Fabricon Blog

Fabricon sponsors Mossley Juniors under 8s football team

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:00:39 +0000

We’re sponsoring Mossley Juniors under 8s football team this season - here they are looking like pros in their full Fabricon Design kit ready to shoot their way to the top of the East Manchester Junior Football League!

Audenshaw School newsletter - Fabricon Design Competition. Year 9 Pupils Face the Dragons !!

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:06:06 +0000

From Audenshaw School’s newsletter:

By Mr Hadfield.

This year all year 9 pupils took part in a design competition. The competition was run by Fabricon, a local design and manufacturing company. Representatives from the company visited the school to introduce the project and set the design brief. The students were asked to overcome “grip” challenges faced by the elderly and less able by creating a product that will make their everyday life easier.

The initial 200 designs were assessed by the Design Technology teachers at the school and the entries were finally narrowed down to 25. After this process representatives of the company again visited the school to interview the young designers and to finally narrow down the field to the three best designs…….

To read the full newsletter article on Audenshaw School’s website please click here

TCT news write up re Fabricon Foundation Innovation award

admin — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:12:14 +0000

TCT news reports on Fabricon Foundation Innovation award:

“Pupils Awards for Innovative Designs Dragon’s Den Style - August 2009

The Fabricon Foundation has been holding a design competition with local specialist technology college Audenshaw High School in Manchester. The key objective of the competition was to identify the next generation of engineering design talent. The competitors were Year 9 students, boys aged 13 and 14. The students were asked to overcome ‘grip’ challenges faced by the elderly and less able by creating a product that will make their everyday life easier.

For the final selection process Fabricon arranged a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style session within the boardroom of its offices on Friday July 10 2009 at 10.30am to select the overall winner and 2nd and 3rd runners up. The Dragon’s Den style judges included Mark Bushdyhan, founder of the Fabricon Foundation, Ruth Amos, winner of the Young Engineer for Great Briatin and Alan Rennie, Head of Engineering at Lancaster University.

The three Year 9 finalists has rehearsed their presentation with their tutors but were nervous as they entered the den. However, all three managed to impress the judges with their design.

Amos said ‘The quality of entries was of such a high standard that we hav a very hard task choosing a winner.’

The winner is 13 year old Leigh Murray from Droylsden with a device that enables the disabled and elderly to easliy grip household objects such as a sweeping brush or garden rake.

Bushdyhan commented, ‘I though the winning product was simple but effective. The simplicity allowed for it to be used by many different people in many different ways.’

The winner was announced at the Year 9 assembly in front of 200 other pupils. The prizes - a laptop, digital camera and IPod touch - were presented by local Member of Parliament, Andrew Gwynne. The MP said ‘The Fabricon Foundation is a fantastic idea, the competition helped local young people understand what life could be like after school.’

As Leigh Murray stepped up to collect his prize he looked genuinely surprised by his success.

Ruth said ‘Leigh seemed shocked but very happy, I see enormous potential for the product. It is such a commercially viable product.’

Allan Rennie added, ‘For these school pupils, the opportunity to conceive and develop a product, with direct input from the industry, will be such a confidence booster. I doubt that there were actually any losers in this competition, as everyone involved will have benefited in some way.’

The Fabricon Group will now assess the winning products for commercial production. The Fabricon Foundation will be launching a new inter-schools competition in September 2009.”

Boris Johnson gives Fabricon’s new Park and Power poles the seal of approval

admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:54:02 +0000

Students compete to enter the dragon’s den - Fabricon Foundation

admin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:37:25 +0000

As part of Fabricon’s ongoing Fabricon Foundation initiative we recently visited Audenshaw High School in Ashton to kick of a Design competition aimed at developing design talent. Here is some recent press coverage of the visit.

Excerpt from Denton and Audenshaw Reporter. May 28th 2009.

AUDENSHAW High School pupils are taking part in a Dragon’s Den style competition.

Year Nine pupils from the Hazel Street school received a visit from an Ashton design engineering company in their morning assembly on April 30. Fabricon Design challenged the pupils to create a tool which will help an elderly or disabled resident with grip problems to complete any daily task around the-home. Group chairman - Mark Bushdyhan said “We have created the Fabricon Foundation Design Competition for Young People.We are passionate about design and innovation and through our work with the Foundation we are committed to helping develop and empower the next generation of young UK design talent.”

This year’s competition is in conjunction with Audenshaw High School Year 9 pupils. Two hundred boys will have the opportunity to design a product that makes daily life for the less able and elderly people easier. Design technology teacher at Audenshaw High School, Alan Hadfield, said: “Year 9 pupils are going to design an improved grip or handle for the elderly or disabled to use at home. Fabricon will chose the best three designers and they will be awarded. The winning designs will be prototyped by Fabricon, and the pupils will get to visit the design base in Ashton, and see how the machinery works and how it makes their design. The winner will see their product manufactured by Fabricon and assessed for commercial production.”

The winner will be selected in the Fabricon boardroom on Whitelands Road on, or around. June 29. Pupils whose ideas are ranked as first, second and third best will receive special prizes.