54
MIXING
TOGETHER
| MIXING culture
Knowledge shared is
knowledge doubled
Everyone benefits from knowledge transfer between
industry, universities and research institutes.
Successful knowledge transfer partnership
with Loughborough University
The Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) programme
was set up especially to facilitate the transfer of knowledge
between universities, other training and research facil‑
ities and companies in Great Britain. It is an interesting
area for the HF MIXING GROUP, because the pro-
gramme has set itself the aim of improving the competi‑
tiveness and productivity of companies by encouraging
cooperation with a knowledge pool which also includes
universities, training facilities and research and technol‑
ogy centres. The benefits of the KTP programme for our
company are obvious: the HF MIXING GROUP is able to
acquire theoretical knowledge here, but it also presents
opportunities in the area of development and recruit-
ment. The HF MIXING GROUP in Rochdale established
a partnership with Loughborough University as part of
the programme in March 2013. The aim of the joint pro-
ject is to develop a mathematical model capable of
calculating the wear and abrasion of rotating surfaces in
a mixing chamber. To this end, the young engineer
Joshua Owen joined Farrel Ltd. on 1 August 2013 as a
KTP project worker for 24 months.
Besides undertaking initial training on the special subject
matter, his duties during his first few months in Rochdale
included installing customised software and compiling
literature on the theme. Also among his appointments
during his initial time with the company were visits to
customer premises, which allowed him to get a closer
look of the wear on the individual machines, and a visit
to Loughborough University where there are special facil‑
ities for measuring the surfaces of dust filters.
Joshua Owen, KPT project worker at Farrel Ltd. in Rochdale, UK.
