Rolls-Royce and EPSRC - Strategic Partnership case study

EPSRC Strategic Partnerships

The Power of Partnership Rolls-Royce, a flagship UK company, has been providing power systems for aircraft, ships and land applications for more than 100 years. Accounting for 0.6% of GDP and 2% of UK exports of goods its current importance is more than matched by future opportunities to secure business in sectors offering major growth potential.

But commercial success depends on a relentless commitment to confront fierce global competition – and that demands science & engineering excellence rooted in world-class research.

It’s not just about the capacity to respond rapidly to in-service issues and keep customers happy. It’s about generating fundamental insights – into each material used, each system built, each process developed – that ensures every component can withstand extreme operating conditions, whether in aero-engines or nuclear reactors. Crucially, these insights mean materials can be exploited more effectively, efficiently and sustainably too, and they also pave the way for innovations that equip Rolls-Royce to keep pace with – and often outpace – its competitors.

The company’s relationship with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), based on a Strategic Partnership Flagship Programme, is essential to making it happen.

Working closely with EPSRC, Rolls-Royce is able to leverage not only funding, but also ideas and talent within the UK research base. EPSRC invests more than £800 million a year in research and postgraduate training, providing a platform for the two organisations to dovetail their delivery of technologies, capabilities and skills. This generates an array of benefits both for Rolls-Royce and for ‘UK plc’, as well as enhanced air safety, a cleaner environment and lower costs for countless organisations worldwide.

A Unique Research Resource Rolls-Royce meets most of its fundamental research needs by accessing the very best expertise available in academia. Underpinning this policy is a 31-strong global network of University Technology Centres (UTCs), specialist reservoirs of talent that Rolls-Royce not only harnesses but also invests heavily in. The UK is home to around two-thirds of these, evidence of the company’s conviction that UK universities can match, and in many cases outperform, their counterparts overseas.

This proven model is reinforced by the support for

projects, programmes and people at UK universities provided by bodies such as EPSRC and Innovate UK (formerly Technology Strategy Board – TSB). The value of EPSRC support is particularly apparent in its focus on longstanding research challenges as well as current topics of interest and of national importance, with many initiatives benefiting from the clear route to industrial take-up embedded in the UTCs. Through this powerful blend of RollsRoyce investment and public funding, the UTC network is firmly established as a unique research resource fizzing with vision, creativity and dynamism, and continually delivering solutions to real-world problems.

Technologies that Transform…

Material Gains The £50 million Rolls-Royce/EPSRC Strategic Partnership Flagship Programme in Structural Metallic Systems for Gas Turbine Applications has a clear aim: through fundamental research, to provide the foundation for next-generation aeroengines that, running hotter or faster than current designs, deliver significant improvements in engine efficiency and environmental impact. Launched in 2009 and now extending through to 2019, this joint-funded initiative is both utilising and extending the capabilities of seven UK universities, with contributions also from industry. A pivotal role is played by Cambridge, Birmingham and Swansea Universities, whose UTCs merged into a University Technology Partnership in Materials a decade ago.

Weight of Evidence One breakthrough achieved by the Strategic Partnership Flagship Programme has been the implementation of titanium aluminides – lowdensity materials that, when used in the lowpressure turbines at the rear of aero-engines, cut engine weight, fuel-burn and emissions. Swansea University has been at the forefront of this work, harnessing its specialist expertise in the testing of materials’ properties developed over the last 30 years with Rolls-Royce and EPSRC support.

Following successful engine tests at Rolls-Royce

The initiative also combines its pursuit of technical goals with a key focus on skills development.

The Programme is already generating impressive results. New high-strength steels for engine shafts, new nickel and cobalt-based superalloys for turbine disks, new highly heat-resistant refractory metal alloys for turbine blades – these are just three outcomes of the radical thinking applied by the team.

But hand-in-hand with such innovations go fresh insights into the complex structure and behaviour of existing superalloys typically containing ten or more different chemical elements. The incremental improvements in performance made possible by these insights will translate into significant savings for Rolls-Royce in engine manufacturing and service costs, and multi-million-pound annual savings for operators of large aircraft fleets.

Derby in summer 2014, titanium aluminides are on track to enter service in the company’s worldrenowned Trent® family of aero-engines.

Blades of Change Rolls-Royce’s Trent® XWB was designed and manufactured in the UK and is the most efficient aero-engine in the world. Incorporating a host of fuel-saving features, its development has been a huge undertaking and has resulted in the fastestselling civil engine in aviation history, with contracts for the Airbus A350 that the Trent XWB will power securing a reported 100,000 UK jobs.

