Carding Maintenance Engineer in Bridgwater

Job Description

Carding Maintenance Engineer

Shifts: 4on4off

Salary: circa £60,000 (+ up to £8,000 relocation support)

Somerset

Are you a time-served engineer with hands-on carding experience? Do you understand fibre behaviour, machine tolerances and the fine adjustments needed to keep carding lines running smoothly?

Yolk Recruitment are supporting a rapidly growing textile manufacturer who have increased turnover by more than 150% in five years. With continued investment across the site, they're looking for a Carding Maintenance Engineer to support with carding machinery performance, reliability and quality.

This is a rare opportunity to relocate to the South West and join a specialist process-driven manufacturer where your carding experience genuinely matters.

This is what you'll be doing

You’ll be responsible for maintaining, repairing and optimising a range of carding machinery and fibre-processing equipment. Your work will ensure stable production, consistent web formation and minimal downtime.

Responsibilities include:

• 1. Carrying out planned preventative maintenance (PPM) on carding machines
• 2. Responding to mechanical and electrical breakdowns across the carding lines
• 3. Diagnosing faults on cylinders, strippers, doffers, workers, lickers-in, feed systems and delivery sections
• 4. Performing alignment, clearance setting, tensioning and fine adjustments to maintain fibre flow and web quality
• 5. Working on machinery such as Trtzschler, Spinnbau, Herguth, TAM or similar carding equipment
• 6. Supporting rebuilds, strip-downs and card clothing changes as required
• 7. Collaborating closely with production teams to resolve quality issues and improve machine performance
• 8. Contributing to root cause analysis, asset care and continuous improvement activity
• 9. Sharing knowledge with apprentices, fellow engineers and operators to build internal capability
• 10. Ensuring all work is completed safely and in line with company procedures

Experience & Qualifications

Essential:

• * Proven hands‑on experience with carding machinery (standard cards, strippers, or equivalent)
• * NVQ Level 3 or equivalent in Mechanical Engineering
• * Strong mechanical fault‑finding and strip‑down ability
• * Good electrical awareness (motors, sensors, drives, inverters)
• * Experience working within textiles, nonwovens or fibre‑processing environments
• * Ability to work independently and diagnose machine performance issues
• * Understanding of web formation, fibre movement and carding tolerances

Desirable:

• * Experience with Trtzschler, Spinnbau, Herguth, TAM or similar brands
• * Apprenticeship in carding or textile engineering
• * Exposure to continuous improvement or reliability projects

And this is what you'll get in return

• * £60,000 basic salary
• * Up to £8,000 relocation support for candidates moving to the Bridgwater area
• * 22 days holiday + 8 bank holidays (rising to 25 with service)
• * Christmas & New Year shutdown
• * Pension - 4% employer / 5% employee
• * Full company uniform
• * On-site parking
• * Access to Wellbeing 360 - discounts, GP services, wellbeing tools and more
• * Bike2Work scheme
• * A secure long-term role with a financially strong and growing manufacturer

We also offer a referral scheme if you know someone suitable.

Are you up to the challenge?