Specialist engineering consultancy, Drive System Design (DSD), has joined new, government-backed initiative, The Proving Factory, giving access to shared quality processes, as well as equipment and facilities capable of providing manufacturing capacity of up to 20,000 units per year.
The move provides DSD customers with a route to low-volume manufacture to complement the transmission designs produced by the company.
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The Proving Factory is being developed by a consortium set-up to allow UK low-carbon technology companies to benefit from shared development and manufacturing resources.
These include a new component manufacturing facility in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, officially dedicated during a recent visit by UK Secretary of State for Business, Vince Cable, as well as to a new assembly facility that will be based in the West Midlands.
“Many of our customers are experienced in high-volume manufacture and the procurement of prototypes but struggle with intermediate volumes of a few thousand units,” said DSD managing director, Mark Findlay.
“The Proving Factory will allow us to offer a highly effective solution that is also secure and robust.”
Lead partners are Productiv, Tata Steel, MIRA and the Manufacturing Technology Centre, with support from Jaguar Land Rover and Schaeffler.
DSD will also have access to Tata Steel’s materials expertise to help with the durability, weight and other characteristics of its products. Additional funding comes from the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative.
“For some of our customers we will manage the complete design-and-supply service – for others we will just contribute the design and introduce them to the manufacturing team,” said Findlay.
“Whichever route is chosen, our membership will bring greater understanding of the manufacturing challenges early in the design process, leading to improved design quality.”
DSD added by providing access to the support and experience of major UK manufacturers, the initiative will also allow it to progress faster from the initial prototype and pilot stage through to volume production.
The first DSD project to pass through the Proving Factory scheme is likely to be a three-speed transmission for electric vehicles, which DSD has designed, developed and is integrating into a customer vehicle for launch in 2016.
