Log in
Research at Manchester has led to the development of a new class of high performance magnesium alloys based on the addition of rare-earth alloying elements. The new alloys combine low density and the highest strength of any magnesium alloy. Used to substitute for aluminium in aerospace and automotive they produce weight savings of 35% improving performance and reducing fuel consumption. Commercialisation of these alloys by Magnesium Elektron (ME), the international leader in magnesium alloy development, contributes over $20m per annum to company revenue. This includes development of the first commercial product available for bioresorbable magnesium implants, SynermagTM, launched in 2012.
Manchester research on differential protection, synchronised using the global positioning system (GPS), has opened up a radically new approach to protection and integrity of electrical transmission networks. The research has led to updating of international technical guides and international standards. In the UK, National Grid has implemented policies based on the research, which will save about £0.5m per annum in substation upgrade costs. The market for GPS synchronised differential protection products is £400m pa globally. This figure represents the "insurance premium" against the avoided cost of a power system failure, estimated in a report on the North-East USA blackout to be $6bn in economic cost and 11 directly attributable deaths.
This University of Manchester research underpins UK industry's global position in millimetre- wave imaging and ultra-high-precision sensing. These are key technologies in a range of industrial, medical and consumer electronics applications. The devices and methods developed by the research team are now used by a range of companies leading to economic impacts for the UK in strong export markets. In this case study we provide examples of impacts that support commercial sales in excess of £300m by UK SME and FTSE-listed companies in three sectors: automotive radar (e2v), terahertz imaging (TeraView), and linear encoders (Renishaw PLC).
The field of conceptual chemical process design as practiced industrially has been influenced significantly by the outputs from the Centre for Process Integration (CPI) at Manchester. Process Integration Ltd (PIL) was spun-out from Manchester and currently employs over 50 staff globally, who have conducted projects that have resulted in annual cost savings of hundreds of millions of US dollars. The application of CPI technology has led to significant reductions in both energy costs and emissions of greenhouse gases. Since 2008 ca. US$350m of savings have been realized through the exploitation of CPI technology with US$1.4m generated from software sales.
Hull-based research on critical systems thinking has been used for public, private and community benefit in Australasia, due to pivotal partnerships with the International Centre for Complex Project Management in Australia and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) in New Zealand. Benefits include: the reconciliation of economic and environmental imperatives in NZ water management, valued at NZ$1.7bn of economic growth; NZ$6.2m for ESR projects serving government clients; improved stakeholder consultation on NZ science investments; the development of new systems thinking capacity in the Victoria Department of Primary Industries (Australia); and 5% cost savings in key Australian defence procurements.
The activities of the Organic Materials Innovation Centre (OMIC) at the University of Manchester generate impact from its research activities through knowledge transfer to industry. This is exemplified by:
Provision of research-based training in the field of printed electronics and sensors to over 250 people from 2008 onwards.
Research at the University of Manchester has led to the provision of cost effective instruments for monitoring water, industrial and environmental pollution. The underpinning research on chemical sensors conducted in the unit was protected by patent, and in 2007 Multisensor Systems Ltd was spun-out in-order to meet the needs of the water industry and has grown to employ 6 people in 2013. Currently this is the only commercially available instrument sensitive enough to monitor low concentrations of hydrocarbon pollution and is used by major UK water companies to prevent risk of environmental pollution hazards with mitigated losses valued at more than £100m.
The impact presented in this case study is the commercialisation of 15 products with perfume microcapsules by Procter and Gamble (P&G), made possible using capsule mechanical strength data provided by Prof Zhibing Zhang's research group at Birmingham. Use of microcapsules gives improved freshness performance, and thus commercial advantage, compared with traditional formulations; they have been incorporated in P&G's four major billion-dollar brands — Downy, Febreze, Lenor and Tide. This has significantly improved their competitiveness enabling P&G to retain their leading position in the USA and Western Europe. A novel micromanipulation technique developed at the University of Birmingham has been used extensively to obtain mechanical properties data for the micro-particles, including microcapsules prepared in Birmingham and provided by companies, which is related to their formulation and processing conditions and end- use performance. In addition, the knowledge generated has helped 15 other companies to commercialise new functional products containing micro-particles.
Research (1993-2008) on novel silicon architectures and design methodologies for digital signal and video processing led to the creation of world leading semiconductor IP cores (chip designs) for implementing the main video and image compression standards including H.264, MPEG4, MPEG2, and JPEG2000. These have been licensed to semiconductor manufacturers worldwide including Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba and Sharp. Since 2008, such encoders/decoders have been incorporated into all DTV/HDTV SoCs produced by Conexant, NXP, Trident Microsystems and Entropic. They have also been used as the hardware acceleration engines in Intel's C2110 Media Processor. At least 150 million chips worldwide having been manufactured incorporating this technology.
The 33km Manchester Ship Canal (MSC) was one of the most polluted waterways in Europe following the industrial revolution. Ecosystems were destroyed and odorous sediment rafts prevented the redevelopment and regeneration of the surrounding water front areas that had an estimated real estate value of £500m.
The research led by White established the cause and extent of water pollution in the upper MSC and Salford Quays. Critically this research allowed evidence based restoration programmes to be initiated that have rejuvenated the waterway and Salford Quays areas. This improvement in water quality was the essential first step in the long term development of Salford Quays that has seen approximately 2,000 homes being built and the arrival of 900 businesses that employ over 35,000 people.