Our Tool Room Apprentice, Max Tennant, recently returned from a trip to one of our tool material suppliers Uddeholm Global in Sweden, where he was able to further expand his specialist knowledge.
As part of Uddeholm's 350th anniversary celebration, Max was invited to explore the company site and gain an insight into the manufacturing operations of the business.
Uddeholm Global is the world's leading manufacturer of tool steel for industrial tools and supplies The Expanded Metal Company with a steel material called Vanadis 4 Extra (V4E).
V4E is a versatile pm tool steel with machinability in both soft and hard condition and is used to create the tools what we fit into our manufacturing equipment to shape our expanded metal mesh.
Hartlepool-born Max Tennant was appointed as a Tool Room Apprentice earlier this year and has since gained a variety of skills in tool manufacturing, maintenance, development and testing activities.
During his trip to Uddeholm, Max was able to attend technical seminars providing an insight into applications, heat treatment and other additional services.
He was also given the opportunity to see Uddeholm s production facility and meet many of the people behind the products.
Commenting on the experience, Max said:
"This was a fantastic opportunity for me to learn about Uddeholm and the tool steel that I work with in the tool room every day.
I gained further knowledge about the factory and the materials and met other customers of Uddeholm. I am very grateful for this opportunity and thoroughly enjoyed representing The Expanded Metal Company in Sweden."
Learn more about our in house tooling design and development team and how they use steel to create our metal mesh designs here.