AMRC or The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre has agreed on a deal for one of the UK’s largest-ever deployments of AR for use across its 3 sites in the UK.

AMRC works with 100+ industrial partners like Boeing, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Airbus, and McLaren Automotive has signed an agreement with PTC to realise Vuforia Expert Capture (VEC) software.

This will enable tasks to be reported using a wearable device which can then be programmed into a step-by-step video-guided instruction manual for employees to implement at several sites and companies.

This deal builds on a long-term relationship between both the institutions. VEC played a crucial role in remotely transferring manufacturing expertise safely to various new production lines supporting the build of 13,000+ ventilators for the VCUK (VentilatorChallengeUK Consortium).

“Vuforia Expert Capture will be used primarily by our Factory 2050 teams to deliver upskilling and reskilling solutions for our aerospace partners, with the potential for much wider application into other sectors. Our involvement in VCUK gave us first-hand experience of the power of AR in helping to quickly set up new manufacturing lines safely by rapidly transferring production knowledge to different facilities. It has the potential to transform future supply chains, and this is something we wanted to explore in more detail by giving researchers, our existing manufacturing partners and SMEs easy access to VEC and other PTC technologies.”

– Professor Rab Scott, Digital Head, AMRC.

The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre works from buildings at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, along with AMRC North West in Lancashire and AMRC Cymru in North Wales.