Work Experience

​We recently had our first work experience student.

Brandon is from Ecclesfield School and has ambitions to be an engineer (or a pilot) so we gave him the opportunity to work on a project for us.

The project was a 3 tonne lifting beam, 6m long that was designed to BS EN 13155.

We at Value Design Ltd believe that it is important to to learn to be an engineer before learning to operate software so we gave Brandon all of the tools needed for the task in hand. This consisted of a pencil, eraser, graph paper, calculator and a PC so he could write up the report.

We don't own a drawing board anymore due to CAD so Brandon sketched the drawing of the lifting beam on graph paper and fully dimensioned it including cross sections.

He then produced an itemised bills of materials and calculated the self weight of the beam.

The next task was to complete the stress analysis calculations in accordance with the design code BS EN 13155 Crane Safety, Non-fixed load lifting attachments.

He checked the following; 

• tensile, shear, bearing and combined stress in the lugs
• shear stress in the bolts and bearing stress in the bolt holes
• bending stress and lateral torsional buckling in the main member

These calculations were presented in a professional technical report with references. The lifting beam was proven to meet the requirements of the design code and was fit for purpose.

Not bad to do all of this in one week with a little bit of help from us.

We believe Brandon has the potential to be a great engineer and we wish him well for his future career path whether that is in engineering or flying an aeroplane. Well done Brandon!