Britain's second city, Birmingham has a rich heritage in metal forming and manufacturing, including companies involved in global aerospace and automotive supply chains. Visits were structured to take in both present-day industry and heritage stops in this manufacturing region.
This visit began at Jaguar Land Rover, visiting one of its major manufacturing facilities, followed by a visit to the British Motor Museum which hosts the largest collection of historic British Cars.
This visit followed the same programme as the above Tour 1, but begin at the British Motor Museum, followed by Jaguar Land Rover.
Taking in the exciting local innovation, this visit included The Welding Institute, a local pioneer in joining technologies including friction stir welding and friction spot joining, in addition to significant materials testing and surface coating capabilities, with applications across aerospace, automotive and energy sectors. In the afternoon, visitors visited IWM Duxford, a European centre of aviation history with an outstanding collection of aircraft, including the Spitfire, Concorde and Vulcan.
This visit included the impressive Manufacturing Technology Centre which is working to develop cutting-edge manufacturing technologies and processes, including for instance metal spinning, as well as learning about the local transport industry heritage at Coventry Transport Museum, hosting the world’s fastest car.
This tour began with a visit to John Taylor and Co. Bell Foundry, the world's largest working bell foundry who cast Britain’s largest bell found at St Paul’s Cathedral. This was followed by a visit to the Rolls-Royce technology exhibition to learn about the latest technologies used in their jet engines worldwide, as well as the heritage centre which hosts an impressive collection of the engines manufactured throughout the history of Rolls-Royce.
Visitors travelled to JCB to experience the manufacturing process behind the world-famous yellow diggers and excavators, from the delivery of sheet metal through to the final product. Visitors then had the opportunity to visit Smith of Derby who have designed, manufactured and installed some of the world's most famous clocks since 1856. These have included clocks for St Paul's Cathedral in London, the Majlis Clocktower in Oman, and Shanghai's Customs House.
This tour included a visit to Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery, specialising in the production of industrial gas turbine for global markets and Bifrangi UK, a world leader in closed die forging of components such as crankshafts for transport, agricultural and power generation sectors.
Visitors had the opportunity to visit British Steel, who host one of Europe's most impressive steelworks. Visitors also had the exciting opportunity to view the whole steel-making process, from the sinter plant and blast furnace through to casting and final rolling of steel products such as rail sections and wire rod. British Steel supplies products to numerous sectors including rail, automotive, construction and energy industries.
Sheffield Forgemasters is home to impressive forging and casting capabilities, giving visitors the opportunity to view the processes behind production of some of the world's largest steel components for nuclear, oil & gas, power generation, and engineering industries. This was followed by a visit to Wortley Top Forge, the oldest surviving heavy iron forge in the world, whose history extends back to 1640.
Visitors had the opportunity to visit Gripple, an award-winning manufacturer of wire joining tensioning devices with innovation, sustainability and employee ownership at its core. This was be followed by a visit to Wortley Top Forge, the oldest surviving heavy iron forge in the world, whose history extends back to 1640.
This visit began with DavyMarkham, hosts of one of Europe's largest and most impressive engineering workshops, capable of designing and manufacturing very large equipment for quarrying, metal processing, mining and tunnelling, nuclear and defence and infrastructure sectors, which included for instance working on Tunnel Boring Machines for the Channel Tunnel. The company is the one of the UK leaders in the design and manufacture of high level and intermediate level nuclear waste packages. This visit then travelled to Leeds, home to one of the country's most impressive collections of armour, the Royal Armouries, to learn about the rich history of metal forming in producing arms and armour from around the world.