The annual University of Sheffield AMRC Tech Fellows conference brought together industrial partners to explore the latest cutting-edge research and discover how these innovations can drive businesses forward.

The Tech Fellows conference is a highlight of the AMRC year, providing an opportunity to shine a deserving light on some of its research and technology innovations while showcasing its wide variety of core capabilities and key themes. 

This year’s conference, which spanned two days at the AMRC’s Factory 2050 facility, featured a diverse programme of more than 20 technical presentations, six panel discussions and lots of networking opportunities, fostering collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing.

The conference covered a wide variety of projects – from thought leadership on Welsh productivity and circular manufacturing, to digitalisation of mould manufacture and improving train fleet maintenance reliance. Some exciting initiatives from the Innovation Launchpad Network+ were also showcased. 

AMRC CEO Steve Foxley kicked off the event with a powerful keynote address set against the backdrop of the government's recently announced Industrial Strategy Green Paper and the AMRC's very own industry-led, refreshed strategy.

Steve said: “It's events like these that are really important because we get a chance to take a deeper dive into the exciting innovation we're working on and explore together the objectives and the themes, and make sure we're pointing the ship where it needs to be headed.” 

Some highlights from the conference include:

• Postcard from Wales - a call for bold policy 

AMRC Cymru research director, Jason Murphy, discussed the ambitious growth goals set for Wales in 1999 and why they failed. Drawing lessons from this, he emphasised on the role of technology to maximise manufacturing productivity and underscored the importance of combining public funding streams for high value manufacturing to drive economic growth.

• Investment Mould On-Line Detection (iMOLD) - digitalisation of mould manufacture 

Matt Cawood, head of castings, shared the AMRC’s research work on a novel weighing sensor system to improve efficiency and accuracy in mould manufacture. This system, introduced at the 2022 Tech Fellows conference, will digitalise the manual slurry measurement process, saving over 700 production hours annually. The project aims to demonstrate the benefits of digitalisation to the investment casting industry, leading to improved efficiency, capacity and growth.

• Improving the resilience and reliability of train fleet maintenance

Dr Cansu Kandemir, technical fellow at the AMRC’s Integrated Manufacturing Group talked about a collaborative initiative between the AMRC and the University of Huddersfield’s Institute of Railway Research (IRR) to improve train fleet maintenance reliability. By combining IRR's scheduling tool with AMRC's operations simulator, the project aims to evaluate train maintenance schedules against depot capacities and layouts.

• Trusted Research Environments for manufacturing data

Jon Stammers, senior theme lead for data, connectivity and AI, introduced Trusted Research Environments (TREs) which are highly secure platforms for researchers and developers to access curated datasets for wider development of data-driven solutions. He highlighted the opportunities offered by TREs and how the AMRC and its partners can become a trusted custodian of manufacturing data.

In his address, AMRC research director, Ben Morgan emphasised the value that AMRC's collaborative partnerships bring to the table. He also echoed Steve’s thoughts on the importance of an industrial strategy and how the Tech Fellows conference plays a vital role in this journey.

Ben said: “I’m incredibly proud of the AMRC ecosystem we’ve built over the years. We’ve seen an impressive portfolio of diverse projects at this year’s conference, but this is just a snippet. 

“We have a really rich web of projects contributing to shaping the industrial strategy and making a difference to transform UK manufacturing.”

During the closing remarks, Boeing’s Denzil Lawrence, who is chair of the AMRC technical board, said the annual conference ‘is a very big deal’.

He added: “It's been interesting to see the progress on research projects, but the other thing I truly valued is the opportunity to meet with AMRC leadership, research staff and industrial partners – to be able to have discussions in a safe space of a trusted research environment.”

After wrapping up yet another successful edition of the conference, Julia Yeardley, AMRC partnership engagement manager, reflected on what makes the event so unique.

She said: “Collaboration fuels innovation, and the AMRC partnership brings people together to achieve more than we could alone. The Tech Fellows is more than just a research showcase. It's a platform for strengthening these partnerships, encouraging dialogue and sharing knowledge that can drive real-world impact.

“It's fantastic to see our industrial partners discover new insights, share ideas and grow their networks, all whilst having a great time. I’m so proud of everyone involved, both AMRC personnel and industrial partners, for creating something so remarkable.”