Tuesday, September 3, 2013

News: Rotherham expertise on show at low carbon vehicle event

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Project partners from Rotherham working on pioneering research will showcase their work this week at Cenex LCV2013, the UK's premier low carbon vehicle event for showcasing new technology and networking.

Rotherham will be home to The Proving Factory, a £22m government-backed manufacturing initiative that will take low-carbon vehicle technologies designed by small high-tech British companies and university research departments and prove their viability in production to increase their chances of being adopted by major motor manufacturers.

Part of Tata Steel's Brinsworth site will house the new component manufacturing facility as part of the initiative that aims to bridge the gap (or "Valley of Death") between small enterprises developing leading edge low carbon technology and large vehicle manufacturers.

The Proving Factory will be taking over the whole of Hall One at the exhibition being held at Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire. The Proving Factory's founders, Productiv and Tata Steel, and investing partners MIRA and MTC (part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult), will be joined by the technology developers: Bladon Jets, Flybrid, Torotrak, Drive Systems Design, Libralato. Other supporting partners include Jaguar Land Rover, Schaeffler, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC in Rotherham) and the Midlands Assembly Network.

The event will also see Magnomatics, a Sheffield company specialising in the development of energy efficient technologies, named as the newest addition to The Proving Factory. A high-technology spin-out company formed in 2006 from the internationally renowned research group in Electrical Machines and Drives at the University of Sheffield, Magnomatics develops and delivers novel proprietary magnetic transmissions and ultra compact and efficient motors and generators for some of the world's largest multinationals and is active in a range of industries, including automotive, renewable energy, aerospace, marine and defence.

The Niche Vehicle Network will also be represented at the event where it will be showcasing the results of a number of R&D projects. This includes the £100,000 ELCOMAP (Environmentally friendly lightweight composite materials for aerodynamic body panels) project researching the potential alternatives to composite technologies currently in use such as carbon fibre and epoxy resin systems. The technology has the potential to revolutionise the production of low volume specialist components for high performance vehicles.

Project partners include a number of firms based on the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham - Performance Engineered Solutions (PES) Ltd, TEKS UK Ltd and the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing.

The Niche Vehicle Network will also be announcing the winners of its 2013 Niche Vehicle R&D Competition.

Cenex LCV website
Proving Factory website

Images: Cenex LCV

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