At Halifax Numerical Controls (HNC), a leading manufacturer of rubber roll grinding machines, the drive for continuous improvement is paramount. With 64 machines installed across four continents since entering the rubber roller market in 2012, HNC has consistently sought ways to enhance the precision and performance of its products. A key area for development involved gaining a deeper understanding of how their machines behave under real-world forces and thermal conditions. This knowledge is crucial for constructing machines with tighter tolerances, ultimately leading to greater precision for their customers’ rollers. To tackle this, HNC identified the need for in-depth analysis into the finite stiffness and thermal stability of their machines, a challenge that required specialised expertise and resources.
HNC secured vital support through the Advanced Machinery and Productivity Institute (AMPI)’s Innovation for Machinery (I4M) funding programme. This crucial funding enabled a collaborative project with the University of Huddersfield’s Department of Precision Technologies. The partnership focused on Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to predict machine reactions to force, vibration, and heat, alongside thermal imaging to understand heat behaviour during operation. This collaboration allowed HNC to integrate cutting-edge research, significantly improving their understanding of thermal errors in the machine bed and compensating for them.
The I4M project yielded significant outcomes, providing HNC with data-driven insights to enhance machine durability and performance, meeting the highest quality standards. This success led to HNC becoming a “proud member of the AMPI Consortium“ (Mike Diskin, Managing Director of HNC), signifying a deeper, more expansive relationship. This elevated partnership improved their commercial opportunities and enabled HNC to continue pushing the boundaries of innovation. Without AMPI’s support, this important work could not have gone ahead.
As an AMPI consortium partner, HNC is actively developing advanced control systems, collaborating with the University of Huddersfield and Fives Landis. This ongoing partnership could unlock an additional £70,000 in funding across I4M’s research, consultancy, and industry training streams. HNC’s journey, initiated by the I4M grant, exemplifies how strategic partnerships and targeted funding drive significant technological advancements and foster long-term growth within the UK manufacturing sector.
“I4M was easy to access and provided us with excellent insight into how our machines perform both statically and thermally. This enables us to produce better machinery and become market leaders.”
Mike Diskin, Managing Director, HNC
Innovation for Machinery (I4M) is a funding scheme that provides SME businesses in Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire with access to advanced machinery expertise to accelerate the development of the next generation of machinery and create new jobs and growth in this sector.
We’ve recently launched our I4M Industry Training route which offers up to £5,000 per person (up to two awards per company) for training that develops the diverse expertise needed to design, build, install, and maintain advanced machinery.
Explore our new funding route
