Innovative manufacturing solutions

Nottingham Innovative Manufacturing Centre
The University of Nottingham
Faculty of Engineering
University Park
Nottingham NG7 2RD
UK
Contact Dr Paul Hamley
Manufacturing Research and Business Development Manager
Tel: 0115 951 4001
Email paul.hamley@nottingham.ac.uk
www.nimrc.nottingham.ac.uk
Innovative
manufacturing
solutions
NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
The Nottingham
Innovative Manufacturing
Research Centre
The University of Nottingham has an established reputation as a leading
international research centre of excellence in Advanced Manufacturing. The
Nottingham Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre (NIMRC), which was
established in 2001 with funding by EPSRC and industry, has focused on next
generation knowledge driven manufacturing methods, technologies, systems
and services.
NIMRC’s mission is to pursue research
excellence, generate high quality academic
outputs and deliver significant and lasting
industrial impact. The research is based on a
vibrant portfolio of projects clustered in three main
themes: advanced manufacturing technology,
systems and management; light weight structures
manufacturing; and sustainable manufacturing.
The Institute for Advanced Manufacturing,
The University of Nottingham
The Centre is built around world-class academics
and researchers supported by advanced
research infrastructure and technology facilities
for manufacture, testing and computation.
Its innovative research activities have spread
from basic research and concepts to industrial
applications covering the whole product and
system lifecycle.
Researchers work extensively with industry to
develop technologies, processes and systems
to provide UK and international manufacturing
businesses with competitive advantage in the
global marketplace. We have delivered major
impact for our industrial partners in such diverse
sectors as aerospace, automotive, medical,
instrumentation, defence, power engineering,
sustainable energy, textiles and clothing,
recycling and consumer products. This has
produced significant step changes in production
performance, reduced costs, lower environmental
impact and improved lead times.
The University of Nottingham is one of the
founding partners of the Manufacturing
Technology Centre (MTC) and the High Value
Manufacturing Technology Innovation Centre
(HVM TIC). Our activate role in these Centres
provides new opportunities for manufacturing
knowledge and technology transfer, allowing
accelerated testing, demonstration and
industrialisation of manufacturing concepts,
technologies and processes developed
at Nottingham.
The Aerospace Technology Centre, part-financed by the European Union European Regional Development Fund
The University of Nottingham
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Building on Nottingham’s unique position as a
global international university, the NIMRC has also
developed a strong international dimension to its
research and outreach by establishing the Centre
for Sustainability in Global Manufacturing at the
University of Nottingham’s Ningbo campus in
China, collaborating with our Malaysian campus in
developing a strong local manufacturing research
portfolio and creating new industrial collaborations
throughout the world.
The Centre supports a strong research
community. Over the past ten years 21 Principal
Investigators, 24 Co-investigators, 71 researchers,
4 technicians and 92 PhD students have worked
on 93 projects which have produced 220 journal
papers, 21 patents, high impact success stories
and trained research engineers for career paths
in industry. Our Innovation Fund has supported
exciting new research for early career staff and
Industrial Fellowships have given part time industry
based PhD students tremendous benefits for
their companies.
It has attracted a further £26.9 million over the
past seven years from industry, EU Framework
Programme, TSB Technology Programme,
European Regional Development Fund, the Health
Technology Devices Programme and other grant
providers to sustain and develop further innovative
research for future challenges.
The NIMRC research activities have formed part
of the new Institute for Advanced Manufacturing at
Nottingham, which also includes the Rolls Royce
Technology Centre in Manufacturing Technology,
the Waterjet Machining Technology Centre, the
Precision Manufacturing Centre (PMC) and the
Centre for Aerospace Manufacturing sponsored
by Airbus.
Turn to the next pages to read about the impact
our research has made...
Professor Svetan Ratchev,
NIMRC Director
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NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
Precision
manufacturing
The Precision Manufacturing Centre (PMC) combines world class expertise
and cutting edge technologies to help companies create, develop and produce
pioneering micro products.
