SATRA holds research open day

A hands-on interactive workshop was recently organised in the UK by SATRA’s research department.

The SATRA research open day allowed delegates to see for themselves that the organisation is certainly more than just a test house. These visitors took advantage of the opportunity to visit the new laboratory facilities and attended demonstrations of 3-D scanning and printing, force platform gait analysis and water resistance assessment. Also on show was SATRA’s high-speed video filming service, bespoke test machine development, and the advanced climate research chamber, which permits a wide variety of ambient conditions to be created for product testing.

The visitors to this special event came from the UK and a number of countries around the EU, and enjoyed networking with representatives from fellow SATRA member companies. The day also allowed new members of the SATRA research team to meet existing customers and discuss their specific requirements.

Benefits from the day

Start-rite marketer Susan O’Hare attended the event with her colleague Andrew Kirby from the company’s technical team.

“The most valuable part of the day was to see the facility to print in 3-D, and this led to a follow-up meeting to set up working practices for use in developing prototypes,” she remarked. “It was also good to meet the SATRA team and be reminded of the services available.”

Phil Norsworthy, who serves as technical support/development manager and production manager at Dunkelman and Son Limited said: “It was useful to me to be introduced not only to the staff at SATRA, but also to have an informal introduction to the other people attending the open day, By chatting to other delegates, my colleague and I had some very interesting conversations regarding common interests.”

According to Mr Norsworthy, the time spent discussing the 3-D technology at SATRA was beneficial, and helped him to realise how his business can utilise these facilities in order to reduce sampling time. While at the workshop, he was able to arrange for a 3-D print that was required for an urgent sample. After sending an email which included a 3-D drawing, he was able to pick up the sample the next day.

“Scanning and 3-D printing will become part of our business in the near future to ensure greater accuracy and preserve legacy details,” he added. “Before we commit to costly hardware and software, the services at SATRA can help us to determine our requirements.”

Mr Norsworthy was also interested to learn that SATRA test method development feeds into international standards, and that through necessity tests have to be a reflection of real-world product performance.

“From time to time, we hear of some pretty wild claims from competitors, which seem to have no relevance whatsoever in normal conditions,” he stated. “As a business, Dunkelman and Son will continue to use SATRA – not only for its services, but also for its collective wealth of knowledge in our industry.”

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 18 of the September 2014 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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