Catapult boosts Rolls-Royce

摘要

Rolls-Royce is investing £160 million in a state-of-the-art engine disc manufacturing facility in Sunderland as a result of work at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) in South Yorkshire, which is part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. The 18-month project has cut cycle time in half and doubled the productivity for machining fan discs and intermediate- and high-pressure turbine blades. These improvements were possible because the centre allows engineers to look at first principles, says Sam Turner, head of the process technology group at the AMRC. This step change means it is competitive for Rolls-Royce to build the factory in the UK rather than elsewhere.