Building on the success of early NIMRC projects,
the PMC was established in 2005 and supported
by the development of its technology transfer
arms - the Centre of Excellence in Customised
Assembly (CECA) and Advanced Manufacturing
Technology East Midlands technology transfer
centre funded by ERDF.
The research portfolio in precision manufacturing
has included the micro-assembly work-package
in the EPSRC’s Grand Challenge 3D Mintegration
and a succession of major EU and UK grants
in high precision manufacturing technologies,
which helped to enhance its high technology
facilities, and international position as a leading
research centre of excellence. The Precision
Manufacturing Centre leads the development
of the European strategic agenda for micro and
nano manufacturing MINAM.
The Centre’s researchers and technicians
engage in a wide range of projects from initial
design modeling and analysis of complex micro
products to developing and implementing bespoke
manufacturing processes, performance evaluation,
testing and validation using the world’s best
precision machines and most accurate metrology
in ISO level 6 clean-room facilities.
Professor Svetan Ratchev and his team can
develop new technologies and design and set
up new reconfigurable production machines
and systems for cost effective manufacture of
products ranging from Formula One components
to minute electrical circuits and medical devices.
As an example, the NIMRC’s Microtool project
is delivering new micro-scale process and
system integration solutions for product centred
processing based on integration of moulding of
micro-parts, high precision machining of micromoulds and micro/nano scale inspection.
Spinouts include packages in the EPSRC Centre
for Innovative Manufacturing in Regenerative
Medicine and collaborative projects with E-ON
and BAE Systems to further application of our
capabilities in sectors such as energy and defence.
Contact: svetan.ratchev@nottingham.ac.uk
Dr Joel Segal and Professor Svetan Ratchev discussing microtool project
results outside the Precision Manufacturing Centre’s clean room.
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NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
Medical
implants
NIMRC research into lightweight components for vehicles has developed into
patented technology that could revolutionise reconstructive and orthopaedic
surgery and produced a range of glass fibre products in worldwide demand.
An early project led by Professor Chris Rudd which
developed a new vacuum infusion process, better
processing methodologies and tools for lightweight
components resulted in the Biobones project to
develop biodegradable composite materials to
replace and repair broken bones.
Replacing bone usually relies on metal pins
or plates which have to be removed later.
The Biobones team worked with a consultant
maxillofacial surgeon at the Queen’s Medical
Centre in Nottingham to develop a composite
material with similar mechanical properties to bone,
but includes a fully resorbable biodegradable glass
fibre to allow new bone to grow.
To support this research, NIMRC funded the
Centre for Innovative Structural Fibre Manufacture
to produce strong, specialist phosphate glass
fibres for biomedical applications using a pre-form
draw technique.
Current work in Biobones has investigated
additional high-strength synthetic fibres
andexpanded research into composite cement
systems, nano-composites, sol gels and
electrospinning.
These innovative fibre forming capabilities have
created new opportunities in polymer composites,
bioengineering and tissue engineering for further
healthcare applications and have stimulated
interest from a broad range of internal and external
collaborators throughout the world.
Funding from the Health Technology Devices
(HTD) scheme is now developing prototype
orthopaedic fracture plates with industrial
partner DePuy.
Contact: andrew.parsons@nottingham.ac.uk
Dr Andy Parsons using the glass drawing tower to produce fibres for
medical implants in the Centre for Innovative Structural Fibre Manufacture.
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NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
Carbon fibre
recycling
Research into recycling carbon fibres has led to lighter high strength
recycled components for the aerospace industry and novel heated
materials for garments and food bags.
Carbon fibre is energy intensive to manufacture
and most waste goes to landfill. Recycling has
been pioneered by Dr Stephen Pickering at
Nottingham to produce short individual filaments in
a fluffy form and develop materials with appropriate
quality control methods so that designers and
manufacturers will have confidence in using
recycled materials in future.
Early NIMRC work used injection moulding to
produce fibre reinforced thermoplastic composite
materials. The Boeing Company funded further
carbon fibre recycling research and product
development for the aerospace industry and
launched a new programme in 2011 to continue
this work, providing $1million per year, initially
for 3 years.
