A groundbreaking project using 3D printing to boost productivity on Merseyside has been honoured at 2019 Made in the North West Awards.
Wirral-headquartered valve manufacturer Heap and Partners teamed up with the Virtual Engineering Centre at the University of Liverpool in a bid to make better use of state-of-the-art technology in manufacturing.
In an awards ceremony held at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester, the collaboration was honoured at the Made in the North West Awards hosted by broadcaster Manish Bhasin.
The work was delivered as part of the ERDF funded LCR 4.0 Project which supports manufacturing SMEs within the Liverpool City Region to improve productivity.
The Virtual Engineering Centre helped Heap and Partners create and use an augmented reality app to better show its customers the inner workings of the company’s valve designs.
The companies also worked with Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre and Campus Technology Hub to create a 3D printed valve in a move that is set to revolutionize how Heap and Partners develop and showcases new prototype products.
Manufacturing employs nearly 50,000 staff in 3,000 companies in the Liverpool City Region directly contributing £3.2bn to the overall economy.
Founded in 1866, Heap and Partners is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers and distributors of fluid control equipment.
Established in 2010, the University of Liverpool’s Virtual Engineering Centre is the UK’s leading centre of Virtual Engineering technology integration for industrial and commercial applications.