Inside the shape-shifting VR factory of manufacturing's future

31 March 2016

Factory 2050, the AMRC's latest development and the first on the University of Sheffield's new Advanced Manufacturing Campus, has been featured by New Scientist magazine.

The AMRC with Boeing's new Factory 2050 facility. Credit: Bond Bryan.

The article, by Jacob Aron, headline "Wait, I'll reconfigure" quotes AMRC chief technical officer Prof Sam Turner and Integrated Manufacturing Group control engineer Steve Bowles.

Aron writes: "Factory 2050 feels like a toy shop, but the researchers aren't just tinkering. The goal is to get the ideas straight into industrial use, rather than letting them languish in the lab.

"The place is sparkling clean, and smells like a newly furnished IKEA, but it's gearing up to change the way whole industries work. The brains behind the project are rethinking the manufacturing process itself, aiming to change how we make everything from airplanes to nuclear power plants.

"By linking together all the cameras, lasers and other sensors the team can create a digital twin of the building that will monitor every manufacturing process and perhaps individual components."

Related News

Robotic drilling: sofa, so good
30/03/2021
A family-run furniture maker has become an industry leader with the help of digital m …
South Korean business delegation tour the AMRC as part of trade and investment initiative
19/05/2015
Members of a South Korean business delegation have toured the AMRC as part of an in …
AMRC is an ‘enormous success’ but more to be done
19/03/2019
A powerful Parliamentary committee investigating the effectiveness of the Government& …
New alliance of advanced manufacturing research for Scotland and the Northern Powerhouse
31/05/2016
Professor Keith Ridgway - founder and Executive Chair of the University of Sheffield' …