Research centre to save UK’s industry ‘millions’
Future Metrology Hub hopes to play key role
We don’t have all the answers and there are more questions Prof Geoff McFarland, group engineering director at Renishaw
A NEW £40m research centre plans to transform UK manufacturing performance and save British industry millions of pounds and hours in new ‘smart factories’.
The Future Metrology Hub, based at the Huddersfield University, hopes to play a crucial role in what has been dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The rapid evolution of manufacturing makes the role of metrology – the science of measurement – more vital than ever, as firms demand greater accuracy and efficiency in their increasingly complex and automated production processes.
The hub’s director, Prof Dame Xiangqian (Jane) Jiang, pledged that the technology she and her colleagues develop in the lab – such as sensors and artificial intelligence control systems – would be geared up for use in the real world of industry.
The seven-year hub, which receives £10m from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), with extra funding from universities and business partners, was officially launched at an event attended by more than 130 scientists, engineers, academics and industrialists from around the UK.
They heard a sequence of talks from key figures, including Prof Jiang, who provided an overview of the centre’s work.
Prof Jiang stressed the need for inter-disciplinary collaboration across a wide range of sectors.
“That is what the hub is all about,” she said, and added that its goal was a transformation in UK manufacturing performance.
Huddersfield University – home to the Centre for Precision Technologies – is at the core of the Future Metrology Hub.
The universities of Sheffield, Bath and Loughborough will also contribute research in specialised areas.
The National Physical Laboratory, which has its regional base at the Huddersfield University, is also a collaborator, and there are 29 industrial partners, including Rolls-Royce, Jaguar Land Rover, GKN Aerospace, BAE Systems, Siemens, Reliance Precision and Carl Zeiss.
Another key partner is Renishaw, which has collaborated with the university for a quarter of a century.
Its group engineering director, Prof Geoff McFarland, gave the keynote address at the launch day.
He described the trajectory of modern manufacturing, with its “intelligent factories with zero waste and optimal efficiency using automated processes”.
Metrology was crucial to this, said Prof McFarland, describing the science as “one of our best manufacturing tools”, and adding that it needed to have a presence on the shop floor.
Renishaw has more than 1,500 patents and patents pending, said Prof McFarland.
“But we don’t have all the answers and there are more and more questions. And that is why we are involved with this wonderful hub,” he added.
Dr Katie Daniel, Manufacturing the Future theme lead at the EPSRC, said the portfolio of research hubs across the UK was a flagship investment for the organisation.