Chelker Technology

Emily Phillips

2010-02-24T04:55:00.000-08:00

Emily recently completed a 2 week period of work experience with us, and we would like to thank her for her help. She is currently studying for GCSE's at Skipton Girl's High School and considering a career as a product designer. We think that would be a good choice for her, as she has excellent sketching skills combined with innovative thinking. We wish her well in the future and hope she remembers us when she is rich and famous!

Kris, Ian, Malcolm & Neil

Here are her thoughts on her time with us;

For my work placement, I spent two weeks at Chelker Technology, which was an interesting and enjoyable experience. As well as getting a greater knowledge of the way things are run generally in the working environment, I found out lots of information about engineering and industrial design.

Whilst on placement, I learnt how various engineering mechanisms work, and about the importance of precise planning and safety regulations in this area of work. I have seen how much thought and discussion there is behind engineering, and think that I may consider a career in either engineering or product design in the future.

Thanks to everyone at Chelker for making this experience possible.

Emily

ABC website goes live!

2010-02-10T05:36:00.000-08:00

Chelker Technology customer Auto Bin Cleaning (ABC) has gone live with their new website. The company sells and franchises the equipment a business needs to clean wheelie bins. This is a phenominal growth business which has been poorly served by equipment suppliers in the past.

Tired of vans with appalling ergonomics and low reliability, ABC Directors Laurence and Janice Stephenson approached Chelker to design and build a series of solutions to the need for efficient mobile cleaning. Chelker took the same approach to the problem as it would to any project. We looked at the true needs and designed a cost effective method of improving operational efficiency.

Productivity is what it's all about, whatever the manufacturing or service process. However, in designing a new series of systems we have also incorporated features which improve the health and safety of the operator, reduce environmental impact, and gives a better end result i.e. a cleaner bin.

The pictures show System A which is the first entry level solution for domestic bin cleaning. Chelker designed and built the system, converting a Transit SWB vehicle.

To Purchase, or to discuss a Happy Bins franchise, contact www.autobincleaning.co.uk

Create 3D Photographs

2010-02-03T02:44:00.000-08:00

Chelker are proud to be associated with Create3D, a technology company who have developed a system for 3D photography which uses a normal digital camera. Chelker have designed and manufactured the first batch of PhotoScanner units which are the platform for the camera.

The PhotoScanner works by moving the camera along a linear track under computer control, programmed from a handheld computer via a Bluetooth link. The camera trigger is fired electronically during a scan run, ensuring that images are captured at the right point, with a linear resolution of 0.1mm.

Once the images are captured they are uploaded to Create3D, who print them using a special process which results in a 3D photograph. Unfortunately, the World Wide Web is not capable of displaying the images as it is in boring old 2D, but the results are amazingly Harry Potteresque i.e. appear to be magic. No special glasses are required, the result is 3D like a hologram, and the technique can be used for portraits, landscapes, still life, advertising, in fact anything you might like to take pictures of.

From an engineering viewpoint, the project was very interesting, incorporating extrusions, PLC programming, microprocessor boards, Bluetooth serial comms, and stepper motor drive systems. The end result is a smoothly sexy strokable piece of high tech photographic kit.

Create3D are looking for professional photographers as partners to make the technology available throughout the UK and worldwide. www.create-3d.co.uk

Chris Kempster

2009-07-20T01:42:00.000-07:00

Chris is a pupil of South Craven School and we were very happy to have him for a week of work experience. Chris is interested in Engineering as a career and we think he would be well suited to it. Here is his own report on his experience;

"I enjoyed my stay at Chelker Technology, experiencing what it is like in the world of work. I have found that designing engineering is very hard, I’ve been designing hinges which I found a challenge whereas Chelker are designing stuff that is a lot more complex. I have learnt that designing in engineering is just as important as the manufacturing because if it's not planned out correctly, chances are it won't function properly further on processing and I have also learnt that lengths (dimensions) need to be very precise. I think that from doing my work experience here that I have decided that engineering isn’t a bad job and could well take it up in the future."

South Craven School is a local Technology and Engineering College

http://www.south-craven.n-yorks.sch.uk/

Google Street View

2009-03-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

The brand new Google Street View now allows us to check up on our Metroscape products in several UK cities !

