The Midlands-based industrial robot supplier has become a member of the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) so it can offer greater technical support to future automation projects.

Membership of the organisation means KUKA will take part in a broad range of AMRC projects and receive privileged access to the centre’s resources and capabilities.

KUKA says it is keen to work more closely with the Rotherham establishment after being chosen to supply a number of robots for a variety of AMRC research programmes.

“As the UK subsidiary of Europe’s largest robot manufacturer, I feel it is not only important to give backing to the AMRC’s pioneering work, but also demonstrate KUKA’s enthusiasm to share its expertise with a talented group of researchers,” explained managing director Jeff Nowill.

KUKA robots are currently being used at the centre for a project headed by Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems to explore automated assembly applications in the aerospace industry.

The robot supplier also provided a KR 16 model for a three-year study, which investigated the production of large aircraft components using the shaped metal deposition process.

It was part of an automated production cell, which was designed to build up components from welded wire and show how the SMD method could be transformed from an experimental concept to a commercially viable manufacturing technology.