DIGITAL METAL FABRICATION

(EXCERPTS FROM MEMOIRS)

You can’t talk of manufacturing if you can’t mould steel like a potter, we pondered how we can get into steel industry differently .

With CNC you can standardize production of basic Jua Kali equipments such as trailer fabrication , wheel burrows etc how minds pondered .But we needed a product that would resonate with our local market .

Uasin Gishu is an Agricultural region we thought , why can’t we try silage making machine and trailer driven tipper trailers we concluded.

Our research findings were as follows.

1. We needed sheet metal forming , welding and general fabrication skills

2.we needed sheet metal forming equipments.

3.we needed design skills.

During one of our expedition we visited ”THE” UOE , The University of Eldoret formerly Chepkoilel campus was not a new place to me ; I had visited my aunt many years ago when it was a teachers training college and I had also used it library when the circumscisor decided to send us out of njoro campus .

Chepkoilel just like Lord Egertons farm college had invested massively in Agricultural research and knowledge dissemination before the craze for university beautification , Mass enrollment and course expansion, Town campus and entanglement in local politics became part of its agenda.

The Agricultural show opened our eyes on modern agricultural equipment for silage making and our eyes were set on producing our own design with concept borrowed from Brazilian models.We had also visited a number of small holder farmers and grain handlers .

We needed CAD/CAM skills and immediately we went to for some training in Nairobi .We believed paying 120k would pay once we had the right skills . After 2 weeks we were ready to use Solid works and Auto desk inventor. We invested on an Icore7 desktop and an Icore5 laptop, our new tools of trade.

……….

……….

………

To be continued…….