Engineering news
McLaren Automotive is to open a £50 million Composites Technology Centre in Sheffield that will create more than 200 jobs.
The facility, developed in partnership with the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), will be responsible for the development and manufacturing of advanced carbon fibre chassis for McLaren Automotive’s supercars.
McLaren Automotive and the University of Sheffield will deliver a two-year research and development programme, which will lead to the development of a production facility to build its lightweight carbon fibre chassis for its new models from 2020. The University of Sheffield’s AMRC Training Centre will also immediately start training McLaren apprentices who will work in the new facility.
Professor Keith Ridgway, executive dean at the University of Sheffield’s AMRC, said: “In many respects the partnership represents a new model that repositions manufacturing in Sheffield, taking it on from coal and steel to high performance components for the automotive, as well as the aerospace, sector.
“We will be working with McLaren Automotive on the construction of the carbon fibre chassis and further research, and we are talking with the supply chain. It is our ambition that supply chain companies will start to build factories here to supply the chassis plant.”
Mike Flewitt, chief executive of McLaren Automotive, added: “We evaluated several options to achieve this objective but the opportunity created by the AMRC at the University of Sheffield was compelling. At the AMRC, we will have access to some of the world’s finest composites and materials research capabilities, and I look forward to building a world-class facility and talented team at the new McLaren Composites Technology Centre.”
The facility is due to start construction in early 2017 with the first pre-production carbon fibre chassis, built using trial manufacturing processes in the AMRC, expected to be delivered to the McLaren Technology Centre in the second half of 2017. Full production at the facility will begin by 2020.