Spin out research has developed non-woven
mats made from recycled carbon fibre as heating
elements for garments and insulated food bags.
This UK/Malaysia NIMRC project is working with
Technical Fibre Products and EXA Technology,
a Malaysian manufacturer, to commercialise the
novel thermoelectric material for cooling and
heating food containers and offer new markets to
UK companies supplying recycled carbon fibre.
PhD student Edwin Pang won the JEC Asia 2011
Innovation award in the student research category.
His recycled carbon fibre as a heating fabric in
pizza bags and gloves was exhibited at the JEC
Asia Show in Singapore and promoted in
trade-magazines.
Contact: stephen.pickering@nottingham.ac.uk
Nottingham’s recycling test facility. Virgin carbon fibre can cost over £10,000 per tonne.
Recycled carbon fibre from the fluidised bed process is expected to be significantly less.
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Dr Stephen Pickering and Edwin Pang using recycled carbon
fibres to make mats for heated garments and food bags.
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NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
Lightweight
metal components
NIMRC MANSAFE research into lightweight sheet metal components for the
automotive industry has successfully branched out into vehicle remanufacture,
aerospace applications and novel low energy brazing technology that is
providing significant production improvements and cost savings.
Development of advanced high strength steel for
lightweight automotive Body in White construction
with Ford Motor Company led to a 50% reduction
of the force required by conventional pressing.
Spin out research to improve vehicle design
through segmentation characterisation,
remanufacturing and end of life reuse has
produced a modular concept of vehicle
construction where any vehicle can be rebuilt
by making the elements larger or smaller.
A ‘closed loop’ method of whole vehicle
remanufacture has been developed that Dr Peter
Standring believes could triple the output of
vehicle manufacture in Europe if taken up in future.
Offering scrapped metal components as preforms
for alternative manufacture could obtain 100%
recovery of original manufacturing cost for the
EU automotive industry, save around 0.9 million
tonnes of crude steel in the EU, which in turn
would save ~1.9 x 107 GJ of energy and 1.5
million tonnes of CO2.
MANSAFE designed tooling and components
for the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine has resulted
in £1million a year cost savings, and other novel
metalforming processes to obtain cost benefits
via material utilisation and enhanced methods
of production have potential cost savings of
further millions.
Complimentary studies have also taken place
on the development of E Business in the Chinese
automotive industry to gauge how this global
industry is likely to change in future.
The Plasmatron’s high temperature joining and
welding system uses robotic devices to eliminate
industrial problems. It operates at 3.6 times normal
production speeds and has been used to improve
in-plant process quality, efficiencies and cost
savings in both the automotive and aerospace
industries, particularly with aluminium and
aerospace alloys.
The Plasmatron brazing cell at Nottingham - the
only facility of its kind in the UK – is pioneering
novel brazing technology.
A process for brazing vehicle roofs, joining
advanced high strength BiW sections was
developed by Dr Standring and NIMRC Industrial
Fellow Johannes Dedenbach (Ford Asia Pacific
Manager) and later trialed in Ford plants in Taiwan,
Vietnam and Russia. This has improved Ford
in-plant performance by over 300%.
Contact: adam.clare@nottingham.ac.uk
Dr Peter Standring, Dr Adam Clare and NIMRC Industrial Fellow Johannes Dedenbach,
(Ford Motor Company) discussing results at the UK’s first Plasmatron brazing/welding cell.
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NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
Precision
cutting
Freeform abrasive waterjet machining research has developed novel ways of
cutting difficult materials into complex shapes at Nottingham’s prestigious
Waterjet Technology Centre
The Centre’s six-axis computer controlled waterjet
machine can cut a wide range of materials into
three dimensional components, carve cavities
and remove coatings. Using water jet pressure of
up to 55,000 psi and speeds of up to 2,000 mph
the machine can cut with great accuracy and
refurbish components to reduce costs and
environmental impact.
