MetLase, a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Unipart Group, has become the latest member of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), bringing its world leading technology to the partnership.  

The company has joined AMRC following a recent collaboration in which it developed a set of 14 fixtures for the assembly of complex parts.

Since its formation in 2015, MetLase has doubled in size and is growing rapidly.  Using highly skilled and creative engineers, MetLase is able to deliver engineering solutions to complex issues by using high precision laser-cutting technology, combined with patented assembly and joining systems.

MetLase will work as a partner on the Integrated Manufacturing Group (IMG) at the AMRC’s Factory 2050 facility, drawing on MetLase’s skills and modular fixturing to develop “smart enabled tooling”.

IMG Theme Lead in Automated Assembly, James Illingworth, said:   “Developing “smart” fixturing, or fixturing that is intelligent by using sensors to collect data, provides valuable benefits for in-process control and monitoring, and improvements in part quality. The data collected can be used in real-time for process adjustment or later in the manufacturing process for review.”

Steve Dunn, Managing Director of MetLase said: “We are pleased to join the AMRC, which has a global reputation as a centre of excellence for manufacturing research and innovative engineering.  As partners on the Integrated Manufacturing Group, we can combine our expertise to develop our fixtures to interact with autonomous technologies such as those involved with robotic assembly.”

For more information about MetLase visit: www.metlase.com