Training
We believe that with the right education, selecting the right materials for an application can become more scientific and far easier thereby reducing the likelihood of failure during service.
With training, corrosion can be minimised and the life span of a component can be increased, and Materials Technology can offer lectures and seminars tailored to your needs. We have lectured to professional engineers, legal practices and scientific bodies through to firms with little pre-existing experience in the materials field and so understand the importance of pitching to the audience's level in order to make the most of the seminar.
We can also produce training literature specifically for your requirements, and arrange lesson schedules if you need more than a single seminar. This type of learning is particularly valuable for subjects such as steel selection, corrosion avoidance and welding practices.
Overview Modules
Materials Technology offer a range of training courses focussed on materials science ranging from metals, plastics & rubbers to composites. These courses cover a wide range of processing techniques, failure modes & design criteria with the aim of improving your processing, minimising failures and enhancing your materials knowledge.
Our polymer courses are primarily aimed at extrusion & compounding processes but also touch on materials selection and design for other processes.
We provide our training courses to a range of different levels within companies. These include management level, engineers, purchasing and operator level. We tailor our training to your specific business area and needs and where ever possible use practical examples from your factory. We will conduct an initial review with the client to optimise the course content and spend some time reviewing your current practices, manufacturing processes and materials. The final training package will then include data on company specific materials (types, additives etc), and processing considerations.
We can also formulate customer specific modules if the client feels this is not currently catered for. We encourage an interactive approach and encourage students to bring along examples of problems or specific examples for discussion during the training sessions. For this reason it is often best to limit the training to smaller groups of between 6-9 pupils. The duration of the training can be flexed to meet the ability of the pupils.
The cost of our training is based on the provision of the trainer plus travel and subsistence. We do not charge on a per student basis. This makes our training courses highly cost effective. There is also no charge for the work to tune the course to meet the exact needs of the customer. A quote is provided for the training package after the initial discussion has taken place and the course material and duration have been agreed. Once the costs are agreed then the training material is fully developed.
Below you will find a list of the standard training modules which are currently available. The training modules are divided into introductory and advanced but we can cater for all abilities. Most of our modules are intended to be used as flexible learning packages and hence can be added to within the work environment or as part of other courses. We can also create custom packages upon request.
General Introductory and Advanced Training Modules
These modules follow a progression in complexity level. Depending on the overall course requirements it is possible to progress directly from one level to the next within the same course or to split the training across separate sessions.
| Introductory Modules | Advanced Modules |
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Polymer Materials & Processing
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Formulating Materials
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Learning from Failures Covers lessons learned from failure investigation and analysis over a period of thirty years & aims to encourage an attitude to decision making, which minimises errors and would increase plant reliability and longevity.
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Welding Engineering Discusses the principles of welding, the large number of processes available, including recent developments. The effects of welding in increasing vulnerability to corrosion.
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Understanding Corrosion Discusses the general principles as they apply to operating plants, methods of monitoring degradation, and giving early warning of failures to permit planned maintenance.
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Decision Making Discusses disasters and business failures and the management deficiencies which have initiated them. Attitudes to decision making are highlighted to reduce the potential for aberrant judgements.
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Corrosion Under Insulation/Lagging (CUL) Reviews mechanisms, non-destructive testing, insulation types and expected corrosion rates. |
Corrosion Failures Discusses the cases we have been involved in (including marine, oil and petrochemical), lessons to be learned and design to mitigate corrosion problems. |
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Materials of Construction Reviews materials used in Petrochemical, Oil and other industries. |
Reducing Maintenance by Good Design Covers a large number of errors made in design of operating plants and equipment, which induce premature failure. Advises on simple methods of extending equipment life. |
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Surface Engineering Takes examples from industry of succesful and unsuccesful applications of surface engineering, ranging from hard facing using stellites to PVD, CVD and laser glazing. |
Protective Coatings Reviews paints , resin linings, epoxies, polyesters, vinyl esters, furanes and others. |
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Principles of Polymer Extrusion A basic introduction to the science of polymer extrusion. Designed for those who are new to the extrusion process or have limited knowledge of the operational parameters. The focus is mainly on a practical understanding of the process and key parameters.
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Exploring Extrusion An intermediate level course on polymer extrusion designed for those who have some experience of the process or some basic materials knowledge. Mainly targeted at process engineer or technologist level. Some materials science and more in depth understanding of the science.
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Special Modules
We can also create custom support modules for your specific needs upon request. Some typical examples include:
- Cadmium Corrosion & Toxicity
- Static control additives & Technology
- Implementation of ROHS and WEEE Directives
Feel free to discuss your specific needs with us. We also have links with other companies who can provide expertise in the area of injection moulding design, operation and process control.