What is your name and position within Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence?
My name is Phil Hulme and I’m the Lead Trainer and Head of Calibration at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence UK.
How did you get into this line of work?
After my apprenticeship as a calibration engineer, I was employed in my previous company’s metrology lab and I have remained in the industry ever since (over 35 years). I joined Hexagon through TESA Technology UK Ltd in 1988 as Product Manager and Lead Trainer.
What does your day to day look like at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence?
I could be training off site or leading one of our many one day metrology courses, delivering metrology principles in conjunction with the National Physical Laboratory. Or I could be maintaining our UKAS systems for our coordinate measuring machines, which involves tasks like producing calibration certificates.
How do you see metrology training changing over the next five years?
We’re seeing an increased transition from traditional inspection methods using 2D drawings through to CAD, and measuring on coordinate systems becoming more integrated with automated systems. The future will see more in-process inspection with smart technology, so training facilities and courses will have to keep pacewith these changes. But the training of metrology principles, especially geometric tolerancing, will still be a requirement as this affects the end result.
What are your future goals?
I am happy in my training role and want to pursue this further. Despite the technological advancements in metrology that I previously mentioned, there is still a need to return to basic principles to understand how it all works. New inspection systemsstill need human intervention to be able to program them and without this knowledge the machines will not function effectively.
What do you do for fun outside of working at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence?
I love the outdoors (in any weather) so anything in this field is preferred. This includes walking, cycling (on and off road) and skiing.
What is something that most people don’t know about you?
I was in the Fire and Rescue service (part time) for 18 years. I joined initially as I wanted to completely change my career and always wanted to be a firefighter, but realised that it was not the career path for me – plus there was too much commitment.
