Ian Washington was involved with Apex hydraulics from very early on, helping with the repair and development of what was, at that time, mostly mining equipment. After a break of several years to work in another industry, he was asked to return in the year 2000 to help modernise the machine shop and develop and train the young apprentices. He returned as machine shop foreman and has been involved in the instigation of huge improvements over the past 15 years. In spite of his experience, he still spends the majority of the day on the workshop floor, alongside the younger personnel.

“The young lads look up to you more when you’re working alongside them, than if you’re just giving out orders!”

Aged 61, Ian is the most experienced employee at Apex. When he first started, the work was mostly made up of repairing and developing hydraulics for the coal and steel industries. Now they have seen a shift towards more offshore and subsea work.

Ian typically arrives at Apex at 6.30 am. He assesses the work for the day, looks through the workload, prioritises the tasks and gets things ready for the morning. He issues jobs to the machine shop personnel, depending on what is needed for that day.

The machine shop area of the Apex warehouse contains an impressive array of equipment which saws, drills, mills and turns the cylinders and their rams. Each piece of equipment is complicated; capable of shaping metal components to the micrometre.

As well as working the machinery himself, Ian is responsible for ensuring the development of the young apprentices working under him. Every member of the machine shop team learns to use each piece of equipment and they are further advanced with college courses in engineering, where possible. This industry usually sees a high turnover of beginner staff and it can be hard to find qualified individuals, so Apex puts a lot of effort into training and development.

The machine shop is a central part of the work of Apex. They work very closely with the other departments to ensure that repairs and new equipment is made to impeccable standards. Once a piece of work is completed the operator signs a dimensional check sheet to confirm that it has been made to perfect measurements. Ian countersigns this and then sends the product to the fitting shop. From there it goes on to the inspection department. He works closely with these two departments to pick up on any imperfections at this stage in order to ensure that each piece of work is flawless. On occasion the inspection department may request that a product be tweaked or improved and Ian will oversee the improvement.

“There’s always something new – there’s so much variation.”

Ian sees his job as a daily challenge. The offshore cylinders demand increasingly better materials and techniques. The gruelling environment means that everything needs to be tighter, stronger, and completely accurate.

Ian could be working on any of the machines through the course of the week. Today found him working on a lathe, creating a screw cut in the cylinder rod. The machine is extremely accurate. Ian programs the depth and width of the thread, as well as the pitch (distance between each thread) and the number of passes  to the micrometre, using drawings from the design team. The angle is calculated exactly. He changes the tips; there is one tip for each thread size. In spite of the scale of the huge pieces of machinery, the intricacy is impressive and vital to the construction of the hydraulic system.

Ian is also responsible for overseeing the repairs and maintenance of the machinery. Apex calls in outside mechanical and electrical help where needed, though they also have their own maintenance program for routine work. Ian liaises with the British Standard Institute who visit quarterly to ensure that all the machines and their safety and quality control is in order.

Ian usually leaves work at around 4.30pm, at the end of a ten hour shift – though has been known to stay until late into the night to get a job finished when required. He enjoys the variety of work he sees, and is keen to pass on all his experience to the next generation of the Apex team.