Highly brittle ceramics and heat sensitive Ti-6-4
alloys are difficult to machine using conventional
cutting tools. Professor Dragos Axinte and his
researchers have developed novel tool path
strategies to cut a wide range of materials
into a variety of 3D shapes. Their technique is
suitable for machining thin, fragile materials as it
exerts minimum cutting forces, incurs minimum
mechanical or thermal damage to the machined
surface with minimum burr formation, and
it also provides omni-directional cutting with
high productivity.
New grants from the EU FP7 ConforM-Jet project
(with Nottingham as coordinator) and TSB
SAMULET project will take this technology to a
higher degree of automation in future. Industrial
users are interested in using waterjet technology
to mill complex geometry surfaces in difficult to
cut materials, while machine tool builders want to
develop the capabilities of their machines in terms
of increased system automation.
Contact: dragos.axinte@nottingham.ac.uk
Diamond micro tooling
A unique method for creating complex shapes onto diamond surfaces developed
by NIMRC Industrial Fellow Paul Butler-Smith has produced new tooling
technology that will transform the micro-fabrication industry.
Diamond is the hardest known material, so takes a
long time to shape. A patented highly flexible and
rapid technique called DiaTex has been developed
at Nottingham to create detailed and complex
shapes and forms into the surfaces of diamond
using a process of precision ablation with a laser.
Paul Butler-Smith of Dimax Ltd is one of three
part time PhD Fellows supported by NIMRC. His
research with supervisor Professor Dragos Axinte
has, for the first time, produced diamond abrasive
tooling with precise features and controlled feature
angles. This novel technology is 100 times faster
and 20 times more accurate than mechanical
methods and enables devices to be rapidly
manufactured from diamond and related materials.
These include specialised micro tooling, electronic
heat sinks, medical devices, micro fluidics for
the analysis of cells, genes and drug dosages,
tribological devices (valves and mechanical seals)
and patterned diamond jewellery.
He is now developing novel micro grinding tools
for aerospace and orthopaedic applications and
finding partnerships for his company to market and
manufacture the tools. Three global companies
have offered to fund further studies, The University
of Nottingham has received letters of interest from
two major European diamond tool manufacturers
to apply the technology worldwide, and Element
Six is funding a PhD programme
Contact: paul.butler-smith@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor Dragos Axinte and Dr Carol Kong discussing abrasive
machining at the Waterjet Technology Centre.
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NIMRC Industrial Fellow Paul Butler-Smith
cutting diamond.
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NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
Thermoplastic composite
structures
Research into the design and manufacture of lightweight structures for
challenging load cases has developed new innovative high energy absorbing
materials which will provide blast protection for army vehicles.
Early NIMRC work in lightweight structures
manufacturing (particularly impact and fatigue)
produced the world’s first frangible legform for
pedestrian safety tests in the automotive industry.
Further thermoplastic composite (TPC) sandwich
structures research by Dr Richard Brooks and his
team developed modelling/simulation methods
and vacuum moulding processes for curved TPC
sandwich structures used in the manufacture of
two prototypes:
•a metro train mounting beam with APT Ltd
(for Bombardier Trains) which could lead to the
first composite part designed for such a safety
critical application, increasing the rail industry’s
confidence in this technology.
•a ¼ scale wind turbine blade with Skyrota
using a new manufacturing process for this
complex shaped sandwich structure.
These ‘shaped’ or curved TPC sandwich
structures offer high specific strength, good
fatigue resistance, increased fracture toughness
and impact tolerance, unlimited shelf life of raw
materials, cleaner process environment, shorter
manufacturing cycle times and high recyclability
potential which will benefit industry. Funding has
been obtained for four new projects with industrial
partners to move the research into sustainable
lightweight high energy absorbing materials, in
particular blast protection for MOD vehicles.
Contact: richard.brooks@nottinghanm.ac.uk
Oluwatosin Aawoyemi and Dr Richard Brooks inspecting
thermoplastic composite panels for blast protection on vehicles
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NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
Technical textiles
and textile composites
TexGen software has provided the world’s first modelling capability for the
design and rapid manufacture of technical textiles and textile composites.
