Engineering

Giving a tour of the Amphibious Hi-Traq® Jetter during commissioning at Royal IHC’s facility in the Port of Blyth, it’s evident that Ian knows every inch of this remarkable vehicle. And while he’s responsible for ensuring it performs and meets the customer’s specification, he’s also delighted with how it looks. 

“The concept model looked really good – like it was going to do the job,” he says. “And we managed to get that design intent and look into the finished product. When you have a machine that works and looks good, it’s brilliant.”

As he surveys the result of the past few months’ work, his passion for mechanical engineering is clear. 

Ian explains: “Before Royal IHC, I was working on nuclear stuff, infinitely small, while actually, I like infinitely big.”

Thinking infinitely big must be an advantage on this landmark project for Royal IHC and its launching customer CMI. Creating bespoke equipment under time pressures and design constraints means looking beyond what’s previously been thought possible and welcoming the unexpected. It also takes knowledge and expertise, natural curiosity, a methodical mind, and the ability to delegate and trust in those around you. 

After working closely with Scott Mabin on the proposal for CMI’s ground-breaking new vehicle, Ian was responsible for the design and detailed engineering of the project. For him, the short timescale was not that much of an issue. 

“Time is a challenge with every job, but there’s a way of conquering that by getting the base engineering done quickly at the beginning,” he explains, simply. “I divided the job into work packs, decided who is going to do the track boxes, the sword, etc, and I kept the centre chassis for myself. Everyone works on their own thing, reviews it with me, and if I’m happy, it gets built. That’s how we conquer time.”

Ian was also able to bring in additional support in the early stages, from experienced colleagues who were more than happy to assist. “They really helped, and I think they thoroughly enjoyed the experience, because this was one of the big-league jobs we’ve had at Royal IHC. Everybody wants a plate of the high-level projects – I didn’t have a shortage of people wanting to join my team.”

While time wasn’t a major factor for Ian, the weight of the Amphibious Hi-Traq® Jetter was more of a challenge. “Scott sold a vehicle that was very light, and certainly lighter than we’d estimated,” admits Ian. “That wasn’t a mistake on Scott’s part – he looks at the market and sees what customers want to buy. The whole point is that it had to be portable and go on a multitude of vessels with different lifting capacities.”

To tackle this specific element of the spec, Ian and his team looked at the utilisation of materials and parts, and a huge spreadsheet. “Normally, we have a glorious Excel that tells us our estimates and how the machine balances,” he explains. “From that, we can make decisions about where we need to concentrate our efforts on being lighter.”

After seeing margin potentials and areas that could be changed, Ian then had to estimate how much time and money it would take to achieve the optimal weight. “It might be something we've done before – is it a possibility of doing some reengineering to get it lighter?”

The weight of the vehicle affects how much it sinks into the sand when it is digging, which influences the size of the tracks. “We did a lot of work on sinkage and how the tracks perform, the strength of materials and the soils it’s working in, to get that right. We did even more analysis to justify what we were doing. And we got the weight to where I hoped it would end up.”

So far, so good it seemed for Ian and his team – but there was another surprise in store. One of the decisions they took to make the structure more lightweight was adopting the use of a remote HPU for powering the vehicle. “Once you do that, it changes fundamentally how the vehicle controls traction,” explains Ian. As they started to do the engineering around this, they realised they had achieved individual speed control on the tracks and a tighter turning capability. 

"It's like turning the steering on your car and suddenly you’ve got another turn! That’s something we’d struggled with in the past.” This accidental discovery is one of several sources of pride in the Amphibious Hi-Traq® Jetter. But the eternal engineer is always looking for ways to improve and innovate. “When I look back on this project, I’ll think of what I’m going to change on the next one. Could be some aspect of suspension or track box – that’s how our minds work, we’re always looking forwards.”

For this maritime enthusiast, with an innate desire to build machines, and who renovates his own narrowboat in his spare time, there was one final surprise on the project. It had nothing to do with mechanics, machines or margins – but everything to do with people. 

“I enjoy helping to develop the people around me – they’re younger than I am, but they all have different talents and it’s about recognising that and developing it. The long-term goal is that one of them will do my job in a few years. And the people on this project have been able to do things I was hoping they could, but I didn’t expect. They really stepped up to the task.”

This led to a strong sense of ownership and pride across the company’s workforce, according to Ian: “Everyone fully buys in to this vehicle, they’re proud of what they’re doing. It’s their machine, not just another design.”

After such a strong start in design and engineering, would the project continue to run as smoothly? Would the team spirit filter through to other disciplines, and would there be any further accidental discoveries further down the line? Project Manager Dan O’Neill explains more…