Factory2050

Construction group Interserve has been selected for a £43m project to construct University of Sheffield’s aerospace research unit Factory 2050, in the UK.

The unit will be part of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), which was co-founded by the university with Boeing.

The Factory 2050 will be the first fully reconfigurable assembly and component manufacturing facility for collaborative research in the country. It will have 50 researchers and engineers working on aerospace projects.

University of Sheffield AMRC executive dean Keith Ridgway CBE said: "It will give us a home for the research and demonstration work associated with building the next generation of aircraft and energy technologies.

"The aim is to be able to manufacture any component as a one-off, and instantaneously switch between components."

"It will give us a home for the research and demonstration work associated with building the next generation of aircraft and energy technologies."

The project will deal with technologies such as advanced robotics, flexible automation, unmanned workspace, off-line programming in virtual environments that connect to plug-and-play robotics, 3D printing from flexible automated systems, man-machine interfaces, and new programming and training tools.

Ridgway previously said: "This will be the most advanced factory in the world.

"It will give us a home for the research and demonstration work associated with building the next generation of aircraft and energy technologies."

The financial support for the project is provided by the European Regional Development Fund and the Research Partnership Investment Fund, managed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

The Factory will be located in a 4,500m2 area and a larger part of it will be constructed with glass.
The work for the project will start this month and will be completed in 2015.

Image: Architect’s visualisation of Factory 2050. Photo: courtesy of AMRC.

Defence Technology