The Herald reports  metal forming and forging techniques to support manufacturing for the aerospace, energy, marine and automobile industries.  It will be the only research Institute in the UK in possession of super-plastic forming technology, enabling researchers to shape complex materials at temperatures of > 960°C,  a £1.5m screw press (right) capable of exerting a force of> 2000 tonnes with pinpoint accuracy, and furnaces capable of temperatures <1200°C.

So far, the Centre  has attracted £6m of private sector investment split evenly among Barnes Aerospace, Rolls-Royce, Boeing, Mettis Aerospace, TIMET and Aubert & Duval “tier-one” partners who committed to investing £200,000 a year in the centre over a five-year contract.

There are also 13 “tier-two” partners, investing £25,000 a year or supplying equipment and kit of an equivalent value. Finding solutions for the problems and demands of the industrial partners will be the focus for the AFRC’s scientists and engineers.

Research has been up and running at the AFRC for six months with moves already under way to enlarge the centre two-fold over the next couple of years – both physically and “comfortably doubling” 

its current 50 research staff – as well as attracting additional investment from the renewables, energy and automotive sectors.

Professor Bill Ion, operations director for the AFRC,  expects “tier-one” members to reach 12 by 2014, with up to 60 PhD studentships also on the cards.

He said: “What we do here is precision engineering with the kind of energy saving which is vital for the manufacturing industry – how do we reduce waste, the cost of energy we put in and forge difficult to forge materials more easily? It’s also about technology – if we know what Boeing want for the next generation of aerospace models, even if it’s just a blue sky idea, we can work to find a practical solution.”

The AFRC will further R&D activities related to:

• Metal forming processes, e.g. forging, pressing, super plastic forming etc;
• Primary techniques, e.g. plastic deformation and flow;
• Supporting technologies, e.g. heat treatment;
• Supply chain issues, e.g. materials quality and purity;
• Processes, e.g. die manufacture and lubricants;
• Design of tooling, e.g. modelling.

AFRC's activities range from blue-sky projects laying the foundations of future forming technology and trouble shooting established industrial processes. Researchers will be able to exploit a new £16m purpose-built facility that incorporates:

• Industrial forming machines, including screw and hydraulic, servo and Super Plastic Forming (SPF) presses,
• State-of-the-art laboratory including metrology and metallurgy,
• Workshops with electro-mechanical and High Performance Computing simulation facility.
• Macro process parameters (tool geometry and loading rates) with micro-characteristics of the form material (grain size and structure).

The University is currently managing the largest forging and forming contract under Framework 6 from the EU. The Governance will allow full participation from other specialist institutes and universities to ensure the most appropriate support is brought to bear.  
  


Worldwide market for forgings was $46bn during 2005 forecast to grow to $55.7bn by 2010. Turnover of the UK forging and forming industry in 2004 was £2.1bn or a GVA of £0.8bn.

This project has attracted the interest of some of the world’s leading international engineering and technology companies  across many sectors: aerospace, automotive, defence, marine, energy, oil and gas.