News: Efficient research for Newburgh Engineering and Nuclear AMRC

Newburgh Engineering is making use of the machining expertise at the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Nuclear AMRC) to make sure that the company's key products are made in the most efficient way.

The precision engineering specialist has it's head office and manufacturing facility in Templeborough and a site in Derbyshire. They have been involved in nuclear manufacturing since the 1950s, and now nuclear contracts make up 22% of the company's annual turnover.

As a Tier 2 member of the £25m Nuclear AMRC on the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, Newburgh benefits from access to world-class R&D capabilities, participation in generic R&D programmes, access to training programmes, networking opportunities with companies along the manufacturing supply chain and industry recognition through association with a world-class centre of excellence.

As part of Newburgh's membership agreement, one of the company's own employees – experienced production engineer Andrew Wright (pictured, above, left) – now works full-time at the Nuclear AMRC. As well as supporting the centre's machining team, Andrew is leading the project to optimise Newburgh's current production processes.

Making use of the Nuclear AMRC's facilities means that tests can be done without a cost to Newburgh's production time.

Andrew said: "Traditionally in a production environment, the engineers don't have time to do detailed tests – you can't optimise or do benchmarking. At the Nuclear AMRC, we've got time to do the analysis and get the best processes together and collect some proper data."

Newburgh can also draw on the academic resources of the centre. Kristian Wika, postgraduate research engineer at the Nuclear AMRC, is leading the investigation into new production techniques which could potentially be introduced to Newburgh's own factories.

Matthew Jewitt, commercial manager at Newburgh Engineering, said: "Newburgh Engineering is already a premier contract manufacturer, and has decades of knowledge about producing parts for the nuclear industry.

"Working with the Nuclear AMRC to optimize and improve our production methods will make us even better, and should secure our place as a key supplier for the nuclear new build."

Newburgh supplies fuels stringers to an existing fleet of nuclear builds, and is manufacturing various critical nuclear island components for the new global fleet. In 2010 the company announced that it had been awarded a major new ten year multi million pound contract with Westinghouse Electric UK and Springfields Fuels Ltd.

Stuart Dawson (pictured, above, right), head of machining research at the Nuclear AMRC, said: "Newburgh is a great example of the kind of manufacturing company that can succeed in the nuclear supply chain, and we’re proud to be working closely with them to help achieve their ambitions for the UK market and beyond."

Newburgh Engineering website
Nuclear AMRC website

Images: Nuclear AMRC