TexGen allows the geometry of a textile repeat or
unit cell to be modelled automatically via a “virtual
manufacturing” approach. Facilities for meshing,
automatic property assignment and export to
engineering analysis packages are incorporated
and can used for variety of problems including
manufacture of composites (reinforcement
deformation, resin infusion, permeability), structural
performance (stiffness, damage and fatigue), and
mechanical/physical performance of technical
textiles (airbags, protective clothing, paper making
fabrics). The Open Source software has recorded
over 7000 downloads from all over the world
(http://texgen.sourceforge.net) and a thriving global
user community has developed.
Textile composite materials consist of a polymer
matrix (thermoplastic or thermoset) combined
with a textile reinforcement. Materials of particular
interest to Professor Andrew Long’s NIMRC’s
Advanced Preform Processing project team
have included commingled glass/polypropylene
fabrics, dry fabrics (woven, warp-knitted or
braided) combined with thermoset resins via liquid
moulding, and carbon/epoxy thermoset prepregs.
Typical applications include high performance
aerospace components, structural parts for road
vehicles and wind turbine blades. Improvements
in the accuracy of structural analysis for textile
composites have led to reduced component lead
times and improved properties or weight reduction.
Industrial partners Airbus, Bentley Motors, GE
Dowty Propellers and Rolls-Royce have benefited
from detailed understanding of processing
behaviour for advanced preforms, including triaxial
braids and 3D woven materials, and researchers
provided ESI Software with permeability data to
populate their database for customers (the first
University to do so).
Recent research into the feasibility of mapping
of fluid content in impregnated textiles and void
formation has used MRI imaging at Nottingham’s
Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre –
the first time the MRI has been used for detecting
manufacturing process defects.
Contact: andrew.long@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor Andrew Long and Frank Gommer
inspecting textile composite materials
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NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
Sustainable
manufacturing
Natural fibres
Research into natural composites is causing a stir with industries in the
wind energy sector that want to use natural materials to satisfy their
environmentally conscious customers
Dr Peter Schubel’s team is developing fully natural
fibre and resin composite applications, component
manufacturing solutions, and simulation tools
to optimise the design of small wind turbine
blades. Their industrial partners are planning to
use the materials and manufacturing technology
to create new product lines and find new global
niche markets.
Four natural fibres (flax, jute, hemp and Sisal)
underwent extensive mechanical trials to determine
their physical performance with existing resin
systems (polyester, epoxy). Manufacturing trials
included vacuum infusion, RTM, LRTM and
prepreg, with appropriate blade moulds being
designed and manufactured. Research with
epoxidised soya oil and an exciting new resin
extracted from a plant in Ethiopia shows
significant promise in creating a full natural
composite structure.
The small wind turbine (SWT) industry has
expanded considerably following initiatives to
reduce CO2 emissions but has faced challenges
in manufacturing efficient small-size wind turbine
blades. The industry was inhibited by inadequate
design technologies and traditional manufacturing,
which is costly, labour intensive and exhibits high
waste levels.
The NIMRC team believe that increased
sustainability can be achieved by improving blade
shape and implementing optimised manufacturing
methods for their blade designs. They developed
innovative simulation tools to assist component
manufacturing solutions, including a blade
shaping program which allows the aerodynamic
optimisation of small wind turbine blades. This
is believed to be the first blade design tool that
is suited to both small and large turbine blade
designs and has been instrumental in obtaining
new TSB funding for manufacturing large off-shore
wind turbine blades.
A demonstrator blade set is being trialled on a
6 kW wind turbine to showcase the developed
technologies.
Contact: peter.schubel@nottingham.ac.uk
L to R - Darshil Shah, Dr Peter Schubel and Tegene Desalegn (on secondment
from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia) inspecting the injection moulding process
using multiaxial flax fibres to manufacture a small wind turbine blade
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NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
Intelligent and reconfigurable
technologies
International
reach
Creating and developing intelligent and reconfigurable systems, machines and
tools has enabled manufacturers to provide a cost-effective, rapid response to
market demands for specialist products at mass-production prices.
