Daikin Applied has delivered its third successful consulting engineering placement with Arup, a leading engineering and design company with offices worldwide.

The engineer placement is run as part of the Arup graduate engineer training scheme, where Daikin Applied facilitates a three week factory placement. A selected group of young graduate engineers completed their three week placement in August. During their time with Daikin Applied the graduates spent one week at the Daikin Applied UK Air Handling Unit manufacturing hub in Cramlington. This was followed by two weeks in the Cecchina (Rome) factory, the firm’s headquarters for the design and manufacturing of Applied Chillers across Europe.

Chiller product manager, James Henley (pictured), said: “At Daikin Applied we care passionately about chillers, air handling units and the wider HVAC market. Our aim is to share our expertise both through in-house apprentice scheme, graduate program and our consultant placements so that we can help shape and inspire the engineers of the future.”

The scheme is already into its second year and is continuing to build on the strong start with more emphasis on the topics that the engineers want to focus on.

In the two years of working with Arup on this placement scheme 14 young engineers have passed through Daikin’s factories, gaining valuable chiller and AHU knowledge. The programme has proved popular amongst the graduates with further placements planned for the future which already have a waiting list of applicants.

The placement programme itself is focused on product knowledge, best design practices and quality assurance. This approach ensures that the experience is both enjoyable and rewarding for the engineers.

James Henley said: “Designing an AHU on paper, that fits in a plant room at 2.5m wide, 3m tall and 7m long is very different from seeing the finished physical product and realising the potential logistical issues that may be onsite, either now or in the future. The shop floor hands-on experience is essential to giving the engineers the real application knowledge and not just the theory’’

With more Arup placements going forward and the launch of its consultant learning workshops, Daikin Applied is looking at helping future design engineers develop a sound understanding of the HVAC industry.