www.machineryclassi ed.co.uk
briefs
AMRC spin-out gains funding for productivity technology
FourJaw’s Chris Iveson and Robin Hartley are on a mission to make installing
the output-boosting technology simpler for manufacturers to deploy
A tech spin-out from the University
of Shef eld Advanced
Manufacturing Research Centre
(AMRC) has secured grant funding
to accelerate the development of
what has been dubbed the ‘Fitbit
for UK manufacturing.’
Early industrial adopters of
FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics’
technology are reporting ve-fold
increases in productivity, but the
rm’s founders, CEO Chris Iveson
and CTO Robin Hartley, are on a
mission to make installing the
output-boosting technology even
Smart ow opens new site
Engineering rm Smart ow
Couplings has opened a new site
in Grimsby as it prepares to step
up the manufacture of its range
of dry break couplings aimed at
driving safety and sustainability in
the oil, gas and chemical sectors.
The production facility at
Grimsby Enterprise Village will
replace the company’s previous
plant in Scunthorpe, giving more
space for stock and parts ahead
of the launch of the new uid
transfer couplings. Directors Gary
Thompson and Andrew Jackson
will continue to be based at
Smart ow’s of ce in Harrogate.
Development of the new
devices has been supported by
Innovate UK, which awarded
Smart ow £173K of funding last
year followed by a share of a
£90m package to protect current
innovation projects from the
impact of Covid-19.
The funding was awarded
towards the cost of industrial
testing and analysis of the
couplings at the National
Engineering Laboratory and wear
testing at the National Physics
Laboratory, which is taking part
this month.
Thompson said: “The new
sizes performed extremely well
during testing and we are now
stepping up production as we
prepare for export to our global
distributors during 2021.”
The Grimsby site is now fully
operational in preparation for
global export with a large number
of unbuilt couplings being set
aside to be adapted quickly to
customer speci cations for
reduced lead times.
Thompson added: “Our dry
break couplings have been
developed in different sizes and
materials, including carbon steel
and titanium, and now have all
the testing data we need to take
them to a worldwide market.”
simpler for manufacturers to deploy.
The two founders were research
engineers at the AMRC, part of the
High Value Manufacturing (HVM)
Catapult, when they came up with
the idea of an affordable device that
would harness production data to
empower technically excellent
manufacturers with world-class
productivity levels, enabling them to
thrive in the global marketplace.
Iveson said: “What we are looking
at here is a potential game-changer
for UK manufacturing and the
Business Productivity Programme
grant is just the nancial catalyst we
need to make a swift transition from
a rather labour-intensive installation
to a quick-to-deploy device that will
give production managers deep
insights that enable huge gains in
output and productivity.”
Hartley said in the high-value
manufacturing sector, which is key to
the northern economy, the average
utilisation of a machine is typically
less than 30 per cent. He added:
“Just a 10 per cent increase in
productivity would be revolutionary;
but our device delves deep into the
brains of shop oor machines,
decoding data to drive productivity
gains well in excess of this.”
FourJaw has received the grant
funding from the Business
Productivity Programme, a £4.7m
collaborative venture involving
Barnsley and Shef eld councils along
with the Shef eld City Region
Combined Mayoral Authority and the
England European Regional
Development Fund.
AMRC CEO Steve Foxley said it is
great to see the backing of two “very
talented and enterprising engineers”
who have set-up a rm that will help
UK manufacturers of all sizes.
Rolls-Royce completes engine run on Testbed 80
Rolls-Royce has completed the
rst engine run on its state-of-theart
Testbed 80, which will be the
largest indoor aerospace testbed
in the world when it is opened in
the coming months.
With an internal area of 7,500
square metres, making it larger
than a Premier League football
pitch, the testbed conducted its
rst run on a Rolls-Royce Trent
XWB engine in Derby.
This is a major milestone in
the project that been under
construction for almost three
years and is part of a £90m
investment.
Civil aerospace president Chris
Cholerton, said it is an
important landmark the
journey towards a more
sustainable future for
aerospace and aviation.
He added that Testbed
80 will not only test
engines such as the
Trent XWB, but also the
engines and propulsion
systems of the future,
which will “see us take
another step towards
decarbonisation”.
Testbed 80 will be the world’s
largest indoor aerospace testbed
The testbed can house engines
of all sizes up to 155klbf thrust –
enough power to launch a Boeing
747 with one (huge) engine.
Testbed 80 is also equipped
with a 140,000 litre fuel tank for
different fuel types, including
sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs)
and collects data from 10,000
parmeters on an engine.
6 February 2021, issue 1 - Machinery Classifi ed
/www.machineryclassi