North Staffordshire Past Branch Meetings 2005-2006
2005
Thursday 8th September 2005, Starting at 5pm, Cloudside Shooting Ground, Clay Pigeon Shoot followed by Evening Meal (Instruction + Guns Provided)
£20/head(Members) £45/head(Non Members)
Thursday 6th October 2005, Tarmac Buxton Lime - The New Cement Plant, Buffet & Coach Provided
November 2005, Regional Seminar, See Clay Technology Journal.
Thursday 1st December 2005, Talk on Continual Improvement, By John Lambert at Ibstock Chesterton Works
Buffet 6pm - meeting 7pm2006
December Thursday 1st, Talk on Continual Improvement by John Lambert at Ibstock Chesterton Works, Buffet 6pm - meeting 7pm - Re-Scheduled for 2006
ICT Annual Dinner 19th January 2006
The evening of 19/01/06 saw the North Staffs Branch Annual Dinner allied to the chairman’s fund raising event with an attendance of 162 people at the Moat House, Festival Park from across the industry and its supporting suppliers.
The guests for the evening were Mr Michael Driver ICT chair, Mr Terry Noble Immediate past president, Peter Wegmann deputy chair, Mrs Barbara Clark of the blood transfusion service and Richard Stevens OBE retired judge and guest speaker.
The branch chairman spoke of the loss of two local manufacturers but welcomed the building of a tile new plant hoping that this would replace some of the loss and urged the branch membership to greater support of the branch and its activities. Mr Michael Driver in proposing the ICT and Mr Terry Noble in responding spoke of the merger with the IOM3 and stressed the benefits to both organisations.
The evening concluded with a tombola, with a range of exciting prizes donated by the sponsoring companies, this raised £1,600 for the chairman’s charity, which was accepted on behalf of the blood transfusion service by Mrs Barbara Clark - additionally a number of people signed up to become blood donors.
Chairman presenting cheque to Barbara
Glen Pierpoint and Richard Stevens demonstrate that all those study courses were worthwhile
Penelope Reid and Barbara Clark
Thursday 2nd, February 2006, Talk on Technical Innovation by Terry Harrison at Ibstock Chesterton Works, Buffet 6pm - Meeting 7pm
The clay tile production site has had considerable investment in production process, automation and kiln technology over the past few years. The tour of the site included about a tenth of the new plant which is currently under construction. Hopefully in future years we will be able to review the remainder of the development.
Marley Eternit is the UK’s leading manufacturer of clay tiles and fittings used for roofing and vertical hanging for both new and refurbishment work.
The use of automation utilising robotics along with more traditional plant was very interesting. We started the tour taking in the view of the storage silo's where the clay is soured prior to use. The raw clay from the quarry enters the system, firstly been crushed by medium speed rolls and then ground using high speed rolls. The ground clay is conditioned and mixed, passing through a screen feeder and then off to the souring silo's.
Depending upon the requirements of production the clay sours for about 48 hours before returning to the plant through another screen feeder. The clay is extruded, plastic pressed and the tiles or fitting are placed onto dryer trays / jigs and set through a continuous dryer utilising a cradle system.
The products are fired to typical etruria marl temperatures in a tunnel kiln, cooled and packaged ready for the customer.
The site was immaculately clean and very well maintained. The ICTa wishes to thank Marley Eternit and their staff for an excellent visit.
If you have any comments about this visit or any other event please let our Chairman, Peter Haslam-Brunt (mob 07785 537608) know. Feedback is always very welcome.
Tuesday 14th March 2006, The life and times of R J Mitchell, 7:30pm 14th March at The North Staffordshire Medical Institute, Hartshill Road, Hartsill, Stoke on Trent .
Thursday 6th April 2006, Talk on Advances in Engineering in the Brick and Tile Industry by Gordon Harle of G H Ceramic Tel 07774 284199 at Ibstock Chesterton Works
Buffet 6pm - Meeting 7pm
Thursday 4th May 2006, AGM followed by a Talk on Travels in Greenland by Colin Richardson at Ibstock Chesterton Works
Buffet 6pm - Meeting 7pm
All events are held at
The North Staffordshire Medical Institute,
7.30pm. Unless stated otherwise.