Fast cars and manufacturing: students enjoy a morning of STEM at HepcoMotion for their Jaguar Car Challenge

Tiverton-based HepcoMotion was pleased to welcome children from Castle Primary School to its headquarters to help them with a school project.   The pupils are taking part in the F1 in Schools Jaguar Primary School Challenge which involves designing and manufacturing the fastest car possible, emulating the design and engineering processes employed by real engineering companies, such as Jaguar Cars.   Open to students aged 5-11 years across the country, this annual challenge is always well received.

As a world-leading manufacturer of linear motion, HepcoMotion is well placed to provide the students with an overview of the manufacturing side of business.  Indeed, Hepco’s products are used extensively in the automotive industry and in the car manufacturing process.  For example, Hepco’s track systems are used to enable robots to operate around cars to do processes such as welding, spraying or seal testing.

The students enjoyed a presentation from Hepco’s apprentices, Toby Cowan, Lee Slowman and Hayden Jones on different car manufacturing processes, and how Hepco’s products are used.  The students had some product examples to look at, and they enjoyed a well-received factory tour where the children got to see some of the machines used in the automotive industry. The morning rounded off with Hepco’s apprentices discussing some top tips on how to make their cars go faster.

Says Maurice Porter, Hepco’s Group Training Manager; “We are delighted to work with these children and wish them the very best of luck with their challenge. As a local engineering firm, we fully support activities such as the jaguar challenge that get young people interested in science and engineering.”

The children found the day informative and enjoyable. Nathan Clutterbuck aged 9 says “It’s been really fun at Hepco. It’s really cool how the CNC machines make things”. Robert Marsh, age 8 agrees; “It’s been really useful today to learn about air resistance and the importance of curves on a car to make it go faster.”

With a busy few weeks ahead, the children are using CAD to design their cars and will be doing speed tests, experiments, testing for drag, movement etc and designing a stand to sell their product.