Rubicon Partners has announced the acquisition of Erodex Graphite Systems Limited (Erodex) from its family shareholders, adding a specialist aerospace supplier to its growing industrial portfolio.
Headquartered in Halesowen, UK, Erodex is a leading global supplier of graphite and brass tube electrodes, EDM consumables, and carbon products, primarily used for the manufacturing of turbine blades and aerofoil structures for aircraft engines and industrial gas turbines. Erodex has in-house design, tooling and manufacturing capabilities through its state-of-the-art machine shops in both the UK and the USA. The business is best known for its manufactured premium graphite electrodes and brass tubes that support global OEM and Tier 1 manufacturers.
Erodex represents Rubicon’s 85th industrial investment and the second investment made through Rubicon Partners Fund VI SCSp. Rubicon’s experience includes seven previous investments in the Aerospace sector, including Farsound Aviation, Attewell (now part of Avantus Aerospace) and Invotec (now part of Amphenol).
Following Rubicon’s investment and the retirement of the family shareholders, the business will be led by James Kirk who will step up from Operations Director to CEO, and Raj Rainu (CFO). James and Raj, together with their team, will drive the next phase of Erodex’s international growth in partnership with Rubicon.
Looking Ahead
With a proven leadership team now in place and the backing of an experienced industrial investor, Erodex is well positioned to accelerate its growth trajectory in the years ahead — continuing to serve the aerospace and industrial gas turbine markets with the precision engineering its customers have come to depend on.
Join us in the collective recognition of our engineers worldwide this March. World Engineering Day was first launched by DiscoverE in 2016, as an opportunity to highlight the achievements of engineers around the world, and improve the public understanding of the importance of engineering and technology. Today, World Engineering Day is a reflection of the profession’s impact on modern life and sustainable development. As market leaders, Erodex takes this opportunity to share the initiative of World Engineering Day and how we can show our gratitude for our team this March.
Changing the World for the Better
In 2020, the global celebration became a joint venture between The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and The World Federation of Engineering Organisation (WFEO). A time to promote engineering as a career and highlight how the profession can change the world for the better. Engaging with government officials and industry to address the need for engineering capacity and the quality of engineers around the world. In order to develop strategic frameworks and best practices to introduce solutions for sustainable development.
How to get Involved
At Erodex, we take pride in being the UK’s leading supplier of EDM materials. It is our duty to be aware of our environmental responsibilities and to act accordingly. This March there are a number of ways to get involved, run and supported by the founders of the day. Enabling all businesses, engineers and supporters to celebrate and share their encouragement for the cause.
Interested in utilising your theoretical knowledge? The World Engineering Day Hackathon, is a fast-paced simulation of a real-world project, perfect for those seeking a challenge. Engineers work collaboratively on a problem of their choosing, providing a set of deliverables within a short timeframe.This year the theme is green, striving for sustainability: Engineering Solutions for a Sustainable world.
24hr Global Stream
If you’d prefer to watch the events unfold, The 24hr Global Stream will follow the events of the day, showcasing how engineers celebrate across the globe. This will include high-profile local events, interviews with ambassadors and discussions on key engineering topics.
Global Events
And if you’re planning to host your own event, register it with WED and make it official! Promote your celebrations and allow people from all over the world to see and take part.
Erodex UK, specialists in graphite and graphite machining for the aerospace industry, have launched an innovative virtual reality experience to inform and inspire Engineering students at a local college towards a career in their industry.
Over a period of two days, team members from Wednesbury based Erodex ran four sessions for over sixty full time engineering students at City of Wolverhampton College.
The sessions were the first to include a new virtual reality experience, which enabled students to get a first-hand 3D insight into Erodex’s state of the art graphite machining facility, hear from a range of team members and more broadly, gain an understanding of the variety of roles available at a company like Erodex.
The virtual reality experience was complimented by ‘meet the employee’ Q&A discussions including former apprentice and current Production Manager Ellie Emery, Engineer and Apprentice Mentor John Webb and James Kirk, Operations Director.
During the sessions, students were also set a task to complete in small groups with the aim of enhancing their learning experience and providing more depth to their level of insight into real world engineering. This required them to inspect several graphite machined electrodes using digital micrometers, comparing each to the kind of exacting quality standards that apply across all components produced for the aerospace industry.
Students were then informed of the apprenticeship roles available this summer at Erodex, with those interested in learning more being invited to apply for work experience placements with the company.
James Kirk, Operations Director at Erodex comments: “Like so many engineering firms Erodex are looking to the next generation to future proof our workforce. 2023 sees the relaunch of our apprenticeship scheme, something which we are committed to making sure is best in class.
“We want the best young engineering talent to aspire to work for us and we understand that for that to happen we need comprehensive local outreach to raise our brand awareness as a good employer and a top choice for engineering apprenticeships.
“The time commitment to deliver these sessions is considerable, so we wanted to ensure that we created a memorable and informative experience for the students – many of whom are now fully aware of what we do, who we do it for and how they could be the engineers of the future with us”.
Daniel Degg, Head of Employer Engagement & Business Development at City of Wolverhampton College adds: “We are delighted to have hosted Erodex for these educational sessions and for our students to be able to access them. The virtual reality experience is very innovative, and we are pleased to be able to utilise this technology to engage and inspire students.
“As a college, it is important that we give our students an insight into what working within engineering is like and the range of opportunities available to them. This was not only a fantastic way of achieving that but the variety of activities within the sessions ensured that the students we always engaged and had multiple opportunities to learn.
“It is also important for members of our teaching staff to gain a better understanding of local companies like Erodex and the industries in which they work, as we are now more able to advise students moving forward”.
This summer Erodex will be taking on two Apprentice Engineering Technicians within its’ graphite machining facility in Wednesbury, West Midlands.
The company expects their Apprenticeship scheme to expand significantly within the coming years covering a range of roles across both the machining facility and the company’s HQ in Halesowen.
James Kirk concludes: “Overall we were delighted with how well the VR sessions were received. We acknowledge that for SME’s like us to compete for young engineering talent we need to differentiate and innovate, as evidenced by this project. We expect to expand on this activity moving forward, potentially opening the opportunities up to deliver sessions in local high schools as well as colleges.
“To achieve this, we are fortunate to have the ongoing support of two specialised organisations, Digital Gap – who created the VR experience and Next Gen Makers, whose Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme we are following to benchmark our approach and ensure our apprenticeship scheme is best in class as it scales”.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
