Building for the future

Next year will see the opening of the new Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) in Scotland. Actually, the AFRC has already been operating within Strathclyde University itself, but with a move to a new, hi-tech home that is the subject of an investment of £25 million, the centre will get a boost. Industrial partners in the venture include major multi-nationals such as Boeing, Mettis Aerospace and Rolls-Royce, through to specialist suppliers such as GKN, Bodycote, EKES and Fanuc. The AFRC will, it is said, "be a beacon for engineering and manufacturing excellence, housed in a high quality, purpose-built facility designed to reflect the status of this internationally significant service". And the research centre is modelled on the highly successful Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), developed with Boeing, located between Sheffield and Rotherham. It is a model that has served its members well. Indeed, Rolls-Royce modified research and development strategy following the success of its work with AMRC. These research centres are key in delivering manufacturing process development across so-called Manufacturing Capability Readiness Levels 4-6 – the pre-production area between traditional research institutes (MCRL 1-3) and the actual application of knowledge within companies. Rolls-Royce has set about duplicating them elsewhere, alongside other partners, of course; one of these is the AFRC, in fact, while another is the forthcoming Midlands Technology Centre, which is an element mentioned in the Government's Manufacturing Strategy Review, published last year. Manufacturing process developments at the AMRC have delivered staggering reductions in manufacturing process times for Rolls-Royce, although these cannot necessarily be immediately integrated within current products. It may be mostly invisible to the public at large, but with the AMRC, AFRC and MTC, the UK will have a set of world-class facilities dedicated to pushing the boundaries in manufacturing processes across a number of technology areas. That international companies are attracted to be involved with them is testament to that. Machinery will keep close to developments and, no doubt, will be publishing many stories in the future about the successes of this band of 'boundary pushers', just as we have in respect of the AMRC's efforts so far. We'll be happy to do so, because they demonstrate a commitment to the development of manufacturing, albeit that the sector has changed and will continue to change. But then change is the stock in trade of the research centres, after all. First published in Machinery July 2009