EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

£11.3m battery project fully charged

A £11.3m project, designed to scale up the UK’s battery-pack manufacturing and supply chain capability, has been hailed a resounding success.The H1perChain project, funded by the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC), has developed an automated pilot line for module/pack assembly, cell joining and in-line testing – delivering a step-change in high-performance battery costs and scalability.More than 50 highly skilled jobs have been created at the production facility in Coventry, with the promise of another 25 as it enters its first commercial agreement to supply battery packs for a global customer.
For further informationwww.hyperbat.com

New board of directors

At the autumn meeting of the VDMA Working Group Laser and Laser Systems for Material Processing (WG Laser), members held an election to confirm the newboard of directors and chairman.Dr Hagen Zimer, CEO laser technology at Trumpf, and Nikolas Meyer, head of sales and industry management at Weil Technology, are new board members. Dr Christoph Ullmann, general manager of Laserline GmbH is nowchairman of WG Laser with Dr Stefan Ruppik, vice president and general manager of high-power CO2 lasers andprofile welding systems at Coherent,acting as his deputy.
For further information www.vdma.org

Billions in funding for British manufacturers

The Government is announcing £4.5bn in funding for British manufacturing to increase investment in eight sectors across the UK. Funding will be available from 2025 for five years, providing industry with longer term certainty about investments. The Government is earmarking over £2bn for the automotive industry and £975m for aerospace, supporting the manufacturing, supply chain and development of zero emission vehicles, and investment in energy efficient and zero-carbon aircraft equipment.

Alongside this pledge, the government has committed to £960m for a ‘Green Industries Growth Accelerator’ to support clean energy manufacturing, and £520m for life sciences manufacturing to build resilience for future health emergencies and capitalise on the UK’s world-leading research and development. The announcement arrives ahead of the second Global Investment Summit taking place this week.
For further information www.gov.uk

Work starts on aerospace innovation facility

Industry, academia and government leaders gathered in Sheffield earlier this month to break ground for a University of Sheffield AMRC innovation facility and research project led by Boeing. The Composites at Speed and Scale (COMPASS) research facility will house the Boeing-led Isothermic High-Rate Sustainable Structures (IHSS) project dedicated to developing and testing new technologies needed to meet future demand for lighter commercial aircraft and help the aviation industry reach net zero by 2050.

The combined £80m COMPASS facility and IHSS project, announced earlier this year in partnership with Loop Technology and Spirit AeroSystems, will initially create around 50 jobs in South Yorkshire and, based on aircraft demand forecasts, has the potential to create up to 3000 UK jobs long-term and around £2bn annually in export opportunities.The facility will be complete by the end of 2024.
For further information www.amrc.co.uk

United Grinding opens Singapore facility

The United Grinding Group has intensified its business in Southeast Asia by established a subsidiary in Singapore. Despite having a presence in the region for many years through representatives and the Walter Ewag Asia-Pacific subsidiary, the new United Grinding subsidiary in Singapore bundles and intensifies the company’slocal activitiesfor grinding, eroding, laser and measuring machines.“The ability to offer the group’s bundled technology and application know-how from a single subsidiary provides customers with many advantages,” states Stephan Nell, CEO of the United Grinding Group.
For further information www.grinding.com