Specialist machine tool company MTT look to Hudds researchers
Pictured with the University's Principal Enterprise Fellow Dr Andrew Longstaff (left) and Senior Research Fellow Dr Simon Fletcher (right) are MTT's Financial Controller Martin Clifford (second left) and Managing Director Peter Willoughby (second right).
Fri, 07 Aug 2015 01:00:00 BST
Machine Tool Technologies Ltd has undertaken three Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with the Centre for Precision Technologies and now look to cement relations into the future
In the video Peter Willougby, Managing Director of Machine Tools Technologies Ltd (MTT), talks about the benefits of working with a university.
THE University of Huddersfield has a rapidly growing research infrastructure but it has also had a long history of collaborative research across many industrial sectors. The Centre for Precision Technologies (CPT) is an important centre for research into precision engineering, metrology and machine tool performance, and it now has cemented its links with a technology company that has a portfolio of major industrial clients.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the University and the firm Machine Tool Technologies Ltd (MTT), now regarded as the UK’s leading specialist machine tool service provider for machine tool users.
The Memorandum is a significant landmark in a long-standing relationship that has already resulted in three Government-backed Knowledge Transfer Partnerships between the University and MTT. A fourth proposal is in the pipeline.
Also, the firm has called on the University’s scientific experts to carry out research into many technical problems in the field of machine tool accuracy and performance. They are also key partners in the University’s EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology, based in the CPT, that has seen them collaborate on methods of understanding and enhancing machine tool accuracy. The MoU will be a platform for further collaborations.
“As well as providing research and academic input to industrial problems, the University of Huddersfield has been instrumental in solving the skills gap within MTT”, said Managing Director Peter Willoughby. “We particularly like working with Huddersfield as we speak the same language and we feel comfortable taking the academics into industrial environments – they bridge the gap between academia and industry.”
The link has been mutually beneficial, according to Dr Andrew Longstaff, a Principal Enterprise Fellow at the University’s EPSRC Centre, who was a signatory to the Memorandum of Understanding.
“The relationship with MTT has been brilliant for us in terms of impact, because they work with many blue chip companies, in fields that range from Formula One to aerospace,” said Dr Longstaff. “This means that innovations and inventions by researchers at the University can gain industrial and commercial acceptance more quickly.”
An example of the equipment used by CPT in order to conduct research into precision engineering, metrology and machine tool performance.
MTT was launched in 2001, but Dr Longstaff has been collaborating with its co-founder and director, metrologist Peter Willoughby, since the mid-1990s. The firm has a large team of engineers and it offers services that include breakdown response, machine tool capability testing and optimisation, machine relocations and installations, maintenance, training, as well as retrofit and rebuild projects.
A recent restructuring of the company has raised its profile, and the Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Huddersfield coincides with this. MTT was already a partner in the EPSRC Centre and a new development is that the firm has become a member of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing (AMRC).
Based near Rotherham, the AMRC is a world-class centre for collaborative research and Dr Longstaff has recently received a High Value Manufacturing Catapult Fellowship to carry out industry-focused research at the facility.
