Around 50 delegates from global brands and other engineering firms recently gathered at Coleg Cambria to hear how the AMRC in Wales plans to drive big improvements in productivity through the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies such as augmented reality, robotics, automation and artificial intelligence.
Andy Silcox, research director at the AMRC in Wales (
www.amrc.co.uk), said: “ It was a fantastic turn-out for our first industry engagement day, which is a tribute to the facilities and people at Coleg Cambria and to the hard work of Aerospace Wales, with their network of dynamic engineering companies and talent.
“There is a real interest in how the AMRC in Wales will be able to help drive innovation — not just in OEMs but also smaller companies in the region’s supply chains.
"We do this by de-risking the development and adoption of smart technologies — what we sometimes call Industry 4.0 or Made Smarter technologies — through using rigorous independent research to develop the most effective solutions.”
Dave Cooper, managing director of Tarvin Precision in Flintshire, said he found the event extremely useful, giving him the chance to meet the AMRC directors and understand their vision.
“We are moving into the Additive Layer Manufacturing supply chain, which complements perfectly our current sub-contract manufacturing capability.
"The technology challenges we face are in the quality and verification of ALM parts for the aerospace sector. R&D through collaboration with our customers and the AMRC will be very important to helping us understand new innovations and de-risking new technology integration.”
AMRC in Wales’ commercial director, Nick Tyson, said: “We find that it really helps companies to understand the benefit of industrial digitalisation if they can experience these technologies first-hand, as real-world demonstrators.
"That’s what we do at the AMRC, and by collaborating with partners in research projects, we develop smarter solutions to their engineering and manufacturing challenges.”