Take a look at this outside the iconic Liver Building in Liverpool;
http://snipurl.com/ee0sq

WIRELESS08 LONDON

2008-06-03T03:02:00.000-07:00

May saw the Wireless08 exhibition at London's Olympia. As well as the exhibition we took the opportunity to visit some of our own wireless sites around the city. Pictured is the early Metropole1 unit, which looks bulky but has a lot of stuff in it, including options for sound level monitoring, used outside nightclubs to ensure the neighbours aren't disturbed.

The latest, more compact systems shown are Metroscape units (MS211, MS212 and MS301) with our camera arm and antennas. These are all part of the BT Wireless City program, in conjunction with Westminster City Council. The red units are located in London's Chinatown.

For more information look at www.btinet.bt.com

Clay Shoot

2008-05-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

11th May 2008

Perfect sunny day, incredible idylic surroundings, large box full of ammunition, all ingredients for a memorable afternoon shooting clays. John and son Steven had very kindly agreed to let us have a "blast" in an otherwise quiet corner of their Dales farm, and Adrian (a friend of Neil's) supplied the clay trap, gun, and consumables. Adrian's brother Chris came along, as did Kris, David and Neil.

Since we were almost all novices we didn't take it too seriously at first, and took turns getting used to the gun and using it to break little orange clay frizbees in the sky...

Eventually Kris showed his competitive streak and suggested a competition. 10 clays each, simple count of the number hit. John explained that in competition they expected you to hit it with the first barrel, or sometimes you got two points for the first barrel, just one for the second barrel. However we all agreed that hitting it at all was challenge enough!

Final score was Adrian 7/10, Kris 7/10, David 6/10, Neil 3/10. Since this was a draw, Ade & Kris had a shoot-off of 5 clays each, but it didn't help - both getting 4/5 and agreeing to a draw. We had a pleasant wander about collecting the mountain of debris (cartridges, wads, clays etc) from the beautiful sheep-grazed landscape. Finally we were carted off back to the farm in a sheep trailer attached to a quad. Nursing bruised shoulders, we reluctantly climbed into our vehicles and left, vowing to return and planning on it being another perfect day.

Failure Modes & Effects Analysis Workshop

2007-10-19T02:46:00.000-07:00

27th April 2007

Phil Stunell of Excel delivers an excellent all-day workshop on the technique to Chelker engineers

CNC Part Unloader for Sliding Headstock Lathe

2007-10-19T02:44:00.000-07:00

27th April 2007

Chelker delivers special purpose automatic part unloader for very long (4 metre) turned components.

Wet Weekend Walk!

2007-10-19T02:02:00.000-07:00

12th February 2007

The Chelker team's weekend walking trip - Neil, Kristoff, Justina, Catherine & Martin
Sunday 11th February 2007
As we reached Clapham a strategic decision was made to not "do" Ingleborough. The rain and mist was such that we couldn't even see low hills in the dale. With the volume of water dropping from the sky and the likelyhood of melt water from the weeks snowfalls, it seemed like the ideal day to look at waterfalls!
The becks were indeed in full spate and the falls at Ingleton were spectacular, with Thornton Force thundering as we climbed behind it (& got soaked). The rain, however, held off throughout our walk. We even got a bit of unexpected sun and blue skies as we returned past Beezley Falls, together with a nice view of the mountain (although we never saw the actual top).
Tagged on to our waterfalls walk was a round trip of Kingsdale, taking in a gawp at Rowten Pot, Jingling Hole and Yordas Cave. Some impromptu cave exploration of the small passageways around Rowten was also a lot of fun, especially using just the LED light from a mobile phone to show the way, and the waterfall in Yordas was impressive (and wet).

Congratulations to Martin Eyre BSc

2007-10-19T01:57:00.000-07:00

28th November 2006

Martin's graduation ceremony on the 16th was attended by the Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, Patrick Stewart

Chelker welcomes Kris!

2007-10-19T01:49:00.000-07:00

22nd September 2006

Chelker welcomes Krzysztof Parys to the team (you can call him Kris!). Kris has an MSc in Mechanical Engineering (specialising in Machine Design) from Warsaw, and has relocated to the UK to join Chelker. He has useful experience in aluminium extrusions, GRP and other processes, and of supplier sourcing in China & Poland.