The Catapult centres exist for the bit of innovation that universities are not paid to love: process, tooling, and the first fifty units.
If your work package needs a factory-shaped room rather than a seminar, start here.
It is a network rather than a building — seven centres, each with a different specialism and character. The AMRC in Sheffield and the Advanced Forming Research Centre near Glasgow cover machining and forming; the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry spans automation and additive; the National Composites Centre in Bristol does what its name suggests; CPI handles process and formulation; Nuclear AMRC and WMG cover their respective sectors.
The distinguishing asset is not the equipment, which can be bought, but the engineers who have commissioned processes for real customers and know which risks are genuine. For an SME facing a qualification it cannot afford to fail, that experience is the product.
Capabilities
- Process scale-up and first production
- Digital manufacturing
- Sector-specific application centres
- Additive manufacturing and post-processing
- Automation and robotics cell development
- Metrology and inspection method development
Ways in
The routes that exist, and what each is suited to.
Directly funded industrial projects
You pay, you own the output. Suited to work with a clear commercial deadline and a result you would rather not share.
Grant-funded collaborative projects
Co-funded work through national innovation programmes, usually with several partners. Slower to assemble, considerably cheaper to the individual firm.
SME programmes and membership
Structured support routes designed for smaller firms, including short de-risking projects that would be uneconomic as full contracts.
How to approach them
Identify the right centre before making contact. The network's breadth is a strength, and an enquiry aimed at the wrong specialism will be redirected pleasantly and slowly.
Arrive with the part, the volume and the problem. These centres are unusually good at telling you within one conversation whether a process is the answer, and unusually willing to say that it is not.
Known for
- Process development that has moved a great many UK components from prototype to qualified production
- Composite manufacturing methods now standard in aerospace supply chains
- Digital manufacturing pilots translated from demonstration into working plant