Aerospace castings facility gets £7m cash injection
The University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre has secured £7million in funding for research into large titanium castings for the next generation of aircraft.
Currently, the UK is not capable of producing the largest titanium castings for aircraft and engine cases that are required by the aerospace industry.
The new funding, provided by government and industry through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), will be used for research into the manufacture of these aerospace titanium castings.
The investment will fund a new facility at CTI that will allow companies within the aerospace industry to melt and manufacture these precision castings in the UK instead of this work being carried out abroad.
The new CTI facility will be able to cast large structural parts with a poured weight of up to 1000kg, compared to the 90kg it is currently capable of.
The funding was announced by Business Secretary Vince Cable at the BIS Manufacturing Summit in Merseyside yesterday.
He said: "Our aerospace sector is a global success story and is key to driving the current economic recovery.
"This project, which we are funding through our aerospace industrial strategy, will support the development of efficient and environmentally friendly aircraft, while keeping highly skilled manufacturing jobs here in Britain."
