Img Credit: McLaren Automotive
For the few who don’t know, McLaren Cars were founded in 1985 which later became McLaren Automotive. Today, they remain a successful British car manufacturer based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey where their primary focus is on sports cars.
In 2017, McLaren constructed a £50m McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) at the Advanced Manufacturing Park between Sheffield and Rotherham. The facility is responsible for building carbon fibre chassis for all McLaren road cars.
McLaren Automotive became a 100% owned subsidiary of the wider McLaren Group in July 2017 and recently celebrated selling their 20,000th car. It will be hand-assembled at the McLaren Production Centre (MPC) in Surrey.
On Tuesday next week, the Southern Manufacturing and Electronics 2017 Show kicks off. One of Europe’s top events in engineering technology, it attracts some of Europe’s top engineering companies as both exhibitors and visitors.
Running over 3 days, 21st – 23rd March the show has over 800 exhibitors and showcases an incredible array of machinery, electronics, components and production hardware as well as specialist engineering services.
PRV Engineering will be attending the Southern Manufacturing and Electronics Show again this year and will be located on stand N92.
Waterjet cutting is one of the most effective methods of machining materials. With no heat affected zone, small cutting widths and omni directional cutting, virtually any material can be cut with precision and accuracy. Because of this, waterjet cutting results in better product finish with little or no secondary processing needed. In addition, waterjet cutting is more environmentally friendly as the dust, chippings or gas produced by other cutting methods does not occur. In addition, as there is no need to change tool heads, blades or lubricants for each material, machining time is also reduced.
Plastic, rubber, wood, glass, metals and composite materials can all be cut using a pure waterjet or hydro abrasive waterjet cutting. For some materials the addition of an abrasive agent is needed to aid effective cutting. Below is an overview of the types of materials that can be cut.
McLaren has announced that it is to construct the new McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) in Sheffield. The facility is the result of a £50m joint investment with Sheffield City Council and the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC).
The facility, which will create 200 jobs will be the first purpose built facility outside of the existing McLaren site in Woking, Surrey. The centre will be responsible for the research and manufacture of carbon fibre chassis for current McLaren automotive cars and also for future models. With work on the new centre due to start shortly, it is anticipated that there will be 2 years of research and development before advanced carbon fibre chassis will be manufactured from 2020. This will mean that at this point in time almost 60% of all McLarens will be UK sourced.
The annual manufacturing report compiled from survey data in August and September 2016 and covers areas such as the economy, connectivity, automation and recruitment.
It comes as no surprise that uncertainty factors in a range of responses, especially when talking about the economy and in general. Whilst things have remained reasonably stable in the light of Brexit, it is clear that the unknowns of the next few years are having an impact on the decision making in many companies. For some this uncertainty is translating into delays in investment and commencement of new projects.
Nearly 2 years after the project confirmed equity funding, the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon has just been backed by a government commission review.
Former UK energy minister Charles Hendry has been gathering evidence for the independent enquiry for almost a year and as part of that review has visited all the potential sites and held various discussions with the industry. That report says that the project would make a strong contribution to the UK’s energy supply.
There were a host of other conclusions in the report, but some of the headline ones were:
We’re just getting to the end of the year and on the face of it UK manufacturing seems to have weathered the initial Brexit storm. There will undoubtedly be ups and downs over the next couple of years as well as uncertainty whilst the exit terms are negotiated.
Can you foresee what’s going to happen and be ready for every eventuality? Of course not! All you can do is make sure that you keep an eye on what’s going on and keep up with how the latest developments could have an impact on your business. There is little point in panicking and making huge changes until the unknown becomes known. By all means review things to see where you might need to change policies and processes if certain scenarios come into play. You may even go so far as to get some documents drafted and approved for use so that they can be brought into play immediately should your anticipated change become a reality. And for some of the big manufacturers who have many European offices and employees from other European countries in place, that is, in all likelihood happening right now.
As we approach the year end we thought we’d take a look back at some of the new and innovative engineering stories and reports that came out this year.
There were some astounding breakthroughs in the medical and healthcare sectors as well as enhancements in the more run of the mill procedures.
Osseo integration (the practice of using pins to implant directly into the bone) has been in the news throughout the year. Despite many successful surgeries overseas, growth in the use of the procedure has been relatively slow. A UK pilot of the procedure for military personnel who have lost limbs launched in September this year. If successful it is hoped the use of the procedure can be adopted more widely.
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