Joshua Humphrey and Michael Pateman were two of 100 new members to take part in an event to celebrate joining the Institution and were keen to highlight the importance to their career development of their time spent at Elta. Joshua and Michael undertook their industrial placements with Elta in 2011 and 2012 as part of the company’s ongoing student placement programme, an important element in Elta’s commitment to training and investing in the future of the HVAC industry. Now qualified as Engineering Technicians MIMechE, they both cited a childhood fascination with how things work as the impetus to consider a career in engineering and selected courses at the University of Portsmouth.

Elta’s Head Office is in Fareham, Hampshire and has strong links with the nearby university, regularly offering work placement opportunities to undergraduates in the sandwich years of their mechanical engineering degree courses. Joshua and Michael both worked in Elta’s Research & Development Department.

Now in its 18th year, the competition started in America and was introduced to the UK in 1998 where it is run jointly by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). It challenges teams of students to design, build and race a single seat racing car. The manufacturing facility of Elta in Fareham has a long standing relationship with Portsmouth University, taking a number of students in the sandwich year of the university’s Mechanical Engineering courses. One such undergraduate is Dave Hague, currently studying for his Masters in Mechanical Engineering, who was on a placement with Elta and is now working part time at Fareham until he finishes his course next year. Dave joined some 20 fellow Portsmouth students to form one of a record 105 teams from 23 countries who entered this year’s competition.

Elta sponsored the team by providing scrap metal and use of their cutting facilities, enabling them to save on manufacturing costs, a vital element of the competition which seeks to educate students into realising that a good design is worth nothing if it costs more to manufacture than people are prepared to pay. Dave comments “Elta gave us free run of the scrap metal from the fan manufacturing process which went into building the car’s pedals and suspension, as well as being used in other general areas of the car. Elta also provided the material for the brake discs and cut them into shape using their plasma cutting machine.”

The competition has exacting standards, requiring the students to achieve success in various tests of the manufacturing process before being eligible to race. Although a timing issue with the engine meant the Portsmouth team were unable to take part in the racing at Silverstone from 16-19 July, they were heartened by the achievements that they did make. Dave continues ” “Our car, affectionately known as ‘Jaws’, passed the scrutineering and the tilt tests but the engine failure meant that we couldn’t compete in the Class 1 racing. It was obviously disappointing that we didn’t get to line up on the grid but we made it through scrutineering, with only a few modifications needed ” a big achievement for first timers. I was speaking with the winners ” the University of Stuttgart ” and they said that they didn’t even pass scrutineering in their first year.” Buoyed by this, Portsmouth are keen to enter the fray again in the 2010 competition. Dave is planning to join the team that entered into the Class 3 category of this year’s competition which requires only the design element to be completed (Class 2 requires the design and the car chassis to be constructed). His experience in Class 1 will therefore stand him in good stead to help the team step up to the actual manufacturing process.

David Osgerby, MD of Elta, said “When Dave approached me about the sponsorship it took me back to my early days in engineering. I inherited my father’s passion for cars and was sponsored by Vauxhall Motors for my mechanical engineering degree at Leeds University back in the late 70’s from where I joined Vauxhall to work with prototype test vehicles. Competitions such as Formula Student are an excellent bridge between academia and business. It offers a real-life exercise in design and manufacture, teaching not only good design but also the business elements of automotive engineering. I do feel for the lads in getting so close but not actually having the chance to race but I am sure they have learned a lot which will prove invaluable when they take up the challenge again next year.”

Air Design Pty. Ltd. is part of the £85 million Elta Group, a family of businesses with operations in six countries on four continents which, together with a network of international distributors, provides quality fans and related air movement equipment to customers worldwide.

Elta is one of the largest businesses that Portsmouth University partners, with up to five students placed at one time at the company for a period of twelve months.

The schemes are equally beneficial both to Elta and Portsmouth University, as Neville Tubb, Chief Mechanical Engineer at Elta explains, “The aim of the experience is twofold. We gain a useful employee and the student gains vital experience in the workplace. On return to university for their final year, Elta still has an input in the students’ studies as we provide them with a live industrial project. This is a great opportunity for Elta to investigate new areas with a full report at the end. One project this year that our students are involved in is an automatic air loading system for our test laboratory.”

John Bishop, Industrial Placement lecturer at University of Portsmouth comments, “Much time and effort is put into finding the correct placement for the student and a large proportion are actually offered employment following their graduation or alternatively funding for the final year of study.”