The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) is one of the seven centres that form the High-Value Manufacturing Catapult in the UK. MTC was established to prove innovative manufacturing processes and technologies in an agile environment in partnership with industry, academia and industry. MTC is a membership organisation with now around 100 industrial members including Rolls-Royce, Airbus UK, Siemens, Sandvik and others. The membership incorporates a good mix of technology providers and end users for digital manufacturing. Founder research partners include the University of Birmingham, University of Nottingham, Loughborough University and TWI Ltd.
The MTC provides a high-quality environment for the development and demonstration of new technologies on an industrial scale in a low-risk environment. MTC specialises in a range of manufacturing processes that are particularly valuable to the high-value manufacturing sector;
• Additive Manufacturing
• Digital Engineering
• Advanced Production Systems (Including Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics)
• Technology Transformation
The technology development programmes that are currently running at MTC provide pre-production demonstration of manufacturing technologies through work in the TRL 4 - 7 range, integrating OEMs, supply chain and equipment suppliers. The MTC is an independent RTO that has created the MTC Innovation Ecosystem around its technology centre capability.
In addition to its technology scale-up and transformation competencies, the MTC Innovation Ecosystem comprises:
• Close links to its founders University of Birmingham, Loughborough University and the University of Nottingham but also working with over 15 other Universities across the country
• MTC industrial membership organisation with over 100 industrial members consisting of Rolls Royce, AIRBUS, Siemens, Hexagon, Sandvik and many more; membership is cross-sectorial with a mix of technology providers and users.
• Business Launch Centre to support technical and business transformation in small companies and the Product Manufacturing Incubator (PMI), incubation services to support the scale-up of innovative manufacturing businesses. The MTC engages with approximately 1000 SMEs pa, with approximately 200 active projects with SMEs.
• The Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre (AMTC) is training currently over 500 apprentices with a particular focus on the latest technologies such as Digital technologies, robotics, additive manufacturing etc. In addition, AMTC is providing Life Long Learning in these technologies for the existing workforce in the industry. The AMTC is working in close cooperation and with support from Lloyds Bank in the UK.
• MTC is one of its 7 centres which form the High-Value Manufacturing Catapult in the UK and supports the UK’s digitalisation initiative “Made Smarter”.
• MTC is recognised as a Digital Innovation Hub on a European Level and is involved in several initiatives through Horizon2020. The MTC model is recognised on the European level leading to various strategic partnerships across Europe.
• MTC also is an active member in EARTO, euRobotics, EFFRA and ADRA.
The Manufacturing Technology Centre is a leading centre in the UK's High-Value Manufacturing Catapult, with a wide range of capabilities focussed on helping UK companies bring novel and disruptive technologies to fruition in the manufacturing sector.
The Digital Manufacturing Innovation Hub Wales (DMIW) is a Welsh Digital Innovation Hub, supporting innovation and the exploitation of industrial digital technologies within manufacturing and processing SMEs.