Engineering firms to benefit from Scottish tech collaboration
THE West Midlands-based Confederation of British Metalforming has established a five-year strategic relationship with Strathclyde University’s Advanced Forming Research Centre.
The agreement means CBM members can now use the hi-tech Scottish institution – one of just seven R&D locations operating under the government’s £200m Catapult programme in high-value manufacturing – to design and test new products and processes.
The AFRC has expanded rapidly since it joined Catapult in October 2011, staff numbers are expected to double to around 120 in the next three years, and work recently started on doubling the size of the building at its site near Glasgow Airport.
The new strategy will be formally launched at the CBM’s National Metalforming Centre in West Bromwich on March 6. Adrian Bailey, MP for West Bromwich West and chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee for Business Innovation and Skills, will preside over the launch.
Also present will be CBM operations director Geraldine Bolton, and Dr Paul Blackwell, chief of engineering at the AFRC.
Ms Bolton said the new five-year partnership would give the confederation’s 200-plus member companies access to a level of knowledge, expertise and R&D facilities which would previously have been out of reach.
“The AFRC already has established relationships with five aerospace primes, and is now diversifying into other sectors requiring cutting-edge engineering and technology solutions; including offshore wind, wave, tidal and nuclear energy, automotive, marine and oil & gas,” she said.
“This relationship is a tremendous opportunity for us to guide our members towards the technology they need to be aware of in the future, and to help them identify the challenges they will face.”
Dr Blackwell added: “Whatever sector we are working in, our Holy Grail is to help everyone to realise that this is a high-technology industry, capable of devising and delivering innovations in high quality products and processes.
“The AFRC supports both fundamental and applied research in forming and forging, and look to stimulate collaborative partnerships between academic institutions and global manufacturers.”
The ambitious partnership includes a new research centre – the National Metalforming Centre Nottingham – which will be used by CBM members and companies in their supply chains.
“Nowadays, our industry moves at such a breathtaking pace, so a crucial role of this centre will be to make SMEs aware of the products that the blue-chip manufacturers and global Tier One suppliers will require in the future,” added Ms Bolton.
“The NMC Nottingham also provides a showcase for small specialist companies to present, and perhaps to develop, their own technologies which could fit into a supply chain niche, so it will stimulate productive two-way relationships between the global brands and the SME suppliers.”
