STRI Group Announce Research Day Dates

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STRI Group announce Research Day dates: STRI Group has announced the dates for its free annual Research Day event, hosted at its world-class facilities in West Yorkshire.

STRI Group Announce Research Day Dates

Greenkeepers, grounds staff, course managers, stadium managers and other sportsturf professionals are all invited to attend the open days on the 20th and 21st of September.

On the days STRI consultants will give attendees a guided tour around the STRI research grounds and show partners’ latest trials and technology that will benefit of the sport industry in the future.

There’s also delicious food served throughout the day and it’s a great opportunity to meet and catch-up with fellow sportsturf industry professionals.

The event is supported by Farmura – an Aquatrols company, Bayer, ICL, Syngenta, Sherriff Amenity and StadiaPitch, who are currently investing in R&D projects to help improve the quality and management of sports surfaces.

To book your place on either the 20th or 21st please contact info@strigroup.com or call +44 (0) 1274 565131.

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Ransomes Jacobsen Provides Opportunities for Local Students

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Ransomes Jacobsen Provides Opportunities for Local Students: Ransomes Jacobsen Ltd, the Ipswich-based turf equipment manufacturer, has recently hosted 15 pupils from local secondary schools for a week of work experience. 

Ransomes Jacobsen Provides Opportunities for Local Students

The students were placed in various departments within the company including Operations, Engineering, Marketing, I.T., Customer Care, Sales and HR. All students were given a thorough overview of the company including its rich history dating back to 1789. The pupils were then shown around the manufacturing facility at the company’s site on Ransomes Europark, before spending the week in various departments to learn the processes involved in running a global business.

Alan Prickett, Senior Director at Ransomes Jacobsen Ltd said:

“Ransomes Jacobsen has been a pillar of the Ipswich business community for over 200 years. Over those years the company has employed many thousands of local people, and has also played a significant role in both war efforts. It is important to us to continue to serve the community and provide employment and educational opportunities to as many people as we possibly can.

“The feedback from students and staff members has been very encouraging. A large percentage of our workforce has been employed at Ransomes Jacobsen for many years, and we are delighted that their skills and experience are now being passed on to students, apprentices and graduates who, we hope, will also enjoy long careers with the company.”

Matthew Went, HR Director at Ransomes Jacobsen Ltd said:

“We are extremely pleased with how the work experience scheme has taken off this year. We have offered it in the past, but this year has been particularly successful, as we have streamlined the process and bolstered the programmes to ensure that students are given an authentic, well-rounded first experience of life at work. This forms part of our strategy to engage with students at an early stage to generate a relationship with our company and an interest in what we do here.

“We are looking forward to building on the success of this year and welcoming more students in 2018 and beyond. We hope that we are able to attract talented individuals to the company in the future, and part of that is to open our doors to the local community and show people the fantastic opportunities on offer.”

Ransomes Jacobsen has been approached by two further local secondary schools to host work experience for students in 2018 following the success of this year’s structured and professional programmes.

For more information, visit: www.jacobsen.com/europe

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Countax And A Race To The Rescue

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Countax And A Race To The Rescue: Every year, universities from around the world compete to build a single seat race car for autocross or sprint racing.

Countax And A Race To The Rescue

Formula Student is Europe’s most established educational motorsport competition, backed by industry and high-profile engineers such as Ross Brawn OBE.  The competition aims to develop innovative young engineers and encourage young people to take up a career in engineering. Following that edict, Surrey University’s Formula Student team set about building their new electric 80kW single seat racer, with a specification that would take it from 0-60mph in under three seconds. Little did they know the project would bring them into contact with garden tractor manufacturer Countax, themselves the company behind British-built Runningblade, the racing lawnmower that broke the world record on Pendine Sands.

Formula Student forms part of a degree-level project that provides the opportunity to deliver a complex and integrated product and present it to a hypothetical manufacturing firm. The rules are the car must be low in cost, easily maintained, reliable, with high performance; and the team has to demonstrate it can support a viable business model for both parties. The Surrey University team’s car is entirely student designed and built by them, making virtually everything from the tubular frame through to the aluminium suspension uprights. It’s powered by an 80kW/240Nm electric motor with 600v 7kWH LiPo battery. Each team has to go through a rigorous testing process, including a Static Event, where the cars are judged on design, cost, sustainability, business presentation, technical and safety scrutineering, a tilt test and brake and noise test.

The venue for the Surrey team’s Static Event was Silverstone Circuit and when they arrived to assemble the car they found they were minus the correct wheel nuts. The ones they had with them were from the previous year’s model and this year’s had undergone a design change to the studs. They needed M10 x 1.25 pitch wheel nuts with a tapered seat to fit the new studs. Nowhere at Silverstone could they find the size. Bill Backhouse, Automotive Technician for the university’s Mechanical Engineering Sciences Department, phoned his father Graham at the John B Backhouse power and garden machinery dealership in Yorkshire for help.

Graham realised the wheel nuts they needed were coincidentally the same as fitted to the post 2013 Countax garden tractors and the race was on to the Countax Factory near Oxford, where Lauren in the Parts Department had a set of wheel nuts ready and waiting in reception. The short hop back to Silverstone saw the wheels and nuts in place ready to pass the Formula Student Static Event; and have the car ready to go on to the Dynamic Event with skid pan, sprint, acceleration, endurance and fuel economy. All with a big thanks to Countax from the Surrey University team and, one other coincidence, Ross Brawn has been a Countax customer for many years.

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SALTEX 2017 Visitor Registration Now Open

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SALTEX 2017 ‘Your Industry, Your Show’ Visitor Registration Now Open

SALTEX 2017 Visitor Registration Now Open

The countdown to Europe’s largest annual turf management event has officially begun, marked by the opening of online visitor registration.

SALTEX 2017 takes place at the NEC, Birmingham, from 1-2 November, and has already attracted over 250 exhibitors – a number that’s set to grow further in the weeks leading up to the event. Confirmed to return are a number of leading brand names spanning the whole turf management industry including manufacturers and suppliers of world-class products and services for the maintenance of pitches, grounds, landscaping, parks and estates.

SALTEX will also once again boast unique show features such as:

  • Learning LIVE – an all-encompassing free-to-attend education programme offering grounds and open space practitioners across all disciplines, volunteer as well as professional, the chance to increase their CPD points.
  • Outdoor demonstrations – providing an opportunity to see a number of products in action directly outside the SALTEX halls 6, 7 and 8.
  • The SALTEX College Cup – a national student-led sports-turf challenge sponsored by Ransomes.
  • Pathology & Soil Science LIVE – allowing visitors to look in detail at the symptoms of some common turfgrass fungal disease problems.
  • The Young Groundsmen’s Conference, sponsored by Rigby Taylor and Top Green – an ideal opportunity for young people looking to advance their career in the groundscare industry
  • Ask the Expert – free pitchcare advice from the IOG’s team of regional pitch advisors based on the IOG Hub
  • The IOG Industry Awards – the UK’s biggest celebration in groundsmanship held on the evening of the first day (1 November) at the National Motorcycle Museum.
  • NEW for 2017! Careers advice area – the chance to receive one-to-one advice from industry expert Frank Newberry on how to progress your career, write a compelling CV and perform well in an interview situation.

Visitors can register to attend SALTEX via the website – www.iogsaltex.com. Visitors will receive a confirmation email with their badge to print and take along to the show in November, to gain free entry.

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