Manufacturing Engineering students from South Eastern Regional College's Lisburn campus have devised a solution which has helped local SME improve its manufacturing processes and they expect to see great results.

The duo students from Lisburn, Ruairi Dillon and Rhys Highan, worked on the project as part of their Extended Diploma course, supported by SERC Industrial Development Engineer Brendan Merrigan and have been receiving specialist one-to-one coaching from Clarehill Plastics Design Engineer Jonathan Campbell.

Clarehill Plastics presented their challenge to the students and, following a number of meetings with senior management, together developed a suitable solution. The challenge was for the students to design and manufacture a bespoke oil tank overfill prevention device and an innovative infrared sensor.

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The system, designed as part of an efficiency initiative, allows operators to efficiently detect when an oil tank has reached capacity; dramatically reducing the risk of overflow and oil spillage.

Engineering student Ruairi Dillon who worked on the project explained: "It was great to get the opportunity to work with a local company and get hands on experience. I got the opportunity to work on a live industry project from concept through to completion. The whole project was a fantastic experience and will look great on my CV."

Kieran McKenna, Head of Engineering at SERC, said: "Industry projects at SERC are a great vehicle for us to support businesses with the challenges they face as well as developing our students employability skills.

"These examples give students, who are studying the equivalent to A Level, the opportunity to showcase what they are capable of. We are very grateful to all the companies we have worked with in the past for providing this opportunity and we are delighted that we can deliver real results for them."

(CD/JP)