The year 2020/2021 was marked by the arrival of the COVID 19 virus. First a health crisis, then an economic one, confinements and curfews, attestations and teleworking, mask wearing and barrier gestures, etc… This global pandemic spared no one.

Within the company, we felt that young people were particularly affected by the interruption of classes and social life, the difficulty of distance learning, and so on.

Borrelly Spring Washers had long had the idea of setting up a mechanical training workshop to enable its young people to progress within the company.

The extension of its business into two buildings from the end of 2019 has enabled a reorganization of its production and an opportunity to set up the training workshop. Taken up with day-to-day business, the idea was put aside.

Over the course of the year, we recruited a large number of young people, and the crisis offered us some time, so it was only natural that we set up the training workshop.

We have equipped ourselves with equipment for basic mechanical training and launched our mechanical training workshop. This enables our youngest employees to acquire new technical skills and apply them individually. They are supervised by a professional in the trade.

“ 21/04/21, we were able to work alone on the lathe or milling machine.

Personally, I made a chess pawn, in this case the rook. First, I drew a plan of the part, then thought about how to machine it.

Once on the machine, I installed my blank (ø20 rolled aluminum bar). I straightened the face of my blank by 1 mm. Then I moved it to ø18.

I mounted my centering drill, pointed the end of my part then drilled with a ø13 drill to a depth of 8 mm.

I mounted my cut-off tool, and machined the axis of my ø10 lathe, leaving a 2mm-wide ø12 shoulder.

Next, I tilted the lathe’s z-axis to 45° to chamfer the top of my lathe.

Finally, I cut the part, leaving a 5mm-thick base.

On 28/04/21, during this training day, we decided to keep the machines we had used last week. So, I went back to turning. To observe the difference in speed of execution of a part already made, the teacher had me redo a chess lathe, but this time in copper. So I did exactly the same thing as last week, but with a different material. This time, however, I completed the piece much more quickly than last week. So I was able to make the slots for my milling lathes. To do this, I clamped my part in the vice using a screw clamp.

I attached a dial indicator to the spindle of my milling machine. Then I positioned the spindle axially to my lathe with the pepitas. I mounted a ø4 milling cutter. I made the 0 in z of my part. Then I machined my slots, taking 0.4mm passes.”

We are happy to have been able to carry out this training workshop”

While the COVID 19 pandemic is behind us, the mechanical training workshop is still up and running, and we plan to resume training for new employees as well as those who feel the need.