The latest AMRC Forum presents exclusive insight into some of the most innovative and powerful technologies for large volume metrology.

Recent developments in mechanical coordinate measuring machines (CMM) and portable arms, as well as laser and optical scanning, have hugely increased the precision and flexibility of large volume metrology. But do they all measure up to industry demands?

The morning forum includes users and providers of these fast-developing technologies – including Rolls-Royce, National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and Hexagon Metrology – exploring their application in component verification, real-time monitoring of deformation, and reverse engineering.

For more information, see the AMRC Forum events page.

The latest lecture from the Royal Aeronautical Society in Sheffield presents exclusive insight into the technology behind Rolls-Royce’s new Advanced Blade Casting Facility.

The 14,000 sq m facility, currently being built alongside the AMRC on the Advanced Manufacturing Park, will be one of the most advanced blade casting facilities in the world. The plant will be capable of manufacturing 100,000 blades per year, and will feature groundbreaking manufacturing techniques such as 3D structured light for geometry inspection.

The evening will be led by George Durrant, Rolls-Royce’s technical lead for the Advanced Blade Casting Facility.

For more information and to register, see the RAeS event page.

The mobile maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) prototype is designed to help manufacturers and companies supplying and maintaining high-value machinery in sectors such as aerospace, oil & gas and shipping. It will help field engineers accurately locate equipment, provide them with critical information and receive real-time visual support from supervising experts based remotely.

Today, MRO tasks typically involve an engineer visiting a site, finding the right machine, and making sure they have an appropriate task sheet. If they run into difficulty, they might call for help from a remote supervisor or product expert.

The new system allows a supervisor to monitor an engineer’s progress towards the maintenance site, using GPS. Once on site, an engineer can use a smart phone and QR codes to locate and identify an asset and receive maintenance instructions. The smart phone uses augmented reality technology to overlay points of interest over a plan of the site, which can include the location of other engineers, first aid stations and health and safety apparatus.

If assistance is needed, a remote expert is able to view the on-site engineer’s workspace and support them with real-time video and audio links using a camera and a small projector mounted at the end of a remotely controlled robotic arm. The expert, from his management console, is also able to project a pointer and valuable information such as free-hand sketches, assembly instructions and CAD images directly onto the workspace or a nearby wall.

Richard Lanyon-Hogg, IBM technical director for the industrial sector, says: “The MRO prototype brings together two innovative IBM technologies, developed in our European research labs in Hursley and Haifa, into a single solution for our clients. It offers manufacturers the opportunity to lower their costs, provide just-in-time knowledge transfer and reduce the personal risk to engineers working in difficult environments.”

Studies have shown that remote support is much more efficient if on-site and remote engineers can share a visual representation of the site workspace and the on-site engineer’s actions. To date this has been accomplished, and only in part, by on-site engineers using hand-held cameras, mounted head-gear or specialist glasses. The new system provides the supervisor with complete visual independence and a more stable video image. On-site engineers are able to work with greater freedom or, in the case of those with specialist glasses, freed from the tiring need to re-focus their eyes.

The project is the result of a collaboration with the University of Sheffield AMRC with Boeing. AMRC researchers are continuing to work with industrial partners to develop the system for real industrial applications.

Dr Rab Scott, head of virtual reality at the AMRC, says: “IBM’s MRO prototype is an exciting addition to the innovative toolset used by the AMRC’s researchers and engineers. We hope to demonstrate its usefulness and versatility in a number of situations within the manufacturing arena.”

A  fully working IBM MRO system has been installed at the AMRC Diamond Jubilee Knowledge Transfer Centre.

For more information, see the IBM press release.

During the event, leaders from world industry committed their organisations to backing the Festival, to be held around Sheffield in April.

Key figures from Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Siemens and Tata Steel responded with a unanimous yes when asked if their buyers would attend the three day event.

The launch included a round table discussion at Church House to discuss developing strategies for growth in the region’s manufacturing industry. Speakers included Sir Roger Bone, president of Boeing UK; Dr Hamid Mughal, executive vice-president of manufacturing, engineering and technology at Rolls-Royce; Andrew Peters, director of Siemens UK; and Mark Broxholme, managing director of speciality steels at Tata Steel.

Sir Roger highlighted Boeing’s relationship with the region through their status as a founding partner of the University of Sheffield AMRC. “We have seen the AMRC grow in the last decade to a multi-million pound research centre,” he said. “Such is its excellence in our view and its understanding of the interface between manufacturing research and industrial application, we use Sheffield as a benchmark globally.

