David Jeavons, Director of Polybridge Training Ltd, has worked in the Injection Moulding Industry for over 50 years.

On leaving engineering college in 1971, he served a four-year indentured apprenticeship with GKN Sankey’s Plastic Division, then the foremost Moulding Facility in Europe.

The site featured Machines ranging from 50 to 3000-tonne lock machines utilising robotic take-out devices from GKN’s Robotic division (UNIMATE) cutting edge in the 1970s.

After completing this apprenticeship, saw a move to materials technology, primarily thermoset resins & polyether foams, followed by a progressive move into trade moulding with E. Elliott Walsall, exposing him to  the real world of competitive industry in all market sectors from commodity to technical products.

1979 brought a key move to the Rubber and Plastics Research Association (RAPRA) as an Experimental Officer responsible for injection moulding. Rapra is now Smithers MSE Shawbury

This role  involved casting aluminium prototype moulds on-site by the “Wheeldon” casting process and other  Rapid Tooling methods such as metal spray shell cavities: state-of-the-art in the 1980s. After a period with 2 well-known trade moulders, he worked on behalf of The Ford Motor Company during the introduction of SPC throughout their organisation & their suppliers.

The late 1980s saw a move to the PPITB as a technical instructor to provide a transfer from their Cardiff site to a purpose-built Facility in Telford Shropshire and continue training UK engineers for the UK and overseas Moulding industry.

Moving to become Technical Manager with NETSTAL UK Ltd, providing machine-specific moulding courses in addition to existing engineering courses was the prime objective. Since 1995 he has been closely involved with ENGEL UK Ltd, providing training and technical support on their behalf. In this 28th collaborative year, there is no involvement slowed after introducing the latest CC300 control system.