The University of Derby has secured funding worth more than £180,000 for Techman Engineering as a result of a networking event with Made in the Midlands.
The funding is for two Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) initiatives, which bring businesses and universities together to achieve a company’s plans for improving competitiveness, productivity and performance through a specific project.
The projects must demonstrate innovation, such as the development of new technology, products or materials, and the use of scientific knowledge and expertise which the company does not already have, but which universities can provide.
Located in Chesterfield, Techman Engineering has more than 20 years’ experience in the manufacture and supply of precision-machined metal-based products, predominantly to the oil and gas industry, but also the defence, nuclear and aerospace industries.
Techman set up a state-of-the-art composites and R&D shop onsite in 2012, to develop complex turnkey solutions to customer requirements, ready to be deployed directly into the field across the globe.
The first KTP aims to develop embedded sensor, transmitter and signalling technology within oil and gas exploration equipment to increase its efficiency and effectiveness downhole at extreme pressures and temperatures. The second is to develop capability to design, investigate, analyse and develop composite based products with novel performance characteristics, enabling products to be developed to operate in extreme environments, for example, at elevated temperatures (up to 240C) and elevated pressure (up to 35000psi).
The University has recruited two researchers with the required expertise to help the company achieve its aim over a period of 28 months.
Simon Oxspring, Managing Director, from Techman Engineering, said: “We are very excited to be working with the University of Derby on these two projects. By partnering with the University we will have access to a huge amount of knowledge that normally would not be available to us, and the exposure into industry for the two researchers will be equally as valuable.”
Amanda Baxendale, Head of Knowledge Exchange at the University of Derby, said: “This is another superb opportunity for the University to forge a strong relationship with a business which has a clear vision for using innovation to achieve its aims through the KTP programme.
“Techman has ambitious plans to develop new products and we are delighted to be contributing to their vision by sharing our academic expertise in these fields, and appointing dedicated staff to work on the project, who will help to embed the knowledge within the company, enabling it to benefit from the use of the technology beyond the lifetime of the project.”
Pictured is a deep hole boring machine at Techman Engineering.