Kingsbury appoints trainee Applications Engineer
Keith Edwards has been appointed by Kingsbury, Gosport, to be the new position of Trainee Applications Engineer – Turning. The company is sole UK agent for CNC lathes built in Germany by INDEX and its subsidiary, Traub, encompassing multi-spindle automatics and sliding- as well as fixed-head turning machines.
While studying for his GCSEs at Portchester Community School, Keith also attended Fareham College on day-release where he obtained an NVQ Level 1 in Performing Engineering Operations.
He decided that he would like to pursue an engineering apprenticeship, having shown an early interest in technology at the age of eight by helping to build a narrow gauge railway on Hayling Island. He joined Defence Munitions in Gosport, gained a BTec and then an HNC in Mechanical Engineering and completed NVQ levels 2 and 3.
Despite being offered a permanent job there as a fitter, Keith applied elsewhere and received a number of offers including from Siemens, Astrium and Vector Aerospace Helicopter Services.
He had also kept in touch with his former college. One of the lecturers, Alistair Reid-Thom, knew that Kingsbury had been looking to fill its turning trainee position for some time and recommended Keith, who had experience of manual lathes and was keen to expand his knowledge of CNC turning.
Following his appointment on 1st October 2013, he was immediately immersed in INDEX and Traub technology by Kingsbury’s senior applications engineers, Andy Young and Paul Kemp. One of Keith’s first experiences was joining the engineering team installing an INDEX lathe at a customer in Northern Ireland, where he helped with commissioning.
He is regularly involved in setting up jobs for customer demonstrations and cutting trials in Gosport. All aspects of production technology form part of his training, from CADCAM through programming and tool setting to turn-mill production and metrology.