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Cost savings in the order of £130M over the REF period have been achieved by Rolls-Royce through the improvement of engine reliability of civil and military aero-engines, industrial machines used for electricity generation and gas/oil pumping applications through the use of techniques and processes developed by the Vibration University Technology Centre (UTC) at Imperial College London.
A manufacturing process developed by Bradford researchers has revolutionised the way endodontists perform root canal treatments. When coated with a hydrophilic polymer, the highly-filled hygroscopic material has enabled UK company DRFP to develop SmartPoint — a new endodontic technique that dramatically reduces failure rates of root canal treatments from 11-30% over five years to approximately 1%, and gives lower levels of post-operative pain when compared with conventional techniques. The technology has won three awards for innovation and DRFP has expanded significantly, with a dedicated production facility and sales team offering visits to dentists to demonstrate the benefits of the technology.
Aeroengine casings are some of the highest value components within the modern gas turbine, since their complex geometries and exotic materials lead to significant manufacturing challenges. The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) has helped Rolls-Royce to overcome these challenges by developing a novel optimised manufacturing approach for aeroengine casings. This has led to substantial economic impact on Rolls-Royce as the manufacturing time for these components has reduced by up to [text removed for publication] saving more than [text removed for publication] since 2008. [text removed for publication]
Diffusion bonding (DB) is well-known for producing structured materials with fine scale features and is a critical technology for high efficiency reactors, e.g. heat exchangers and fuel cells, but currently equipment is slow and expensive (and there are size limitations to the `assemblies' that can be built). The University has researched and developed, with industry partners, a rapid affordable diffusion bonding (ADB) process involving direct heating to provide appropriate temperature and stress states and utilising flexible ultra-insulation (vacuum) for pressing titanium (and now aluminium) sheets together. The process operates at low stresses thus avoiding `channel' collapse. Investment is taking place in the partner companies to exploit the technology. A breakthrough has been achieved in the chemical machining of three dimensional structures for laminar flow technology assemblies in aluminium and titanium, that can be built by ADB.
For aerospace vehicles, the development of new materials and structural configurations are key tools in the relentless drive to reduce weight and increase performance (in terms of, for example, speed and flight characteristics). The economic drivers are clear — it is widely recognised that it is worth approximately $10k to save one pound of weight in a spacecraft per launch and $500 per pound for an aircraft over its lifetime. The environmental drivers (ACARE 2050) are also clear — reduced aircraft weight leads to lower fuel burn and, in turn, to lower CO2 and NOx emissions. With such high cost-to-weight ratios, there is intense industrial interest in the development of new structural configurations/concepts and enhanced structural models that allow better use of existing or new materials. Analytical structural mechanics models of novel anisotropic structures, developed at the University's Advanced Composites Centre for Innovation and Science (ACCIS), are now used in the industrial design of aircraft and spacecraft. Based on this research, a new, unique anisotropic composite blade, designed to meet an Urgent Operational Requirement for the MoD, is now flying on AgustaWestland EH101 helicopters that are deployed in Theatre. In addition, the new modelling tools and techniques have been adopted by Airbus, AgustaWestland, Cassidian and NASA and incorporated into LUSAS's finite element analysis software. These tools have, for example, been used to inform Airbus's decision to use a largely aluminium wing design rather than a hybrid CFRP/aluminium wing for the A380.
Aero-engine discs are complex to manufacture due to the exotic alloys required to withstand stress and temperature. Researchers at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) have devised a methodology for optimising the machining of the discs leading to a [text removed for publication] reduction in production time and [text removed for publication]. The availability of these methods has had a direct impact on the business case for a new Rolls-Royce factory in Gateshead, contributing to their decision to invest. [text removed for publication]
Impact on industry, academia and government institutions from engineering materials research in the Mechanical Engineering department has been delivered through it directly leading to UK, USA and International Standards and Codes relating to three themes:
The results of the research of staff in this unit have led directly to UK, US and International Standards and Codes: ASTM Standards E1457-07 (2012) and E2760-10 (2012); R5 EDF Energy Code of Practice (2012); BS 7910 (2013); ISO 25217 (2009); ISO CD 15114 (2011) and ISO 13477 (2008). These documents all cite peer-reviewed publications by staff from this unit. These Standards and Codes are now the basis of fracture-mechanics methodologies used by leading engineering companies like Airbus, EDF, E.ON, GKN, Rolls-Royce and Vestas, whose commercial success depends upon technological leadership. In this way our research has led to savings by UK industry of many millions of pounds, as detailed in Section 4.
Lightweight engine components for cars, buses, trucks, vans, industrial engines and machines are now used by automotive manufacturers such as Volkswagen Brazil, Daewoo, Leyland Truck and Buses and Russia Machines. Our research work has been employed in a series of automotive components (engine oil pans of 1.2, 1.6, 1.8, 2.2. 4, 10 litres oil capacity) through various original equipment manufacturers, primarily Eaton and Cummins. Depending on the amount of integration, the materials cut 10-15% of the weight for a basic oil pan configuration and 40% of the integrated oil pan system.
Researchers in QUB developed the first commercial process control system (Rotolog) and simulation software (RotoSim) for the Rotomoulding Plastics Industry. There has also been recent commercialisation of a new energy-saving system, the Rotocooler.
The fundamental understanding of the process that was developed also enabled the moulding of new materials for new application areas, notably motorcycle fuel tanks (now used by BMW, Ducati, Harley Davidson and Honda) and the world's first concept car made from sustainable polymers.
Global economic and environmental impact arises from a significantly more efficient process, better product quality, a greater selection of processable materials and thus increased sales.
There have been both direct and indirect contributions to cost savings, reduced fuel consumption and reduced CO2emissions through Sussex research into gas turbine engine technology. Rolls-Royce and GE Aviation have benefited from experimental measurements that have allowed improvements to internal air systems flow modelling. This has led to savings in engine testing of approximately £10M over the period; indirectly it has also led to substantial economic benefits through reduced costs for engine manufacturers and their airline clients, and to improved design of internal cooling and sealing systems, which has direct impact on reduced fuel consumption and emissions.