Accu celebrates with fightfest competition winner

Accu, a leading Huddersfield-based supplier of high-precision engineering components, invited the winner of this year’s FightFest Featherweight robot fighting competition to its headquarters in Huddersfield to judge its own robot combat competition, as part of its commitment to innovation in robotics and engineering.

Winner Ellis Ware, 28 and from Shropshire, was presented with his prizewinning cheque of £1,000 by Accu’s CEO Martin Ackroyd – Accu has sponsored the national FightFest event for the past three years and this latest competition was held at Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham in August.

This is the first time that Ellis Ware, who heads up Team Ranglebots, has won FightFest, however he has had a very successful career at almost every weight class in robot fighting, often securing a top three place.  He has competed in combat robotics from a young age, which includes battling in the official BBC Robot Wars reboot programme. Ellis uses Robot Wars as a platform to show that robotics can be self-taught, as his knowledge came from the Internet, having not taken a route into higher education.

Accu CEO Martin Ackroyd gave Ellis a tour of the factory and headquarters, followed by him being professional judge for the eight fighting robots designed by different departments within the company.  All robots were ‘Antweight’ or less than 150g and this was the first robot fighting challenge ever held at Accu, with each battling it out for first, second and third places, with prizes for best designed, most destructive and most destroyed robots.

Accu CEO Martin Ackroyd, said: “We would like to congratulate Ellis on his fantastic achievement at FightFest! There was really strong competition there with 39 robots, including both Featherweights and Hobbyweight robots built by teams from across the country.   With all his robot fighting experience, we’re honoured that he was able to judge our first staff Antweight robot wars competition!”

Martin adds: “We sponsor FightFest as part of celebrating innovation in robotics design and engineering.  We also run a design competition alongside FightFest which encourages people of all ages, who may not have any previous design or engineering experience, to get involved.  We’re hopefully inspiring the next generation of robotics engineers!”

He concludes “Having our own internal Antweight challenge meant that employees who maybe haven’t tried their hand at designing and modelling robots before, can gain useful new skills in CAD modelling and 3D printing.  It’s not just our engineers taking part but people in quality, marketing, IT, product strategy, product integration and purchasing.

Ellis Ware said: “I really enjoyed FightFest and it was fantastic to take home the winning title! I was delighted to be invited to Accu and to judge their Antweight competition – hopefully this will be the first of many they host!”

Founded with a vision to support engineers, innovators and trailblazers, Accu has rapidly grown into a global business renowned for its award-winning customer experience. By integrating advanced technology through its dedicated team with deep engineering knowledge, Accu delivers precision components that drive innovation across multiple industries.

For more information about Accu visit www.accu.co.uk.