The Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) has been named as the UK spoke in a northwest Europe project designed to transform the machining sector, helping 1300 SMEs to stimulate turnover and employment through the uptake of Industry 4.0 technologies.

A three-year project funded by Interreg, ‘Machining 4.0’ has received an investment of €4.25m. The project will help boost growth for SMEs within the machining sector, which despite an annual turnover of €24bn, has suffered due to a lack of innovation and increased competition from low-wage countries over the past five years.
Within the UK, the only partner is AFRC, with the other nine participants based in countries across northwest Europe, including lead partner Sirris, headquartered in Belgium, and a further eight across France, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland and Switzerland. Some 1000 of the 1300 SMEs targeted will receive knowledge on innovative manufacturing technologies. In addition, around 250 will be encouraged to experiment with new technologies and collaborate with research and development partners, while a further 50 will receive intensive business support.
For further information www.strath.ac.uk/research