“We actually bring the presidents of American universities to Sheffield to show them how it should be done. Sheffield is up there in the top strata of relationships which we cherish.”

Hamid Mughal from Rolls-Royce also championed the region’s manufacturing prowess. “There are fantastic facilities in Sheffield,” he said. “We are looking for a competitive supply chain and Sheffield has just the right culture, environment, heritage and the right technical advantage, not just for low-level manufacturing competitiveness, but the advanced level.”

Mark Broxholme of Tata Steel also highlighted the reasons for the group’s regional investment. “Tata Steel is an international company and has choices on where it invests, and I am pleased to say that Sheffield and South Yorkshire is a good place to be,” he said. “Actually we see no better place to be. Because of the skills base and the platform this gives us for global business, we have invested over £35 million in the last three years.”

The Global Manufacturing Festival begins with the schools-focused Get up to speed event at The Blue Shed on Wednesday April 17. The AMRC then hosts a major manufacturing conference and trade show on Thursday April 18, featuring speakers from the aerospace, renewable energy, medical components and nuclear sectors. The conference is free to attend.

For more information and to book tickets, see: www.globalmanufacturingfestival.com

The AMRC Training Centre aims to create knowledge and manufacturing breakthroughs by equipping highly skilled workers who will help regenerate the region’s and the UK’s manufacturing industry.

Ferguson, an apprentice tool maker in Glasgow before turning professional as a footballer, spoke to more than 200 staff and apprentices about his experiences, before signing items which will be buried in a time capsule.

“What we need is businesses to have confidence in young people,” said Sir Alex. “Manchester United is the best example of this. We believe in young people and it’s amazing how they can surprise you.

“My apprenticeship was a fantastic part of my life. I always knew I had something specialist to go back to if football didn’t go well.

“Apprenticeships give you a work force, a regeneration of people coming through. We need opportunities for apprenticeships to give young people chances to get success. I’m delighted to be here and I applaud that.”

During his visit, Ferguson toured the AMRC with Boeing and met with current AMRC apprentices and young technicians and engineers.

The AMRC Training Centre, which is due to open in autumn 2013, is part-funded by the Regional Growth Fund (£12.5 million) and the European Regional Development Fund (£5 million). It will provide up to 250 students ayear, aged from 16 upwards, the chance to be taken on as paid apprentices, and offer opportunities to progress on to postgraduate courses.

The centre will be based in a new 5,500 sq m building located on the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Catcliffe. The AMRC Training Centre is a major new venture for the University of Sheffield, and will build on the world-renowned technical expertise housed in the AMRC with Boeing and Nuclear AMRC.

The AMRC Training Centre will provide tailored courses of practical and academic skills, from apprenticeship through to doctorate and MBA level, plus continuing professional development. The centre will primarily serve businesses with operations in the region – including Rolls-Royce, which is building up to three new factories on the Park.

AMRC director Professor Keith Ridgway CBE, said: “It’s fantastic that Sir Alex could come and see the world leading work that’s taking place here at the Advanced Manufacturing Park. He is a big supporter of apprenticeships and ensuring these vital skills stay within the UK.”

Alison Bettac, director of the AMRC Training Centre, added: “Manchester United has a long standing tradition of guiding youngsters through their youth ranks into the first team, and on to international honours. In the same way we hope to provide young people in the South Yorkshire region with the skills to compete at the highest level. The AMRC Training Centre will provide a step change in advanced manufacturing and secure the future of the sector.”

The University of Sheffield AMRC hosts a major conference and trade show on Thursday 18 April as part of the Global Manufacturing Festival.

The conference focuses on opportunities in four key high-value manufacturing sectors: nuclear, renewable energy, aerospace and medical components.

Confirmed speakers from the aerospace industry include Andy Page of Rolls-Royce and Simon Boon of Firth Rixson.

For free registration, visit the Global Manufacturing Festival website.

AMRC will also be taking its Mantra lorry, a travelling exhibition offering a hands-on experience of advanced manufacturing, to the Get up to speed schools event on Wednesday 17 April.

The two-day open house was organised in partnership with WardJet, a tier one member of the AMRC with Boeing, which has provided its world-leading waterjet technology to the centre.

