The University of Strathclyde’s Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) (www.strath.ac.uk) has secured £16.5 million to establish a major new facility that will put Scotland at the forefront of the movement to transform one of the manufacturing sector’s most traditional and important supply chains.

FutureForge — supported by the UK Aerospace Research and Technology Programme, Scottish Enterprise and the AFRC’s Catapult funding — is intended to revolutionise the global hot forging sector.

It will include a ‘one-of-a-kind Industry 4.0-ready demonstrator’, and it will see the AFRC working with companies in the aerospace, automotive, oil and gas, energy, nuclear and rail industries to increase their global competitiveness.

Ivan McKee, the Scottish government minister for trade, investment and innovation, said: “I’m delighted to see this latest development for the AFRC.

"The new facility will put Scotland at the forefront of the latest industrial revolution, helping some of the most traditional manufacturing businesses and their supply chains to embrace the latest in digital technologies.”

AFRC chairman Keith Ridgway said: “This is an exciting time for advanced engineering and manufacturing in Scotland.

“This is the third big announcement in the past year, and the country’s reputation as the ‘go to’ place for the development of the next generation of manufacturing technologies is strengthening.

"The FutureForge facility will see us transform the $268 billion global forging supply chain.”