UK NEWS

Plans for landmark machining plant

Sheffield Forgemasters has submitted a planning application for a landmark 30,000 m²machining facility on brownfield land in Sheffield’s Meadowhall district. Located on a 16-acre plot at Weedon Street, the new facility will form one of the world’s most advanced large machining facilities, supporting the company’s manufacture for the UK defence programme.

With work on the site planned to start in Q4 2024, the building will cover a space equal to 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools and contain 17 new machines, including some of the largest and most advanced five-axis vertical turning lathes (VTLs). Gareth Barker, COO, says: “The planning application covers an ambitious new project to create a facility that will deliver some of the world’s most advanced, large-scale machining capabilities.”

More information www.sheffieldforgemasters.com

Renishaw opens new technology centres

To help service its growing customer base in India and Japan, UK-based Renishaw has recently opened two state-of-the-art technology centres: one in Chennai, India, and one in Nagoya, Japan. These upgraded facilities will strengthen Renishaw’s presence in both countries and improve customer access to the company’s engineering services and technologies.

Renishaw is continuing to invest in upgraded and new facilities to better support its customers. In addition to the facilities in India and Japan, within the past year the company has also opened new offices in Brazil and created its first subsidiary operation in the United Arab Emirates. The latter will serve the rapidly growing manufacturing and advanced engineering sectors in the Gulf Cooperation Council region and Egypt.

More information www.renishaw.com

Sustainable Materials Hub

The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) has invested in a new hub for sustainable additive manufacturing (AM), thus opening avenues for research and development to support the design and manufacturing of net zero products with end-to-end circularity.  

The new hub features polymer and ceramic AM machines to manufacture net-zero products alongside material reprocessing equipment that recycles waste AM materials and parts into feedstocks. Notably, a new Carbon M3 machine will enable processing of high-performance polymers for net zero products in sectors including aerospace, defence, and energy.

More information www.the-mtc.org

Dugard grows sales team

Dugard is once again strengthening its team with the appointment of a new area sales manager. Paul Roberts is now the company’s representative for southwest England and south Wales. He brings vast experience to the company, entering the industry almost 25 years ago as an apprentice toolmaker. Sales director Colin Thomson says: “Paul has a proven track record with a technical understanding and ability to solve problems for customers that will be a genuine asset to Dugard. He has spent several years working with manufacturers in the southwest, so his local reputation and insight will be of huge benefit.”

More information www.dugard.com

OrthoSolutions installs Hurco machines

Maldon-based OrthoSolutions, which designs, develops and manufactures implants and instruments used in surgical repair of the foot and ankle, has invested in a purpose-built production facility and purchased two Hurco machine tools. The move will bring previously outsourced work in-house and accelerate prototyping.

The new Hurco VM10i vertical machining centre (with 4th-axis rotary table and tailstock arrangement) and TM6i CNC lathe will perform a majority of the milling and turning operations required. They have already been busy providing a notable improvement in lead times for prototypes, while allowing quick and easy program editing in response to feedback from surgeons.

More information www.hurco.co.uk