NIMRC’s Centre for Sustainability in Global Manufacturing (CSGM) in the new
Science and Engineering Building at the University of Nottingham’s Ningbo
campus in China is establishing our unique position as a truly international
centre of research excellence.
Early NIMRC research met demand from
the aerospace industry to develop advanced
manufacturing techniques for complex geometry
components. Professor Nabil Gindy’s team
provided innovative fixturing solutions by creating
simple, cost effective, maintenance free fixturing
prototypes using smart materials. Ten patents
have been filed and four reconfigurable fixture
prototypes produced to demonstrate how a single
work holding device can be reconfigured for reuse.
The developed devices offer several compelling
commercial advantages:
•They conform to component geometry, reducing
component deformation
•One reconfigurable device serves many
components, significantly reducing tooling
costs and lead time in the manufacture of
new components.
•Waste of material is reduced both in the
manufacturing process and in the disposal of
workholding devices that are no longer needed.
•The technology can be scaled up and readjusted
for use on a wide variety of machines from lathes
to vacuum forming.
Notable technology transfer into industrial practice
includes fixturing technology for thin walled
structures developed for Rolls-Royce Trent T1000
casings and manufacture of single hit fixtures for
Nozzle Guide Vanes reducing setups from 8 to 1.
A Technology Transfer award from Innovation
China UK (ICUK) to commercialise reconfigurable
technologies in the UK and China promoted the
technology at international exhibitions and led to
funding from the Ningbo Government, China for a
reconfigurable vacuum forming moulding machine
capable of reusing the mould for many different
components. Dr. Yan Wang is working with the
Ningbo Disabled Rehabilitation Centre and a local
company to use the machine for foot orthoesis.
Research is continuing into a new method to
fabricate nano-structured hybrid materials targeted
for renewable energy applications (solar cells).
Contact: nabil.gindy@nottingham.edu.cn
The Centre hosted the 5th International
Conference on Responsive Manufacturing
– “Green Manufacturing” in Ningbo in 2010
and participated in the Shanghai Expo which
attracted over 73 million people. Around 1 million
visited the University of Nottingham’s Expo
pavilion (the only foreign University to exhibit). It
hosted 17 expert-led events, including Professor
Nabil Gindy’s Sustainable Manufacturing
workshop and the launch of the Sino-UK Low
Carbon Manufacturing Consortium, leading
to further invitations to run business events in
China. As a result, Nottingham won Gold for
Best Business / Community Engagement
Campaign at the HEIST Awards in 2011.
Professor Nabil Gindy, the CSGM’s Director and
Ningbo campus’s Vice-Provost for Research was
awarded the 2010 International Scientific and
Technological Co-operation Award at the Zhejiang
Provincial People’s Congress following the
University’s accreditation by China’s Ministry
of Science and Technology as an ‘International
Co-operation Base’ to mark significant success
in international research collaborations.
impact of engineered products through stages
of product development in a global context. The
software demonstrator systems are of interest to
BAE Systems in the UK and several automotive
companies in Ningbo. Research into eBusiness in
the Chinese automotive industry found that SinoForeign Joint Ventures have adopted the eBusiness
networks of the Foreign partner but there would be
huge implications if domestic manufacturers were
encouraged to use their own eBusiness systems
and standards.
The Malaysian campus has signed a memorandum
of understanding with Auto V Corporation Bhd
(AutoV), an automotive components manufacturer,
to develop and commercialise products. Our UK/
Malaysian project featured on page 8 has obtained
a commercial grant from CRADLE (a governmentlinked company administered by Ministry of
Finance, Malaysia) to purchase equipment and
support technology transfer.
Nottingham’s Engineering Faculty Intercampus
PhD scholarships programme is establishing new
interdisciplinary research activities between its
campuses in the UK, Malaysia and China.
Our UK/China project Eco-Efficient Product
Development has developed tools to assist
corporate decisions about the environmental
Reconfigurable device for
the aerospace industry.
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Professor Nabil Gindy in the Science
and Engineering building at Ningbo.
