Toward Smarter Manufacturing and Materials

At the U.K.'s new Advanced Manufacturing Research Center, engineers and innovators have at their disposal some of the world's most advanced design and manufacturing assets for precision engineering.

For well over a century the word “Sheffield” has been synonymous with high-quality steel products, ranging from cutlery to heavy engineering products for bridges, railways, and aircraft. Following many years of industrial decline as much traditional large-scale manufacturing departed in the direction of low-wage Asian economies, the region suffered accordingly.

However, high-quality specialist engineering and manufacturing continued to remain competitive, especially for very demanding sectors such as aerospace and energy generation. This has led to the creation of R&D facilities alongside Sheffield University, within a fast expanding hi-tech business park dedicated to innovation in manufacturing processes, including composites, metallics, and hybrid components. This has just been boosted with the announcement of a new $60 million project to build an advanced “showcase” factory, Factory 2050.