A team of young engineers from CMB Engineering won first prize in the Manufacturing Team Challenge category held at the WorldSkills UK competition for their design and production of a remote control forklift.

The team will go on to represent the UK in the global, WorldSkills final held in São Paulo, Brazil this August.

“We are thrilled that our boys will be on that plane to Brazil, representing the very best of British manufacturing” said Andrew Truelove, general manager at CMB Engineering. “Their selection is an outstanding achievement and a fine testament to the value and quality of the apprenticeship schemes we are proud to run at CMB Engineering. We drive invention within the can making industry and we firmly believe in investing the time needed to develop and nurture all of our employees. Our young team’s success is a showcase of how we continue to set a benchmark for the industry and push innovation forward.”

The CMB Engineering team—Chris Renwick, Patrick Devanney and Dominic Trees—was trained in by CMB Engineering’s long-running apprenticeship scheme, which centers on a four-year program of either electrical or mechanical engineering and includes time spent in formal study at Bradford College or Leeds City College, as well as practical experience working alongside the company’s professional engineering teams.

According to CMB, competing teams were given initial design criteria for a motorized forklift truck ahead of the competition and then tasked with manufacturing and assembling, including producing full 2D and 3D CAD drawings of all manufactured parts, electrical circuit drawings and the programmable logic controller (PLC) program.

“Working with such talented individuals has advanced my progression in both electrical and mechanical engineering,” Renwick said. “Success in this year’s competition will be a lasting memory and, what’s more, having the ability to represent the UK on a global stage is a monumental achievement for us all -and one that we will grasp with both hands.”

 Since the 1930s, the Shipley, UK-based CMB Engineering has designed, developed and manufactured can making equipment. The company supplies equipment to a wide range of customers on six continents, including all of the major can makers.