One of the research floors at the ARMC.

The UK, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre at the University of Sheffield and the manufacturing industry are working together in a mutually beneficial collaboration.

Some of the most advanced engineering companies in the world have joined efforts with top academic minds to ensure that cutting-edge technologies get quickly onto the production floor.

This collaboration takes place at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) based at University of Sheffield in England.

AMRC was set up in 2001 to build on ground-breaking techniques developed for the aerospace industry by Sheffield professor Keith Ridgway’s university-based machining group. Out of this core group has grown a very successful organization that boasts one of the most advanced research facilities in the world for machining applications.

Ridgway’s approach has been one of collaborative research, which “encourages and motivates all partners to work together to a common goal,” explains Adrian Allen, commercial director at AMRC. At the outset of a project the industrial partner, government agency and appropriate academic meet to discuss what they can offer and what they need in return. “This avoids duplicity, ambiguity and conflict,” says Aleen, and ensures that the team works together in a timely and effective way, helping each other to achieve both personal and group goals.”

AMRC Expertise and Success

The AMRC has considerable expertise in new materials, particularly in machining hard materials such as titanium and nickel alloys that are of particular interest to the aerospace industry. Most major aerospace component manufacturers — including Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Messier Dowty and GE Aviation — are sponsors of the centre. “Major machine tool sponsors such as Cincinnati MAG, Mori Seiki, Starrag and Haas work together with Sandvik Coromant on projects designed around ways to make products better, quicker and easier,” says Allen.

He says the key to the centre’s success has been its close relationship with industry and the fact that the projects carried out at AMRC have direct industrial significance.

For example, set a target of reducing machining time by a very challenging 66 percent on a titanium fan blade disc, the AMRC researchers achieved a final time reduction of 97 percent with no material damage and improved cutting-tool wear. On another occasion the researchers aimed for a reduction in machining time of 66 percent on a titanium pintle. Once again they exceeded the goal, achieving a dramatic 88 percent reduction with no material damage, greatly reduced cutting-tool wear and improved surface finish. Yet another example is from working alongside Messier Dowty engineers on a titanium aircraft undercarriage component. The result was an 80 percent reduction in machining time compared with the previously recorded best. Messier Dowty won the contract and was able to machine competitively in the UK.

More than 85 percent of AMRC board members are drawn from private sector companies. Through board and other formal meetings between partner companies and AMRC staff, ideas can be exchanged and current and future research opportunities discussed. “It’s a fantastic arena for networking, ” says Andy Smith, senior manager Sandvik Coromant, national sales in the UK and the company’s representative on the AMRC board. “You get to meet like-minded people and get an insight into future trends.”

John Baragwanath, AMRC projects director, notes that manufacturing techniques developed within the AMRC have “added significantly” to the competitiveness of many UK-based manufacturing companies. “This is particularly the case in the relatively mature research area of machining,” he says, “where techniques developed by the AMRC have led to sensational reductions in the time taken to cut materials.”

The AMRC research hub.

When a company needs to produce a new component or use a novel material, AMRC brings together expertise from its own group and partner companies to work out the best way of putting that into a production environment. The aim is to increase productivity, lower the cost of production per part and increase output so that partner companies can maintain their competitiveness.

Building on this is a second phase of development, the “Factory of the Future,” scheduled to open during the first half of 2008, which aims to solve advanced manufacturing problems by applying scientific theory, environmentally sustainable solutions and manufacturing principles. This facility, supported by such major companies as Boeing and Rolls-Royce, will be, Allen says, “four times larger than the current centres and will encompass view galleries, virtual ‘caves’ and other state-of-the-art facilities, enabling a unique environment geared towards training and technology transfer.” The carbon neutral facility, estimated to cost 20 million British pounds, will allow engineers to model, plan and optimize processes in manufacturing cells and examine the performance of materials and cutting tools. Such research means that partner companies can offer solutions better suited to future customer needs.

Access to the Future

Sandvik Coromant was one of the first companies to join the AMRC, and it works very closely with the centre. Andy Smith, senior manager of national sales at Sandvik Coromant UK, says the relationship “has positioned Sandvik Coromant as a very professional and competent company.” Customers benefit from the company’s expertise in indexable insert tooling, and the company benefits from access to future projects and materials. Also, says Smith, Sandvik Coromant gains an insight into the challenges that face manufacturers at the earliest stage in the development of a new component or process.

Originally published in Metalworking World 2.2008, a business magazine published by Sandvik Coromant.