The Advanced Machinery & Productivity Initiative will enable invention, realise innovation, and adoption of new machinery and robotics through UK equipment manufacturers. The programme enables economic prosperity through the design, development and manufacture of intelligent machinery, robotic and cooperative systems demanded by existing and emerging industrial sectors. Centred around existing capabilities and research excellence across the North of England, AMPI will be a partnership between industry, local government, higher education institutions and the UK's National Physical Laboratory. It will provide a secure space, technical resources and skills pipeline needed for advanced machinery innovation to flourish, delivering a sustainable impact on its own local economy and that of UK industry export. The partnership will deliver an outcome of progressive and exploitable technologies that are needed for the UK to realise its ambitions for economic growth, a resilient supply chain and technologies needed to deliver targets such as net zero carbon emissions. It will provide businesses with access to cutting-edge R&D, expertise and facilities to help solve innovation challenges. The North of England has an active and high concentration of industrial expertise in the design, development and manufacture of complex machinery. The machinery is used in a wide range of industries to manufacture products such as pharmaceuticals, food and drink, and automotive components. The North of England has some of the world's leading academics in industrial research, including robotics, automation, metrology and artificial intelligence. The UK Machinery sector has formed a collaborative working group to develop a coherent position to deliver a lasting mechanism to innovate and cooperate, while developing the next generation of skills needed for sustained economic growth. In the longer term AMPI will stimulate and support rapid growth the UK's machinery manufacturing sector as it transitions to highly integrated digital solutions with sophisticated automated and autonomous robotic systems. It is expected to grow the UK capability to a £4bn UK export capacity within 10 years establishing over 30,000 high value manufacturing sector jobs.

Laser interferometry is commonly used to measure machine axis accuracy but has one major flaw in that it cannot be used to monitor axis dynamic performance while the machine is cutting. Laser measurements are typically made in static mode in fixed positions along the machine axis meaning the axis is stationary when each measurement is made so potentially it doesn't reflect the performance of the machine when it's in its working condition cutting components. This low cost in-situ laser monitoring system will measure axis position, velocity, acceleration and angle at all times even when the machine is cutting ensuring the most accurate method for determining the performance of the machine axis. This data will form the basis of more accurate compensations and/or allow an accurate performance/condition monitoring system. Data from the system can be monitored over time to provide machine degradation information and performance data for monitoring of production.

Servitisation of machine tools is a proposed business model where a manufacturer purchases productive time available on a machine, rather than the capital asset. Servitisation has been implemented successfully in areas such as production lines, tooling supply and most notably Rolls-Royce aero engines who supply engines almost exclusively to their clients based on a servitisation model. This approach will improve productivity, raise technology levels and improve sustainability of manufacturing throughout the UK’s supply chain. SMEs will gain access to cutting edge CNC machines while the onerous responsibility for maintaining machine quality, performance and availability would reside with the experts in maintenance. The challenge is to mitigate service supplier’s considerable risk since the machine is being operated by their customer. This project will develop advanced monitoring technology and analytics for both the machine and manufacturing process, with metrology (the science of measurement) and digital manufacturing being the heart of the solution.

To define and adopt an object-oriented approach to PLC programming to allow maintenance and reuse of code across multiple projects.

At least 25% of the process time for high value manufactured components arises from machining. CNC machine tools are programmed to produce geometry to a nominal form and surface finish, sources of error in the machining system impact on the cost, quality and delivery. These sources are split into those induced by the condition of the machine tool system and those induced by the behaviour of the work piece. The consortium, comprising machine builders, solution providers, academic institutes and end users, will collaborate to produce a predictive software tool that uniquely integrates both machine and machining models to provide prediction and visualisation of component geometry and surface finish. Machine users will be able to model the effects on part accuracy of machine, work holding, and part flexibilities during a cutting cycle, and design their part programs accordingly, thereby reducing prototyping and production downtime. Machine builders will use the tool to improve the design and efficiency of new product development. The modular solution is a stepping-stone to an all-encompassing model for controlling the accuracy of the machining process.

to design and embed a new machine tool thermal error assessment capability.