EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

New Artillery Factory in Sheffield

A 94,000 sq ft artillery facility was officially opened by Secretary of State for Defence John Healey earlier this month. The site, which will become operational by the end of the year, will house a state-of-the-art factory specialising in artillery expertise that will make Sheffield the home of UK howitzer production. The facility will also create 200 new high skilled jobs and support more than 60 businesses across the UK supply chain.

“This new factory is a big boost for South Yorkshire and a significant step forward in strengthening our British defence industrial base,” said Healey. “This is a vote of confidence in our world-leading defence sector and skilled British jobs.” The facility will later evolve to develop and produce a range of different combat systems.

More information www.baesystems.com

Centenary Event at Automation Specialist

Representatives of UK manufacturing gathered in force earlier this month to mark the centenary of industrial automation specialist Festo. The event, held at Festo GB’s Innovation Centre in Northampton, was an opportunity for industry organisations, customers, suppliers and employees to discuss how automation will shape British manufacturing in the future.

Guest speakers included: John Pearce, CEO of Made in Britain; Ben Blackledge, CEO at Worldskills UK; Professor Mike Wilson, chief automation officer at the Manufacturing Technology Centre; and Dr Sebastian Beck, Festo board member for finance and HR. Key themes centred on the importance of innovation and collaboration, attracting new talent and skills development, and investment in automation in the context of UK manufacturing.

More information www.festo.com

EAL appoints new head of operations

EAL, a major UK awarding organisation, has appointed Mirasol Edgcombe as head of operations. She will play a pivotal part in driving operational excellence and enhancing synergies across EAL’s key areas of customer experience, quality assurance and assessment delivery. With over 20 years of experience, Edgcombe’s career includes senior roles at City & Guilds, where she served as head of IT service operations, and head of fulfilment and operational delivery. EAL creates and assesses qualifications in, among other disciplines, engineering and manufacturing.

More information www.eal.org.uk

£2.5bn for prototype fusion plant

The Government has announced a record £2.5bn investment in fusion energy, which includes support for a new prototype fusion energy plant in Nottinghamshire. The prototype plant, known as STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production), will be built at the site of the former West Burton A coal power station near Retford and Gainsborough. The project’s delivery is expected to create over 10,000 jobs.

A groundbreaking and world-first scientific endeavour, STEP works by combining hydrogen gases, deuterium and tritium, which are heated to over 150 million degrees Celsius and confined within a powerful magnetic field. The energy produced can be used to create steam and turn a turbine, ultimately generating electricity.

More information https://step.ukaea.uk/

Transforming Wind Turbine Repairs

A research collaboration between Renewable Parts Ltd (RPL), SSE Renewables and the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) has demonstrated the potential to remanufacture critical onshore wind turbine components – restoring worn or damaged parts to their original specification or better. The outcomes could drastically cut waste, reduce carbon emissions and extend part life.

Using additive manufacturing, analysis and inspection techniques, the team successfully restored damaged pinion shafts from a wind turbine yaw gearbox, a key component that keeps turbines facing into the wind to maximise energy capture. Early trials showed that remanufactured parts could perform to original specifications following machining and NDT, saving up to 84 kg of CO2e per remanufactured component.

More information www.nmis.scot