Hello. I’m Richard Matthews and I’m a motion control engineer at Micromech systems.
My journey started in Chelmsford, Essex early 1981 where I also lived for my first two years. I’m Essex born and bred .
I lived in Essex for the first 18 years of my life before my parents decided they would like to move to the wild county of Suffolk (about 5 miles away). After 5 years I could not take any more excitement and wanted to move back to tranquil Essex. So I thought what better place to buy my own first house than Braintree and have never looked back.
Anyway on to work. I start my working life as an apprentice toolmaker in a small engineering company who supplied machined components to the automotive industry.
After a completed apprenticeship and a further two more years on the machines my role was progressing into tool design. As the company got more adventurous so did the projects I was given and soon I was designing automation systems involving mechanics, hydraulics, pneumatics, motors, PLC’s. It was a very interesting job with lots of variety but unfortunately like all good things it came to an end when the company closed (the automotive industry is a hard game). I spent a brief 15 months at E2V in Chelmsford before finding the perfect vacancy at Micromech. I started straight after the new year and I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed every minute. I work under the wing of Mick and Simon in a variety of areas from design, software, testing, and on-site commissioning. The work is challenging and interesting, So far no two jobs have been the same.
Outside of work I’m outside keeping fit as much as possible. You may see me at a local crag near you as I’m a keen rock climber. As a member of the Colchester climbing club and we travel to nearly all the countries national parks to get our kicks. You can’t really beat a sunny day at Stanage edge on a three star VS trad route. If I’m not climbing though my other passion is mountain biking. I have ridden some of the best mtb trails in Britain over the past few years including one to the top of Snowdon. The Trails in Wales are especially good. If you cycle you’ve got to visit them although the hills can come as a bit of a shock when you live here in the east.
I competed in the Marin Dusk till Dawn cycle race last year as part of a four man team. The race is a 12-hour endurance night race. We finish 27th out of 80 having completed twelve 12 mile laps between us which we were happy with until we saw that the winning soloist had done 13 laps on his own! More training required for this years event I guess. On top of these two hobbies I also like skiing, canoeing, caving, hiking, rock music and beer but its hard to find time to do them all. Roll on 65 I guess.
Thanks for reading. I hope it has enlightened your day or at least helped to bridge the gap between break and lunch.
