School news 2011

Andrew Dilnot’s working life began straight from school with an engineering apprenticeship, now he heads a multi national research and development division for one of the world’s biggest players in the supply of friction materials for the automotive industry.  And it was the study of his first degree at the University of Huddersfield that enabled him to rise to the top of his chosen career.
 
Brake technology is Andrew’s field and since 2005 he has been Senior Vice-President for Engineering with the TMD Friction Group, a global company with headquarters in Germany and the product of a merger between the UK firm Mintex Don and German firm Textar. Andrew supervises almost 300 researchers worldwide and his current annual budget for research and development of brake materials is 28 million Euros. This ensures that he and his team – based at R and D centres in Leverkusen, Germany, and in the USA, Brazil, Japan and China – will continue to be at the forefront of friction material developments. There are significant challenges to be met with every new vehicle launch and the constantly changing legislation.
 
“The auto industry is starting to change its view of what a car should be, with the advent of hybrid cars and electric cars”, he says. “One of the key objectives is to reduce the weight of the vehicle and as the brake system is quite a contributor to that weight it becomes a focus for attention. This means we have to develop lightweight solutions yet still meet the performance demands of the customer and driver”.
 
“Also, we are conscious that we must continuously strive to reduce any perceived negative impact that we have on the environment. Our biggest contribution is through the careful selection of the raw materials that we use and the way that we manufacture the end product. With all developments the question is how we reduce our carbon footprint and ensure the friction material waste is safe?”
 
Andrew, born in 1961, is from Mirfield in West Yorkshire. After school he became an apprenticed engineer at Mintex, a local braking firm that originated in the 1870s. After his apprenticeship he joined the brake research and testing department but soon had ambitions to step up to jobs for which he needed a degree.

He asked his boss if Mintex would sponsor him while he studied for a Bachelor of Engineering degree at Huddersfield.
 
“He asked me why I wanted do a degree and I said that I wanted to do his job one day!”
 
This ambitious attitude struck the right note and it was agreed that Andrew should become the firm’s first fully-funded university student. Among his teachers at Huddersfield was John Fieldhouse – now a Professor – who is a globally respected authority on brake issues.
 
Within three years of acquiring a First Class degree at Huddersfield and becoming a research engineer, Andrew was in charge of heavy vehicle products - a large R&D department at Mintex and then light vehicles - cars. He continued to rise through the ranks and by 2004 he was Operations Director for the merged firm Mintex Don, responsible for manufacturing sites in Cleckheaton and Hartlepool.  This company then joined forces with the German braking company Textar to create the new group named TMD Friction (Textar Mintex Don).
 
Initially, it proved difficult to integrate the three companies that formed TMD, which was slow in getting new products on to the market.  The new firm’s CEO came to see Andrew in the UK, asking him to take on the challenge of building up a new research and development process on a global basis. He would relocate to Leverkusen in Germany and would have 12 months to get the new system up and running. This was the sort of challenge that Andrew most enjoyed.
 
He succeeded, and the result was that in October 2005 he became Managing Director of TMD Friction Services with responsibility of over 500 employees and at the same time moved into his present post of Senior Vice President for Engineering, directly responsible for 295 employees in Germany, the USA, Brazil, China and Japan. He has direct responsibility for a worldwide engineering budget of 28 million Euros and responsible for customer projects to the value of 160 million Euros. One of the biggest current challenges he and his global team face is finding an alternative to the use of copper in brakes. Environmental concerns have been raised in America and as a result legislation is now in place that dictates only trace elements of copper will allowed in the friction materials of newly launched vehicles as from 2018.
 
“This is biggest change in the friction industry since the early eighties, when asbestos was outlawed.  The challenges of going copper-free are right at the forefront of our programmes” said Andrew.
 
In addition to his large scale R and D department, Andrew also works closely with academic experts, and aims to renew research links with the University of Huddersfield.
“We used to have development programmes with John Fieldhouse at Huddersfield, but when the centre of development moved from the UK to Germany we lost touch for a while. But over the last couple of years we have been building up the relationship again”.