Metrology as a key component of sustainable manufacture

SECTION 3 Key Themes

Metrology as a key component of sustainable manufacture

Trends & Drivers TD1 TD4 Research Themes RT5 Capabilities & Enablers CE3 CE4 CE5 CE7

Sustainable manufacture is a topic of great interest to society, while climate change and the green revolution will continue to have a pre-eminent place in the public conscious. Great attention is being paid to how energy is generated and used. Metrology has significant direct and indirect roles to play in reducing energy usage in the manufacturing sector.

The energy efficiency of any manufacturing process is directly linked to the operating efficiency of that process. If a process can be completed more quickly or with fewer stages, less energy will be used overall. The ability to accurately model and simulate manufacturing processes at the design stage, through a true digital twin, would allow a process to be optimised in advance of machining, without having to go through a trial and error approach. This is especially important for low volume manufacture of high value parts where production run times are long per part but are too short for empirical data to be generated for a number of similar parts.

The ability to autonomously control manufacturing in real time, as a result of in-process measurement, offers the potential for further efficiency gains as processes can be kept in their optimum range throughout changing manufacturing conditions. The direct efficiency benefits are obvious. However, there are also substantial indirect benefits. By reducing the need for rework or corrective machining, energy use is further reduced. Meanwhile, material waste is reduced through optimised stock removal and fewer scrap parts. This yields a downstream benefit in the form of reduced embedded emissions as a result of raw material manufacture and transport. As with all technological improvement, there is an initial trade off to be made. Developing integrated metrology systems for an established manufacturing environment requires significant investment by industry in terms of capital outlay and upskilling of the workforce. However, the increased productivity and reduced lead times can offset this to manufacturers and yield a substantial return. Large companies who already enjoy strong relationships with universities and the metrology community through industrial R&D programmes are well placed to take advantage of this technology as ‘early adopters’ however, the benefits are potentially even more relevant for small to medium size companies which engage in the manufacture of high value components at very low volumes. These smaller companies often do not have access to the resources necessary to run an R&D programme. Access to innovation grants administered either directly through funding bodies such as Innovate UK or indirectly through academic institutions is crucial to overcoming this barrier to participation.

Key message

An increased ability to quantify and evaluate various aspects of the manufacturing process can help companies achieve significant gains in efficiency. However, developing and adopting new metrology technologies and techniques is capital intensive and few companies have access to world leading knowledge and expertise in the field.