The Rolls-Royce, Innovate UK and EPSRC-funded SAMULET (Strategic Affordable Manufacturing in the UK through Leading Environmental Technologies) programme led by Rolls-Royce is valued at up to £90 million over four years and has made an important contribution to the Trent XWB. At the Heat Transfer & Aerodynamics UTC based at Oxford University, detailed testing and analysis pinpointed the blade configuration that would deliver optimum heattransfer performance – critical to ensuring a more efficient, longer-lasting engine.

Working with our Strategic Partnership in Structural Metallic Systems has made a significant contribution to the continued success of the aerospace sector and the UK supply chain. Support from EPSRC has enabled us to provide a unique, stable funding research platform over a 10 year timeframe allowing the academic teams to concentrate on fundamental research that will have economic and scientific impact over many years. Not only has this work provided data and expertise that feeds into other national programmes such as those supported by Innovate UK and the ATI (Aerospace Technology Institute), accelerating the transfer of knowledge, it has also produced a talent pool of highly qualified engineers for the benefit of academia and supply chain alike.

Neil Glover, Chief of Materials, Rolls-Royce plc

Capabilities to Compete…

Centre Stage To compete effectively at a global level, the UK needs world-class, state-of-the-art research capabilities and facilities. The £60 million, 5800m2 High Temperature Research Centre now being built at Birmingham University will help meet this need.

Made possible by £20 million in support from the Research Partnership Investment Fund (RPIF – a Higher Education Funding Council for England

initiative) matched with £40 million from RollsRoyce, the Centre is envisioned as a hub of R&D excellence in manufacturing technologies for alloys that can be transferred rapidly to industry. EPSRCsupported researchers will play a prominent role in the Centre’s development and operation, and a core objective is to produce highly skilled engineers equipped to respond fast and flexibly to emerging industrial challenges.

Skills to Succeed…

A priority for both Rolls-Royce and EPSRC is to take practical steps to catalyse emergence of the next generation of UK scientists and engineers, to safeguard academia and industry from skills shortages in key disciplines such as materials science and engineering, including physical metallurgy. At doctoral and post-doctoral level, both organisations provide the funding through a range of routes, along with the project opportunities vital to developing expertise and experience – with EPSRC and Rolls-Royce support reinforcing, complementing and often interconnecting with each other. â A unique feature of the Rolls-Royce/EPSRC Strategic Partnership Flagship Programme is

its inclusion of a parallel training programme delivered by an EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT). Through this Centre, PhD and EngD students research industry-relevant issues and contribute to the development of engine components destined to enter commercial service. To date, around 100 students have joined the programme with over 60% of those graduating recruited to Rolls-Royce or the supply chain. The combination of researcher training integrated with 70 man-years of post-doctoral effort is central to the Partnership’s success. â EPSRC trains over 7000 students through the CDTs and Rolls-Royce adds value to many of

these Centres, by not simply providing highquality research opportunities but also directly recruiting high-calibre students emerging from the CDT process. Professor Adrian Sutton, Chairman of the CDT on Theory and Simulation of Materials at Imperial College London says, “Close relationships with companies like RollsRoyce are vital to opening students’ eyes to the career possibilities in UK industry.”

Career Forward The interlinking of Rolls-Royce and EPSRC support for skills development has generated many success stories in terms of strengthening the UK’s research base and enabling career progression. Dr Ben Britton worked on an EPSRC-funded DPhil project at Oxford University on deformation mechanisms in titanium alloys used in aerospace applications, which benefited hugely from close contact with Rolls-Royce.

His post-doctoral work – funded by EPSRC and with Rolls-Royce providing an external advisor – applied the findings to materials used in energy generation (fusion) and led to his current position as Nuclear Metallurgy Fellow at Imperial College London, where he is also a theme lead at the Rolls-Royce Nuclear Engineering UTC.

Engine of Growth – The Bottom Line The examples highlighted in this publication underline the potential power of partnerships between private and public sector, working together with academia, to generate world-class research and expertise that enable UK businesses to flourish in expanding but demanding global markets. EPSRC creates opportunities for industry to strengthen existing collaborations and create new productive partnerships with both universities and companies in specific areas of interest.

Rolls-Royce provides a prime example as it continues to profit from its recognition of the critical role of research in driving the company forward – and in enhancing its status as a world-renowned pace-setter, job creator and growth generator.

â EPSRC is the UK’s main agency for funding research in engineering and physical sciences. â EPSRC invests around £800 million a year in an extensive range of subjects – from materials science to mathematics, and from IT to structural engineering. â EPSRC works with around 2000 companies and partner organisations; around 40% of the research funded is collaborative with industry. â Rolls-Royce directly employs over 24,000 people in the UK and enables employment in the supply chain â In 2014, Rolls-Royce invested £1.2 billion gross in R&D and submitted more patent applications (600) than any other company. â With global air traffic predicted to double by 2030, 35,000 new passenger aircraft are expected to enter service by that date – a huge opportunity for Rolls-Royce and the rest of the UK aerospace industry, already the largest in Europe.