Profile

Sidhil makes all sorts of medical equipment and furniture to help people who are ill, recovering from illnesses and operations, and those people who are disabled. We make beds for hospital wards that have electrical controls to move the bed to a comfortable position; beds to be used in care homes and in people’s own house if they are well enough to be at home but still need an electrical bed to help them; a range of special mattresses to stop people getting pressure sores from being in bed for a long time; hoists and other helpful devices to help nurses care for people more easily; and lots of other things to help people while they are recovering.

There are about 150 people who work in Halifax – about 50 in the office with me, and the rest in the factory where there are lots of different activities that go on, such as welding; tube bending; mechanical assembly; powder coating (a type of painting); warehouses; transport; and many others.

I work in the technical department and use the skills I learned at school and university to design and develop lots of different types of medical equipment.

If you want to see more products that I work on the website is – www.sidhil.com – or ask me and I’ll tell you all I know.

One other thing that is quite special about where I work is that we have bee hives in the car-park! As the factory is very close to the moors there is a lot of heather around which bees like to get their nectar from. This means as well as making hospital beds, Sidhil also has it’s own brand of honey which we like to give away to customers when they visit us. I can see the bees from my office and I like to go visit them when I can (but not too close!).

In the office

A large part of my day is spent at my desk developing new ideas and changing current products to make them better. This may be coming up with a new type of hospital bed, or working out ways to make something a bit cheaper so customers can afford them.

I design things on computer in 3D using something called Computer Aided Design (CAD). This means I can see what products will look like and how they will move before actually making anything for real.

In the workshop

Before you start making thousands of your new design you first need to test it to make sure it will work. This could either be on the computer (using something called FEA – Finite Element Analysis) to find out if it will be strong enough; or by making a physical model and performing various structural tests to see if it will break.

The workshop is where all the tests happen to prove that the design will be strong enough, so there are lots of different pieces of equipment that are able to perform different functions. Some tests need to be performed thousands of times so we often have to program computers to do the tests for us.

In the factory

Once the idea has been designed on a computer and tested, you need to turn those virtual models into real products. This is done in the factory where there are lots of skilled people who are able to cut, weld, paint, assemble, sew, package, and transport the product to the customers. Because there are so many people involved and we want to make things as quick and as well as possible, it is my job to create very clear drawings and instructions on how things go together.

I reckon we can set up some challenges, like making the strongest, longest, fastest, lightest, tallest, smallest of all sorts of engineering machines structures and robots. Maybe have a competition to see which is the best construction toy.

Hopefully by trying things out and using all sorts of different gears and motors however they want, students can learn how different aspects of engineering work much more effectively than just reading about them on a screen or in a book.

The workshops would give students the opportunity to see engineering concepts in action, being able to use their hands to bring their concepts to life. They would have lots of colours, sounds and fun. Maybe we could get some learning in there too.