Firm donates engineering gear to Limerick school

STUDENTS at a Limerick school will be able to experiment and learn from some state-of-the-art engineering gear thanks to a donation from a Raheen-based company.

Takumi Precision Engineering, which employs around 130 people locally, is trying to identify engineers of the future by installing a CNC machine at CBS Sexton Street in the city centre.

CNC stands for computer numerated control, and these machines make it possible to pre-programme the way manufacturing tools can operate.

Commenting on the initiative, Gerry Reynolds, the firm’s managing director said: “We wanted to put a machine in the school which is the equivalent to the machines we use in industry in the hope students gravitate to that machine and figure out how to use it.

“A lot of students in this day and age will figure out how to use it on their own initiative through YouTube and online tutorials.

"These are the students we want to attract into our business.”

Students attending CBS Sexton Street are benefitting from the donation thanks partly to the fact many of its alma mater are now working in Takumi.

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Mr Reynolds added: “It’s a way of giving a bit back. Our current programmers and engineers will support and are delighted to support the implementation of the uptake of that machine in the schools, so the knowledge gets into the school. Once this happens, it will take off.”

The businessman is chairman of the industry body, the Irish Precision Turned Parts Manufacturing Association (PTMA), and he hopes other companies like Takumi partner with schools in their areas.

Already, three more of these machines have been donated to other schools by other companies which are part of PTMA.