Waterjet machines use a precisely controlled stream of extremely high-pressure water, containing a small amount of abrasive particles, to rapidly cut metals and other materials.

The AMRC’s GCM-series machine is a giant gantry-style composite milling centre combining WardJet’s proven waterjet technology with high-speed five-axis machining, providing highly efficient and flexible cutting of composites and metals. With over 1.5 metres of vertical travel for the cutting head and four metres of cross-beam travel, it is one of the world’s largest combined waterjet-machining centres.

To show the abilities of the five-axis waterjet cutter, Adam Carder of WardJet used the GCM to cut the two partners’ logos into a large cylinder made of carbon fibre composite. The design was then finished using the centre’s milling head.

“The cylinder had a two-and-a-half foot vertical wall, which made it a challenge – you can’t do that with the usual five-axis machine,” commented Carder. “It shows the unique capabilities of this five-axis, and the sophistication of the software to programme it.”

The GCM was tailor-made by WardJet to fit the available space at the AMRC Factory of the Future, and to showcase the state of the art in waterjet machining.

“This machine combines CNC milling and waterjet, so we can put a part down and get the best of both worlds,” Rich Ward, president and founder of WardJet, told delegates at the event. “We’re also looking at putting metrology onto that machine, so we can carry out 3D imaging of the part and compare that to the model, cut and measure the part, then compare that to what we had before.”

The AMRC’s GCM boasts an array of advanced features that extend the capabilities of waterjet machining, and is particularly suited for shaping large composite parts. The five-axis waterjet head can rotate an unlimited number of times without having to unwind pipes or cables.

“When you are rotating the cutting head, you have high-pressure water, abrasive and air, and all the controls and power needed at the head,” Ward noted. “What we’ve done is come up with a method that lets us bring all that through a system with unlimited rotation and no need to unwind. To do that with water at up to 90,000 PSI is quite some achievement.”

WardJet joined the AMRC with Boeing in 2009, and recently renewed its membership for another three years.

“We believe that in the next three years we’re going to see a phenomenal amount of opportunities in waterjet,” Ward said. “There’s some fantastic technologies in nozzle design, and incredible work in increasing cutting power. Imagine if you can cut five times faster with waterjet – it would be the only way to do things.”

AMRC researchers will use the GCM to explore innovative applications for waterjet cutting of metal and composite parts for aerospace and other industries, and new techniques to improve performance and productivity.

“We are exploring different processes such as waterjet cleaning, milling and drilling, and also investigating ways to increase the power of the waterjet,” says Dr Gustavo Escobar, waterjet project manager at the AMRC with Boeing. “This will increase productivity, and allow precision cutting to accuracies of a few microns. We want to bring the waterjet process closer, in terms of accuracy and surface quality, to competing technologies such as conventional machining and wire EDM.”

The AMRC with Boeing is currently engaged in several international collaborative projects, funded under the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programe (FP7), to extend the capabilities of waterjet machining. The Reform and Eneplan projects are exploring the environmental benefits of waterjets for machining aerospace parts and composite components. Admap-Gas meanwhile investigated the use of waterjet cutting for fir-tree profiles in jet turbine disks.

The Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) and University of Sheffield AMRC present a Future aerospace manufacturing seminar and the launch of the New apprenticeship pathways programme.

Speakers at the seminar include Dr Gareth Williams, vice president for research and technology business development and partnerships at Airbus. The event will also feature a keynote address from a senior government minister.

New apprenticeship pathways is a collaboration between the MTA and the AMRC Training Centre to develop a new management skills framework for engineering-based manufacturing. The pathway will combine fundamental engineering training with business skills and language study.

“The Association has been working with the AMRC Training Centre to develop and secure accreditation for an apprenticeship framework aimed at helping young people progress in advanced manufacturing careers where they will need both engineering skills and commercial acumen,” explains Graham Dewhurst, Director General of the MTA.

“A huge number of management roles in engineering based manufacturing now require skill sets in both engineering and commerce. These skills are increasingly needed by more junior employees within manufacturing organisations who are expected to take on higher levels of responsibility.

“The trend over the last decade or so for manufacturers to broaden their offering to embrace customer support solutions has created new opportunities that could benefit the UK’s advanced manufacturing sector. In this context the apprenticeship framework that is being developed will seek to equip the new generation entering advanced engineering with the skills that they will require.”

To book your place, visit the Future aerospace manufacturing at the MTA.