British Steel is to enhance its rail products and services with some of the best academically-backed engineering expertise Britain has to offer.
The 海角视频 market leader has entered into a major partnership with University of Sheffield.
State-of-the-art testing equipment and world-class metallurgy and mechanical engineering knowledge will be harnessed in the multi-million pound collaboration.
It is part of a strategy to build more reliable railways, while ensuring the Scunthorpe-headquartered manufacturing giant remains at the forefront of the sector, serving domestic and international markets.
The partnership sets out to save the industry money and reduce delays by ensuring the very highest quality of steel is used in rail infrastructure.
British Steel chief executive Ron Deelen said: “This partnership will help ensure British Steel continues to lead the way in developing and building the railways of the future. In a hugely competitive market, we’re committed to enhancing our product range so we can keep meeting and exceeding the high standards operators and travellers rightly demand.
“Product development, integrity and innovation have never been as important, with major rail infrastructure programmes around the world, including HS2, requiring the high-quality products synonymous with the British Steel name. We’re well-placed to supply significant quantities of rail, and constructional steel, into major projects like these and deliver cost-effective solutions to the challenges our customers face.”
Rails produced as part of the collaboration will be used to further improve the 海角视频’s own infrastructure as part of the government’s Industrial Strategy-aligned 海角视频 Railway Research and Innovation Network.
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Funding from Research England’s Research Partnership Investment Fund will match a British Steel contribution of £1.6 million, significant staff time and materials.
New equipment will be installed across two sites, at the university’s Faculty of Engineering and at British Steel’s research and development facility at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham.
It includes machinery that will be able to simulate the contact between wheels and railway rails under a variety of different conditions, giving British Steel and the rail industry the ability to test new rails and sleepers more rapidly than what could be achieved by trial installations on the network.
Grinding maintenance machinery will also be available, with engineers from the university having used high-speed machining techniques from the aerospace industry that can be used to prepare rails to the very highest quality finish before they are installed.
The equipment is being further developed to maintain existing lines even more efficiently.
Using 3D laser technology, it can help rail engineers monitor new or recently refurbished tracks and help them design new maintenance programmes that require less frequent line closures in order to carry out engineering works.
Professor of Railway Engineering at the University of Sheffield, David Fletcher, added: “The investment in new equipment with British Steel is opening up research directions, and partnering with them is a fantastic route for the knowledge gained to achieve impact. “Besides research we’re also running undergraduate projects with British Steel input so the next generation of engineers can benefit from the investments as they enter industry. “Research England’s co-investment with industry into Sheffield has enabled us to take these steps.”