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How AMRC's COMPASS facility will help clear a global aircraft backlog
AMRC'S COMPASS facility has been set up to derisk and accelerate the production of large-scale composite parts - AMRC University of Sheffield
Engineering has always been defined by the pursuit of the impossible. Today, that impossibility is a maths problem: clear a global aircraft backlog of tens of thousands while meeting a non-negotiable mandate for net-zero flight.
Solving this requires more than just better design. It demands a fundamental shift from manual craftsmanship to high-rate, industrialised automation and digital integration.
In 2023, the University of Sheffield AMRC set out a vision to solve this equation. Announced as a cornerstone of the UK’s first Investment Zone, the Composites at Speed and Scale (COMPASS) programme was conceived to de-risk and accelerate the manufacture of large-scale composite parts. Today, that vision has shifted from blueprints and construction dust into a 2,700m² research and development (R&D) reality.
In a landscape now shaped by the government’s new Industrial Strategy that champions advanced manufacturing as a national priority, the COMPASS facility is fully built, its state-of-the-art equipment funded by the Aerospace Technology Institute is live and the first user - Boeing’s largest global research project - is commissioned.
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