Personnel
Lee Pratt (Section Head)
Andy Hubbard (Chief Mechanical Workshop Technician)
Gary Chapman
John Sparrow (Senior Maintenance Technician)
Workshop Pro Forma
If you require anything to be made or adapted in the workshop, please fill in the Workshop Pro Forma and give a completed paper copy to the workshop. If the apparatus requires support from the Electronics or IT sections, a copy of the form should also be given to them.
What we provide
We make, mend and modify. We offer a complete range of mechanical engineering services. The Workshop is able to provide a design service to all research members of the Department. From verbal instructions, we produce our own working drawings; from given drawings and "rough sketches" we can manufacture the required parts. All the work is carried out with prior discussion to try to foresee possible errors and/or modifications. The few times we fail in this is when we just have not got the machine needed to carry out the work. We advise on which outside suppliers are probably the best to use for specialised products, and also advise on the materials and tools to be used and methods of manufacture required to achieve the needs of our customers.
The bulk of our work is the design, manufacture and build of both teaching and research equipment. In addition to this we undertake the further development of, and modifications/repairs to, existing rigs in use.
Our customers cover the full spectrum of the Department, lab technicians for teaching classroom work, etc, Part 2B projects, PhD projects, Post-doc research, visiting academics and students, and any projects for the Department's academics.
As the lone maintenance technician, John Sparrow, is under constant pressure. His tasks are the daily maintenance of the whole Department, running in services to rigs as and when required, safety in all areas of the Department, liasing with EMBS and visiting contractors and service engineers.
The Workshop is also constantly asked to be the "heavy lifting crew" when kit needs to be moved around the Department, etc.
How we prioritise
We have a jobs-to-be-done sheet in the Workshop. Tripos and research jobs are taken in their turn and the work started - provided we have enough information to get started, we have the materials and/or necessary tools that have been ordered, the student/supervisor is here to clear up any problems we might have, the student/supervisor has ordered the parts they said they would, nobody has changed their minds, and the machine needed is free. If not, we start the next job, provided nobody has a safety-related problem, broken anything halfway through an experiment, or has just gone to use a piece that was made outside but doesn't fit. Then we start the next job. Provided of course that it is not between October and January when Part 2Bs have priority.