Each day The Manufacturer compiles the top manufacturing news stories from around the web. To make your life a little easier, we trawl through all the major trade publications, broadsheets and business magazines to find you the most important manufacturing news each morning. Don't forget to bookmark this page and check back daily.
UK car industry records best October since 2019
The UK car industry witnessed an output surge of 31.6% in October, new figures show.
According to the latest Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) data, UK car makers produced 91,512 units last month, marking the best October performance since 2019. More via The Manufacturer
Airbus to make Eurofighter fit for electronic combat
Following the recent parliamentary approval by the German budget committee, Airbus will equip 15 German Eurofighters for electronic combat – and equip them with a transmitter location and self-protection system from Saab, as well as “AARGM” anti-radar missiles from the American company Northrop Grumman. The Eurofighter EK is to be NATO-certified by 2030 and will then replace the Tornado in the SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defence) role. More via Airbus
BBSRC launches UK’s first bioscience prosperity partnership programme
For the very first time, the prosperity partnership programme dedicates its focus to the UK’s bioscience and biotechnology sectors.
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) will support 10 dynamic research collaborations between UK business and academia in its first round of prosperity partnership funding. More via UK Research and Innovation
AFRC and ITP Aero win EPSRC Prosperity Partnership Award
The University of Strathclyde’s, Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC), part of the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland Group and ITP Aero have co-developed a project to minimise energy use and material waste and enhance productivity throughout the lifecycle of the aerospace superplastic forming process.
The three-year, £750,000 project aims to develop a predictive tool to identify the lowest temperature possible for successful superplastic forming (SPF) across ITP’s product range. More via The Manufacturer
Open letter penned by over 130 Teesside groups calling to secure steel industry
Over 130 Teesside groups have signed an open letter calling for the government to save the region’s steel industry.
Businesses, community groups, and sports and social clubs alike have signed the letter asking for the Government to “save our steel” – saying it is “crunch time” for the future of the region. The letter asks for people from all sides of the political spectrum to commit to securing the industry’s long-term future on Teesside amid uncertainty. More via Teesside Live
Framatome planning UK nuclear fuel fabrication facility
French company Framatome is planning the construction of a nuclear fuel fabrication facility in the UK as part of its plans to scale-up its operations in the country. In a separate development it also announced it was setting up a joint venture with Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation.
The company says that the proposed facility in the UK will manufacture nuclear fuel for large pressurised water reactors and for light water small modular reactors – these categories include parent company EDF’s two EPRs under construction at Hinkley Point C and proposed similar-sized development at Sizewell C. More via World Nuclear News
UK scientists, engineers and innovators collaborate to accelerate future combat aircraft air power capability
The UK’s foremost combat air companies and the Ministry of Defence have conducted research with scientists at the cutting-edge of machine learning, artificial intelligence, data science and computing to support the development of software for a next-generation fighter jet.
Tempest will be part of the UK’s future combat air system (FCAS), and is designed to be a supersonic stealth fighter equipped with pioneering technologies, including state-of-the-art integrated sensing and protection capabilities. These capabilities will be delivered, in part, by millions of lines of code on the aircraft, with many more lines of code also present in ground-based systems. This means the software on Tempest needs to be more robust and resilient than that on its potential adversaries. More via BAE Systems
FANUC celebrates student success in Industrial Robotics contest finals
The winners of the 2023 WorldSkills UK Industrial Robotics competition, held in conjunction with FANUC UK, have been announced at an awards ceremony in Manchester.
Representing the best of the UK’s rising robotics talent, Hannah Currie and Peter O’Neill from Northern Regional College in Northern Ireland beat over 50 talented young apprentices and students to take gold at the national finals, which were held over three days in November at FANUC’s UK headquarters in Coventry. The duo now have the chance to represent Team UK at the WorldSkills International Industrial Robotics competition in 2024. More via The Manufacturer
