Coventry-based Sarginsons Industries (www.sarginsons.com) — an official partner of the £14 million Advanced Metal Casting Centre (AMCC) project — has shipped a Jaguar Land Rover die-casting tool to Italy, where it will be loaded into a low-pressure die-casting machine to be installed at the AMCC research centre at Brunel University.

The picture shows the tool being checked by Danny Malpass and Shaun Doyle before its journey to Italy. It is due to return by the end of March.

Sarginsons will then provide the technical expertise to operate the machine. In return, the company will have access to Brunel University’s best postgraduate research students, harnessing their creativity to develop workable industrial solutions.

Anthony Evans, managing director of Sarginsons, said: “This is the first time that the university has used this type of equipment. It will help to give the researchers practical hands-on experience of the industrial process.

"The partnership will be of great benefit to both parties, with the objectives of the centre focused on bridging the gap between new alloy innovations developed by the university’s Centre for Advanced Solidification and the full-scale industrial trials.”

The AMCC at Brunel is jointly funded by the EPSRC, Jaguar Land Rover, Constellium and Brunel University. It has several key objectives centred on producing innovative solutions to using newly developed alloys and metallurgical advances. One particular aim is to develop processes that produce lighter and sustainable products, using advanced manufacturing techniques.