EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology

Vision

The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology is breaking new ground, developing the concept of the “factory on the machine” to deliver “disruptive” solutions to UK industry in the field of Total Machining and Advanced Surfaces.  This concept will link measurement and production in a unique way to enable the manufacturing base to meet the challenges of ever increasing precision, complexity and quality, whilst still minimising costs.

Measurement is the key indicator of optimal function of a component and is truly critical for high value-added products, but measurement is often viewed as an additional cost burden by industry.  Simultaneous measurement of a component’s geometry and surface within the machine environment would facilitate massive benefits in time, cost and efficiency across wide swathes of manufacturing.  New sensors, modelling techniques, geometrical characterisation paradigms, and specification tools are beginning to be developed to achieve this and there is significant frontier/ongoing research in this area.  However, there is a clear technology gap in bringing together these separate aspects under one umbrella for the benefit of the UK manufacturing sector. The quest to unite these research areas has given birth to the holistic concept of the “factory on the machine”.

Key challenges to achieving the concept of the “factory on the machine” are:

(1) Elevation of machine tool accuracies beyond the present formidable barriers to those currently only achievable by advanced metrology equipment and stable operating environments, through embodiment of our leading research in machine error modelling and reduction. This combines on-line measurement and quality optimisation within the machine tool environment;

(2) Building sound foundations for the “factory on the machine”, by developing new metrology instrumentation, used within the machine environment and a novel toolkit, for geometrical characterisation (size, geometry and texture) for the next generation of engineering products.

Overall, the EPSRC Centre will provide coherent research solutions to the manufacturing sector to ensure that advanced UK manufacture is at the forefront of emerging technologies.  Partnership with UK industry will provide a research focal point, a national network to disseminate the outcomes and a link with other networks, EPSRC Centres, Integrated Knowledge Centres, and Technology and Innovation Centres to ensure that the research provides the required outputs to drive industry forward.