me to join a student team called “Cambridge University Eco Racing”. The team built solar-powered cars for the World Solar Challenge in Australia every 2 years and Yang thought my approach to the IDP project could help the team.

The team’s calculations had found a new concept, showing that the aerodynamics of a very narrow car could still offer an improved operating point over the typical “table top” solar cars, which were built to maximise solar area. When the rules were published requiring 4 wheels for the first time in the competition history, I sketched up the concept and shared it with the team. One colleague then asked the question “can we do anything with the space created in the back?”. I ran with the idea and stayed up the whole night drawing up the concept of a car with the solar panels inside a transparent bubble, enabling the panels to track the sun as it crossed the sky (the route conveniently running fairly straight from North to South making this possible).

The team had a philosophy – we want to win, or not finish – second place is not an option. This fed into all of our design decision, and meant compromising on the width of the car was not an option. We did recognise that the narrow design might make it unstable, so we did extensive analysis and testing. I also dedicated my entire 4th year dissertation project to designing and assessing the crash safety of the monocoque chassis, pushing the strength of the safety sell beyond the requirements in the rules, in recognition of the risk we were taking.

In the final months before the race, the team had another bright idea. The rules stated that, while stationary, the charging area of the car “must not exceed the maximum allowable envelope of the car”. Given our car was so small, we had potential solar charging space to play with when stationary and built a deployable solar array to carry in the car. Unfortunately, we missed the fact that the extra weight from this array would invalidate all of our dynamics’ calculations and testing. Three days before the race, while out testing in northern Australia, with the extra weight added to the back of the car, the driver hit a pothole at 85 kmph and slammed on the breaks, causing the car to spin around, flip over and roll down an embankment.

The car’s crash structure worked exactly as planned and the driver walked away from the crash without a scratch.

The race, though, was lost. It was the first time in my life that I had fundamentally failed at something and it gave me a new perspective of risk.

Object 3: Vivacity Labs Traffic Sensor

“We can add value in the real world”