Region gears up for key role in £22m green technology initiative
A NEW component manufacturing facility in Yorkshire is to play a key role in a £22m initiative aimed at bringing state-of-the-art green technology to the UK automotive industry.
The project aims to help the UK car industry supply base develop low-carbon vehicle technologies and test their viability in production, while driving down research and prototype costs.
Called The Proving Factory, and launched by Business Secretary Vince Cable, the project will create two facilities: component manufacturing at the Tata Steel site at Brinsworth, Rotherham, and an assembly factory in the West Midlands.
As well as providing around 250 jobs, the two facilities will benefit SMEs in the automotive supply chain, in addition to university research departments. It will allow them to bridge the gap between innovation and full-scale production by testing technologies in a real production environment.
Clive Hickman, chief executive of Coventry-based Manufacturing Technology Centre, said: “This project addresses a market failure in that automotive suppliers in the UK struggle to invest in the low volume new technologies that vehicle manufacturers need to meet emissions and environmental legislation.
“The Proving Factory will offer a new service which will allow novel solutions to be tested in a low risk environment. Traditionally this would have involved high cost prototype routes. The Proving Factory reduces these costs by developing and producing low volume advanced technologies, with a target of 1,000 to 20,000 units per product per year across 10 to 20 products.”
The Proving Factory is a collaborative industry project led by Productiv (assembly) and Tata Steel (component manufacture).
The MTC is a core partner along with MIRA and supporting partners including Sheffield-based Magomatics, Jaguar Land Rover, Schaeffler, Unipart and the Midlands Assembly Network. There are also six technology developers including Flybrid, Drive System Design, Libralato, Bladon Jets and Torotrak.
“The Proving Factory will be a commercially driven catalyst for growth, generating demand for technologies, more efficient vehicles for OEMs and new demand for UK materials and component supply chains,” added Hickman.
