Nikken expand Innovation Centre for 21st century developments

The newly developed centre will house a number of different elements to further the expansion of the European business. These include a dedicated resource for the provision of services associated with the technical partnership forged earlier this year between Nikken and Boeing, supporting the requirements of the latter’s first European production facility.

These resources incorporate a dedicated toolroom and area for process optimisation, ensuring that the components produced by Boeing Sheffield are manufactured in the most efficient manner. Part of this includes a turnkey presetting and balancing operation that will streamline the entire process.

Alongside this, a state-of-the-art laboratory has been installed for the design and testing of the latest Industry 4.0 developments, including software development and PCB design and assembly for the next generation of connected products. These solutions enable the remote monitoring and intervention of industrial equipment to streamline processes and increase uptime.

There will also be a product testing area incorporated into the facilities which will enable Nikken research engineers to benchmark and develop new solutions, accelerating the time to market for future products. This expands on the rapid prototyping capability that has delivered the V-Ex vacuum extractor and the Nikken I/O Industry 4.0 solution.

Further future services that will be available to customers include the provision of ‘first artefact’ machining to assist product development processes without impacting on customers’ production capacity. Effectively where a part/project is at its inception and the customer, with existing production commitments, doesn’t have available capacity or resources Nikken could provide this as a service using its equipment, capabilities and expertise.

Speaking about the development, Nikken Europe CEO and president Tony Bowkett said; “At Nikken we are continually developing our technologies, advanced solutions and services. It’s exciting times in our company’s history and evolution.

The phase 2 expansion of our R&D activities on the Advanced Manufacturing Park will create further high value career opportunities for local talented engineers.”

Nikken Kosakusho www.nikken-world.com