Rolls-Royce has announced a £150m investment in new and existing civil aerospace facilities in the UK to support the planned doubling of engine production and deliver on its record civil aerospace order book. The investment, which will be made over the next few years, is part of Rolls-Royce’s ongoing industrial transformation, and will provide additional capacity as the company develops and tests the next generation of aero engines.
The majority of the investment will provide a new facility for the testing of large civil aero engines in Derby, the home of Rolls-Royce’s civil aerospace division. The new test-bed will be capable of testing a range of engines, including the Trent XWB. Rolls-Royce has also committed to retaining the Precision Machining Facility (PMF) in Derby, which it previously announced would be closed.
For further information www.rolls-royce.com

600 UK has appointed Keith Clowe as area sales manager for the West Midlands and South Wales, focusing on the Colchester and Harrison, and Clausing machine tool ranges. Clowe is an engineer by trade and previously worked for London Transport for a number of years before moving into a wide variety of machine tool sales and product management roles over the past 20 years. His experience spans many well-known names in the machine tool industry and he is highly respected for his technical expertise on many projects.
For further information
www.600uk.com

Published last month, the eighth annual Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 league table listed machine tool sales company NCMT in sixth place. The table ranks 200 mid-market private companies (unquoted and not subsidiaries) in Britain with the fastest growing international sales. NCMT hit export sales of £10.7m in the last financial year, propelling the company to a two-year average international sales growth rate per annum of 163%. The company is now looking to diversify into gear manufacturing technology and has written proprietary software for use on Makino and Okuma platforms.
For further information
www.ncmt.co.uk

Within an hour of putting its first post on social media, a start-up engineering business from North Yorkshire has been bombarded with orders from around the world – all thanks to help provided by the Manufacturing Growth Programme (MGP). Topcliffe-based K2 Design & Fabrication Ltd, which makes specialist car parts, set up a Facebook page and secured 80 orders from as far afield as Australia and Singapore within 60 minutes of its initial post.
The company, founded by friends Duncan Oakes and Dominic King in January 2017, continues to be swamped with enquiries and is already taking £25,000 per month in orders after it received specialist advice from a marketing expert funded by MGP. K2 has now taken on an extra member of staff to cope with demand and is looking at employing another person because of its strong future order book.
For further information
www.manufacturingrowthprogramme.co.uk

The University of Strathclyde’s Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) has announced that it will run the Scottish Government’s new £8.9 Lightweight Manufacturing Centre. Developing new manufacturing processes for lightweight materials, such as titanium and carbon fibre, the facility will be the first step towards creating a National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland.
The centre will support highly skilled jobs and help place Scotland at the forefront of lightweight manufacturing. Making the announcement in front of over 130 aerospace industry representatives at a supply chain seminar held at the AFRC recently, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “The Lightweight Manufacturing Centre will help Scottish businesses take advantage of the fact that sectors such as aerospace and automotive are making more and more use of lightweight materials.”
For further information www.strath.ac.uk