£4.3m contract awarded for "world’s most advanced factory for aerospace research"
NG BAILEY has secured a £4.3m contract for University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) Factory 2050.
The Ilkley-headquartered contractor will deliver the mechanical and electrical design work at the factory, which is planned to be “the world’s most advanced factory for aerospace research”.
Working alongside international support services and construction group Interserve, the project’s main contractor.
This is the first facility to be created on the site of the former Sheffield airport and the AMRC Factory 2050 will drive innovation to meet the future needs of aerospace and other high-value manufacturing industries. Work will begin onsite early in 2015 and complete by October 2015.
Andy Morley, operations director for NG Bailey’s engineering division, said: “As a company with strong roots in engineering, we are delighted that our work will support the engineers at this facility in taking forward their own global reputation for manufacturing research into an exciting new era.
“The biggest challenge we faced was meeting the University’s demands for the centre to be both future proof and flexible – the bespoke approach we are taking reflects that.”
The AMRC Factory 2050 will have an area of around 4,500 sq m and will be built largely from glass to showcase the advanced manufacturing technologies being developed within.
The creation of the facility, which will cost £43m, is supported by a £10m grant from the Research Partnership Investment Fund, managed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).
Leading manufacturers including Boeing, Airbus, Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems and Spirit AeroSystems are also committed to supporting the project.
Prof Keith Ridgway, executive dean of the University of Sheffield AMRC, said: “This will be the most advanced factory in the world. It will give us a home for the research and demonstration work associated with building the next generation of aircraft and energy technologies.
“The aim is to be able to manufacture any component as a one-off, and instantaneously switch between components. This will be a totally reconfigurable factory, one of the goals of the advanced manufacturing research strategy.”
