Brunel University (www.brunel.ac.uk) in London has been awarded £15 million by the Government to proceed with the second phase of its Advanced Metal Casting Centre (AMCC), the purpose of which is “to scale up processes and innovations that work in the laboratory but fail to achieve their potential on the factory floor”.

This will create a new lab to conduct research on nucleation, liquid-metal engineering, the development of advanced materials and more-efficient casting/processing technologies.

Professor Zhongyun Fan — founder and director of the Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology — said there is “firm evidence that the casting industry has not been able to conduct high-level R&D by itself, nor has it previously been supported by adequate research in UK universities”.

He said that the size of the new award underlines how important cutting-edge casting technology is to the competitive position of every sector of UK manufacturing.

The funding will complete the AMCC’s range of factory-level metal casting/processing facilities and establish critical research facilities for developing advanced metallic materials, as well as underpin component performance testing and create a suite for process modelling and simulation.

The professor said that the long-term intention is to establish a National Metals Research Park on Brunel’s campus, to further accelerate the industrial take-up of new technologies. “In addition, it will form an integral part of the UK national infrastructure for revitalising the UK manufacturing sector in support of economic growth.”

The funding comes from the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund, which supports large-scale projects that attract substantial co-investment from private sources.