World Engineering Day a significant one for Charleville
TODAY, Thursday 4th March, is World Engineering Day and is being celebrated in many countries including Ireland around the world.
The day was deemed to be such by UNESCO, the United Nation’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and is aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, the sciences, and culture.
The day should have special significance for Charleville, which is the engineering hub of North Cork with no fewer than five engineering concerns employing over 500 engineers and other specialist operatives manufacturing products for the brewing, pharma, biotechnology, food and dairy industries. They make a significant contribution to the local economy.
The biggest of these companies is the BCD Masco Group that employs 250 people at its facility in the Ballysally Business Park at Railway Road Charleville. Since 1983, BCD has delivered high purity process systems worldwide to the Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, Food & Beverage and Chemical industries. BCD has particular expertise in Product Formulation, clean in place, clean utilities and thermal treatment.
BCD’s 5000m\sq vessel workshop is a market leader in its own right. Dedicated to stainless steel and high alloy materials, it can accommodate the smallest pilot scale process vessels to the largest shop-built brewing fermentors.
Other divisions in the group are Plate Tech located at the IDA business park at Kilmallock Road, Charleville and QPL Logistics also at the Railway Road industrial estate.
Another stainless-steel manufacturing company is Flow Technology, also based in the Ballysally Business Park at Railway Road, Charleville. The Company, which has 70 employees, 15 of them engineers, was formed in 1978 when Denis Murphy left the role of head engineer of Golden Vale Engineering. He established Flow Technology with the vision to become ‘a world class process engineering solutions business.’ Today, over 40 years later, their vision remains unchanged.
From their beginnings in the Dairy industry, they have grown and diversified to become one of Ireland’s leading process engineering specialist companies providing the following range of services into the Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical, distillery, food and beverage industries, turnkey process engineering systems, site support services, equipment and component solutions. Flow Technology has just moved into their 24,000sq. ft. facility in the business Park.
Vulcan Machining is also based in the Ballysally Business Park and is a successful outsource manufacturer of high-quality stainless-steel components for the Brewing, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Dairy and vessel fabrication sectors, offering a full machining and finishing service plus rapid product prototyping. They have a highly skilled and intensively trained nine strong staff in their facility designed to fulfil the demanding requirements of high-precision machining.
CID Electrical, Control Integration Design Ltd, is a system engineering company, providing turnkey automation solutions to a range of industries. Based in at the IDA industrial estate at Kilmallock Road since 1983, they pride themselves in designing and implementing process solutions systems that deliver an optimal return on investment to their broad customer base in the dairy food industry. CID Electrical has fifteen employees.
Diesenvale Engineering Ltd is also located at Kilmallock Road but not in the IDA estate. Formed in 1983 they operate in a number of activities such as manufacturing of stainlesstanks for dairy, brewing, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. They also provide power handling systems for the co-operatives and baby-food industries. Diesenvale employs 25 people presently.
In the engineering services sector, Dairy Engineering Services Ltd., is a steel stockholder and gas supplier to manufacturing companies nationwide and and employ nine people. Response Engineering is a division of construction company Ward and Burke, and they service and maintain waste water facilities all over the country with a team of one hundred people.