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5 Engineers, 5 Questions, 25 Interesting Answers

14th December 2022 | 5 mins

Hope Jones

Steve Ryan

Chris Baker

Darren Golder

Peter Lisher

Jack Peacock

As Rotech completes our milestone 25^th year, it seems like a perfect time to reflect on the past, present and look to the future of engineering and coding & marking. What better way to do that, than by asking five expert engineers, five crucial questions to get twenty-five insightful answers.

We interviewed a range of engineers across our team, from those providing crucial sales, support, and aftercare directly to the customer, to the engineers working behind the scenes to develop and build Rotech’s innovative systems. With over 150 years of experience between them, they were kind enough to pass over some of their brilliant knowledge. Meet the engineers below and find out a bit more about them:

Chris Baker

Rotech Founder | 44 years' experience

Steve Ryan

Sales Manager | 32 years' experience

Darren Golder

Sales Support Manager | 20 years' experience

Peter Lisher

Project Manager | 50 years' experience

RF Auto with TIJ Printer and Rotech tick on 3D printed component.

Jack Peacock

Factory Manager | 12 years' experience

What was your first experience with engineering?

Chris Baker

When younger I was always interested in fixing things, generally my bike though my dad really got me into engineering. He was a fitter welder who at weekends, to make extra money, used to work on a farm fixing and modifying their equipment. I would often go with him, whatever the weather, helping him for pocket money. I can’t remember how old I was though I was still at primary school at the time!

Steve Ryan

An interest in mechanical design/systems and previous studying of mechanics at college combined with the opportunity to meet people and develop my sales skills.

Darren Golder

Working at a spring making workshop which also made contact part box spring components for the National Railway Network across the UK. I left there to further my engineering career Allen Coding. During my 6 years at Allen, I progressed from the factory to the service team as in-house Service Engineer and left the company as Southern Sales Manager

Peter Lisher

I enjoyed metalwork at school and then my brother was working at a company called Metalbox and encouraged me to get an apprenticeship at a local engineering firm.

Jack Peacock

Watching my dad doing small repairs on his cars as a young lad. Then, when I got older this inspired me to work on bikes and cars as a hobby, this led me to be an engineer in Aviation.

My dad really got me into engineering. He was a fitter welder who at weekends, to make extra money, used to work on a farm fixing and modifying their equipment. I would often go with him, whatever the weather, helping him for pocket money.

Chris Baker

What is your career highlight to date?

Chris Baker

There have been many though the ones that push me forward tend to be related to achieving something thought impossible, a couple of examples:

When I was operations manager, there was one product we made that was being sold in ever greater numbers. One month the team managed to build over 100, a considerable jump on what had been achieved before. The owner at the time said, ‘how have you managed to do that?’

Another was at Rotech, where we took a continuous thermal transfer printer to print flat products on a conveyor. To this day, we are told ‘you shouldn’t be able to do that’.

Steve Ryan

Being a pivotal part of the company’s growth since starting in 2017, using my experience and knowledge of the industry to promote sales of the TIJ products across all industry sectors.

Darren Golder

Being made Sales Support Manager at Rotech was a big highlight for me, having only been with the company for 18 months, it was a nice recognition of my role.

Peter Lisher

Hard to pick one. The highlights are always seeing machines that I’ve been involved in the design of move into production and sales.

Jack Peacock

Becoming Factory Manager and being able to build and lead my team.

What has been the most challenging part of your career to date?

Chris Baker

Having mainly worked in privately owned companies I spent nearly 3 years in corporate life as operations director responsible for 4 separate UK sites and a couple of hundred people. The job itself, though demanding, was interesting, it was the corporate politics that was the most challenging as I tend to say it as it is, not always what people want to hear!

Steve Ryan

A sales role is always a challenging one, you must learn to adapt your approach, be able to work under pressure, think out of the box and hone your skills to successfully develop a working relationship and trust with your clients.

In our industry we also must be knowledgeable, trustworthy, and able to match our product offerings to the customers’ needs in a manner that promotes ongoing future business and a long-term working relationship.

Darren Golder

Some of the more complex installations. What can be achieved with printers and technology is very impressive. But we love a challenge!

Peter Lisher

In a design/drawing office moving from 2d draughting on a board to 3D Computer Aided Design.

Jack Peacock

Going from being an engineer to learning how to manage and lead a team.

What has the most significant shift you have seen in the industry since you started?

Chris Baker

Speed of change from the ability to design something and have it manufactured immediately to the availability of real time information

Steve Ryan

Developing TIJ technology and the sales of this type of system was and can still be met with disbelief from clients. The units can provide more benefits than the more expensive and seemingly capable technologies available (which have historical influence on their side, such as CIJ and TTO systems). Many clients are now willing to test this technology rather than just accept what is seen as the ‘industry standard’.

Darren Golder

People or companies seeing the cost and downtime in maintenance that can be saved by switching to our tech and printers has been amazing to be a part of.

Peter Lisher

The introduction of TIJ printers to the market

Jack Peacock

Last year’s inflation! How much price can go up in such a small amount of time.

Developing TIJ technology and the sales of this type of system was and can still be met with disbelief from clients. Many clients are now willing to test this technology rather than just accept what is seen as the ‘industry standard’.

Steve Ryan

What excites you most about the future of engineering/ coding and marking?

Chris Baker

Engineers turn ideas into reality and with the demand in emerging technologies, as well as technological advances, there will be a need for engineers to do more, have a wider range of skills, and opportunities to develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Exciting times …

Steve Ryan

How we can learn from our experiences, develop our product offerings, and further build the business.

Darren Golder

Developing new tech and improving on what we have already done. With the opportunity to continue to improve the customers’ technology on site with printers and feeders. To truly offer a complete door to floor solution.

Peter Lisher

Probably not much as rapidly approaching retirement age!

Jack Peacock

Looking at implementing new technology and ideas into the workshop i.e. 3D printers, new machinery.

A new generation of Engineers

With everyone’s knowledge only being cemented by their growing experience within different industries and applications, Rotech has become a hub for manufacturers looking for excellent coding and marking advice from a team of experts. Rotech are hiring postgraduates, school leaver apprentices and engineering degree apprenticeships; with the intention to transfer the team’s expertise and knowledge over to a new generation of budding engineers. Find out more about Rotech’s careers here

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