The Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, has joined forces with a consortium of six other companies to pave the way for low-cost remanufacture within the tool and die industry.

DigiTool, as the two-year project is known, is part-funded by Innovate UK and worth £1.2m – one of the biggest investments of its kind within the sector for over
40 years. The project partners aim to provide organisations of all sizes with the capability to remanufacture worn or damaged dies by helping
them embrace additive manufacturing, adaptive machining and industry 4.0.
For further information https://is.gd/ezuhan

Schuler is supplying a servo press line that will form body parts for the BMW Mini at its production site in Swindon.

In front of the line, there is a blank loader, which feeds individual sheet metal blanks. After subsequent centring, the main forming of the blank takes place in the drawing station – a 2500 tonne servo press. In the five subsequent stations, different cutting and forming processes are used to create up to four high-precision parts at the same time, step by step.
For further information www.schulergroup.com

Mike Corbett has been appointed by Mach Machine Tools, part of the Vigilance Group, as its CNC divisional manager.

This newly created senior management position will see Corbett take responsibility for planning, co-ordinating and implementing the company’s new product design and development business strategies, including launches and upgrades.
Among the primary areas of focus for Corbett, certainly in the immediate to medium term, will involve working collaboratively with the company’s internationally-based machine tool build and control partners, helping to develop new, and refine existing products – including control technologies and software systems – for the European market. In addition to his duties and responsibilities at Mach Machine Tools, Corbett will also take on a technical consultancy role with Machine Tool Sales Online.
For further information www.machmt.co.uk

An audience of around 60 aerospace production specialists were treated to a font of advanced manufacturing knowledge at the University of Sheffield’s AMRC near Sheffield, when machining solutions specialist Starrag UK joined forces with tooling expert Kennametal to present their ‘Optimised Titanium and Inconel Machining’ event – with the added bonus of an insight into some of Rolls-Royce’s activities.

The event not only included technical presentations – on the benefits of Starrag machining centres and a number of new Kennametal developments – but there were also demonstrations of best-practice Inconel and titanium machining on the AMRC’s Starrag STC 1250 machining centre, as well as a keynote speech on ‘High Performance Manufacturing’ by Rolls-Royce’s technology partnership manager Dr Jamie McGourlay. Starrag has eight machines in-situ at the AMRC and the accompanying Nuclear AMRC.
For further information www.starrag.com

The MTA and Close Brothers Asset Finance have published a new survey which reveals that many manufacturing and engineering firms are not planning to take advantage of the increase in the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA).

In fact, only 42% of manufacturing and engineering companies were aware that the Government had made an increase to the AIA. From 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020 a temporary increase in the AIA has been introduced. The idea is to enable faster tax relief for plant and machinery investments between £200,000 and £1m.
For further information www.mta.org.uk