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NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
NIMRC: Innovative manufacturing solutions
A sustainable
future
Manufacturing and aerospace have been established as key research
priorities for the University of Nottingham in its strategy to deliver research
excellence with impact. Initial funding has been allocated to support staff,
infrastructure and knowledge transfer activities for the Advanced Manufacturing
Priority Group led by Professor Svetan Ratchev and the Aerospace Priority
Group led by Professor Andrew Long, both NIMRC academics
(www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/priorities).
A £2.5 million investment from the Capital
Investment Fund has consolidated our high
technology facilities at the new Institute for
Advanced Manufacturing (IfAM), which includes
NIMRC, the Waterjet Technology Centre, the
Rolls-Royce UTC for Manufacturing Technology,
the Precision Manufacturing Centre (PMC)
and the Centre for Aerospace Manufacturing
sponsored by Airbus. The IfAM supports SMEs
through Advanced Manufacturing Technology East
Midlands, the PMC’s technology transfer arm.
Nottingham is leading the new Manufacturing
Technology Engineering Doctorate Centre in
partnership with the Universities of Loughborough
and Birmingham and supported by RollsRoyce, Airbus, Aero Engine Controls and the
Manufacturing Technology Centre. The Centre
opened in September 2011 to deliver a high
quality EngD programme for research engineers
(www.manufacturingedc.ac.uk).
We also lead the new EPSRC Centre for
Innovative Manufacturing in Composites. Partners
Nottingham, Bristol, Cranfield and Manchester
Universities are supported by the National
Composites Centre and the Manufacturing
Technology Centre to study next-generation
composites manufacturing processes.
Funding of £3.6million from the European
Union—European Regional Development Fund has
set up the purpose built Institute for Aerospace
Technology to focus on multidisciplinary research,
strengthen strategic links with partners in industry
and bring new inventions to the marketplace.
The new facility on Jubilee campus consolidates
a portfolio of aerospace research worth
£35million, with more than 70 separate projects
focused on key challenges in power electronics,
electromagnetics, advanced manufacturing,
polymer composites, non-destructive evaluation,
thermo-fluids and many other areas
(www.nottingham.ac.uk/aerospace).
We are exploiting our unique position with
campuses in Ningbo, China (UNNC) and Malaysia
(UNMC) to promote our research activities and
staff on the international stage. We are exploiting
our unique position with campuses in Ningbo,
China (UNNC) and Malaysia (UNMC) to promote
our research activities and staff on the international
stage. An International Doctoral Innovation Centre
funded by the Ningbo Education Bureau, the
Ningbo Science and Technology Bureau and the
University of Nottingham to deliver a four-year PhD
course split between the University’s campuses
in China and the UK has also been launched at
Ningbo. The Centre will support 100 full time
PhD scholarships in the fields of manufacturing,
energy and the digital economy, work with at least
50 companies and develop new business models
to make Ningbo’s manufacturing sector more
profitable, sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Manufacturing Technology Centre
The MTC’s purpose-build 12,000 sq. metre
facility in Ansty, near Coventry opened in
September 2011 to fast track new technologies
into production and give competitive advantage to
UK industry. Founding partners are the Universities
of Nottingham, Loughborough and Birmingham,
TWI Ltd, Rolls-Royce, Airbus and Aero
Engines Control.
Significant investment has provided state-of-theart equipment to support the delivery of industrial
R&D projects across five strategic themes Advanced Tooling & Fixturing (led by the University
of Nottingham), Near Net Shape Manufacturing,
High Integrity Fabrication, Intelligent Automation
and Electronic Assembly. MTC is a member of the
High Value Manufacturing Technology Innovation
Centre (TIC) network which has significant
new investment funding for infrastructure
and equipment.
For further information about Manufacturing
at Nottingham contact Dr Paul Hamley,
Manufacturing Research and Business
Development Manager
Tel: 0115 951 4001
Email paul.hamley@nottingham.ac.uk
“Working with NIMRC has helped us to generate
innovative ideas for new processes and technologies
and retain our strong global competitive position”
Stephen Burgess,
Manufacturing Process and Technology Executive at Rolls-Royce plc
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