The Winners of the 2019 AEMT Awards were announced during a Gala Presentation Ceremony in Coventry on Thursday 21st November. Attended by some 200 people from across the electrical and mechanical trades arena, the evening once again proved to be a wonderful evening of reward and celebration. In just its third outing, having only been launched in 2017, this year’s awards programme again attracted some truly excellent entries across the seven categories, all of which were deemed by the independent judging panel to be of the highest quality.
The Judging Session was held at Loughborough University back in October, during which comprehensive assessment protocols and a supporting ‘points scoring system’ were employed to determine the Finalists in each category. This process also identified the category Winners, although this information was kept under wraps until being revealed by the category sponsors during the charged atmosphere of the Gala Awards Ceremony.
The 2019 AEMT Awards Winners are as follows: –
PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by PLANT & WORKS ENGINEERING
Fletcher Moorland: Meerkat Wireless Condition Monitoring System
The Meerkat wireless condition monitoring system was created as a low-cost yet effective ‘fit and forget’ system that can be bolted on to any product to make it a smart product. Being wireless it’s easy and quick to install in any environment. The cloud-based software and analysis tools makes keeping an eye on machinery simple. With automatic warnings of condition change, maintenance teams have time to react to a problem before a breakdown occurs.
PROJECT OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by EMIR SOFTWARE
Houghton International: Full Stator Rewind and Core Rebuild
Due to its flexibility, commitment to quality and project management capabilities, Houghton International was selected to carry out a full stator rewind and core rebuild of a 26 tonne, 10 MVA nuclear safety significant Brush generator, bringing it back up to specification. Working to the agreed budget and timescales, Houghton International delivered a high-quality repair that adhered to the latest quality, environmental and safety regulations required for nuclear applications.
SERVICE CENTRE OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by ABB
Central Group
Central Group is a family run business based in Merseyside, employing 80 staff across two sites in Knowsley and a third in the West Midlands. The business focuses on the repair of rotating equipment for industry as well as all associated electronics. With a dedicated sales office and a projects team for larger installations the company has a large and varied customer base across the whole of the UK and abroad.
SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by DRIVES & CONTROLS
Radwell International
Radwell International is an award-winning global leader in MRO and industrial automation solutions. With an inventory of over 20 million parts, they sell and repair new, used and obsolete products including PLCs, servo motors, HMIs, drives, hydraulics, CNC equipment and robotics. Their impressive 58,000 sq. ft. facility in Staffordshire houses a dedicated repair centre with over 2,600 testing fixtures. They offer a 24/7/365 emergency-call-out service and currently serve over 50,000 customers in 172 countries.
CONTRIBUTION TO SKILLS & TRAINING
Sponsored by MUSK PROCESS SERVICES
Rotamec
Rotamec has developed a ‘grass roots’ training programme that works with local schools to identify potential engineers and open up a clear path for them as they start their career by offering work experience and apprenticeships. While many of our apprentices end up staying with us in full-time employment, others have gone on to develop their careers in other sectors. In all cases we provide mentoring during the training and help each apprentice to achieve their personal goals. By offering a modular education all our apprentices cover the basic requirements, while also having the opportunity to further study specific areas of interest and so begin developing a specialism.
RISING STAR AWARD
Sponsored by FANUC UK
Callum Broadhurst – Project Engineer – Musk Process Services
Callum Broadhurst is a talented young Project Engineer whose engineering knowledge and project and client management skills frequently exceed those expected for his age and role. As well as being a conscientious Project Engineer, he is also a hard-working student, widening his own career opportunities by studying for a BEng alongside his full-time role, whilst working on his personal development to grow his engineering management skills. On top of this, he is a friendly, well-liked member of the team, and supports wider business initiatives such as marketing and charity fundraising.
LIFETIME CONTRIBUTION AWARD
Sponsored by AEMT
David Walters – Brook Crompton (Retired)
David was presented with this prestigious award for being a true champion of energy efficiency and electric motor design; someone who was pivotal in many technical developments for industry and indeed the Association throughout the entirety of his long and illustrious career. He was influential in developing the ‘AEMT/EASA Rewind Study’ and the ‘Good Practice Guide to Maintain Motor Efficiency’, which now forms the backbone for the new international repair standard that all service centres should be working towards. The diligence and time he put into raising the profile of our industry was illuminated in 1997 when he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his service to energy efficiency.
Commenting on the awards dinner, Thomas Marks, Secretary at the AEMT said, “We were delighted with the entire event from start to finish. The venue, food and drink were all excellent, the stage set and overall presentation was fantastic, but for me, just seeing so many people from across our sector coming together to recognise and celebrate the excellent work which it collectively carries out every day, is simply wonderful. Sincere congratulations go to each of the Finalists and of course to the eventual Winners.”
Charity Support for MS Society
As with previous events, it was again agreed that whilst celebrating all that is good in the electro-technical industry, the Association and all those involved in the gala awards dinner, should endeavour to raise some money for a charitable cause. So, as part of the evening’s proceedings, a game of ‘heads or tails’ was conducted, with the proceeds going to help one man’s challenge to reach the South Pole on foot in aid of MS Society.
In December, Michael Mitten of Houghton International, an AEMT member company, will begin his trek across the final degree of latitude, crossing 60 nautical miles (111km) in freezing temperatures and extreme conditions in order to reach the South Pole. He will be taking on this momentous challenge in memory of his mum, Christine, who sadly passed away in 2016 following a long battle with multiple sclerosis (MS). His aim is to raise £50,000.00 and in turn deliver increased awareness of this debilitating condition which affects over 10,000 people in the UK alone.
The AEMT is delighted to have set him on his way with a fantastic £1750.00 being raised during the evening, although with many pledges of additional donations being made, that figure will undoubtedly increase over the coming weeks.
For further information on this remarkable fundraising venture, and to make any donations, please visit the dedicated website – https://polesapart2019.com/.
Further details
For more information on the 2019 AEMT Awards and to review the image gallery, please visit the dedicated awards website www.aemtawards.com or contact the producers, Touchwave Media on 07785 290034 or by email at [email protected].
The ‘call for nominations’ for the 2020 awards programme will open in the spring of next year, so if you or your company have a product, project, service or other achievement which you feel is deserving of industry-wide recognition, be sure to submit an entry.
