BACKGROUND
The local aerospace industry benefited from a £9m research and development project in partnership with Queen’s University Belfast and Invest Northern Ireland.
Through Project SCENIC, support from expert engineers at the Northern Ireland Technology Centre at Queen’s University Belfast helped position Northern Ireland as a global player in the manufacture of advanced metallic aerospace components.
CHALLENGE
The project, a collaboration between Queen’s University Belfast and a consortium of local companies, was set up in 2018 to improve the safety and performance of components on aeroplane wings by developing capabilities in titanium and other hard-metal machining.
Invest NI supported the project with £5m funding while £4m was provided by the consortium which included Moyola Precision Engineering, SAM-NI – previously known as JW Kane, RLC UK and Travan Precision Engineering.
RESULT
All industry partners are showing direct benefits from cost savings, supporting potential new sales, accelerated learning, increased knowledge and capability, building relationship with NITC (now AMIC–Digital Factory). AMIC has seen benefit from using the knowledge gained under Project SCENIC to build capability for current and future projects, and gained value from dissemination of knowledge to wider NI and UK manufacturing, supporting future collaboration with industry partners and HVMC centres.
Industry leaders achieved cost savings, new sales, accelerated learning and knowledge exchange as well as building important relationships with researchers and automation experts.
The Northern Ireland Technology Centre is now part of the Belfast Region City Deal funded £100m Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre, which aims to reinvigorate Northern Ireland’s industrial potential and address the future technology and skills challenges faced by the region’s manufacturing sector.
IMPACT
Colm Higgins at AMIC said: “The SCENIC partnership has demonstrated the value of strong collaboration between our experts and industry partners, focussed on the challenges faced by local business in the aerospace sector.
“Research and development has resulted in technical solutions being found and implemented in production.
One workstream developed a new automated process by which Moyola could apply sealant to prevent moisture entering the components, ensuring they did not become corroded. Moyola previously reported results in time savings of 78% and a total 64% financial saving over the duration of the project.
SAM-NI predicted significant savings over the coming years to be achieved as a result of the initial testing of high performance tooling performed and the implementation of the associated learnings by the company.
WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY
“The SCENIC project has been very beneficial to SAM NI. The advancements in technological knowledge and the adaption of the latest technology have added significant value to our business. SAM NI would like to thank the AMIC team and the other SCENIC partners for their assistance throughout the project, as this substantially reduced the time and costs associated with implementing these changes and we look forward to the next collaboration.”