15 February 2010

Ice champs winning goal given helping hand by AMRC

Top technology at the University of Sheffield´s Advanced Manufacturing Centre with Boeing (AMRC) has given Britain´s best ice athletes a boost in their quest for medals at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Vancouver games have just kicked off and engineers at the AMRC Composites Centre are keeping a close eye on Britain´s skeleton bobsleigh team after helping develop the aerodynamic skeleton bobsleigh package that will be used by Kristan Bromley and Shelley Rudman in the Winter Olympics.

The high-performance engineering work that was undertaken as part of the Bromley Formula Ice 2010 programme, teamed AMRC engineers with partners Bromley Technologies Ltd and rapid prototyping company, Materialise Ltd.

The programme aims to give the athletes equipment and technical support developed through research and development, and this ongoing development partnership enabled new aerodynamics for the skeleton bobs to be designed, rapid-prototyped, tested and produced in just seven days.

This is the second time experts at the AMRC have lent a hand to ice-champs in their medal run. As part of the same Bromley Formula Ice 2010 programme, apprentices at the AMRC had teamed-up to help the two-Woman Bobsleigh World Champion pair during their preparations for the Winter Olympics.

The apprentices had used their manufacturing and engineering skills to machine the runners for the World Champion pair, which includes South Yorkshire´s Nicola Minichiello, using research and development carried out as part of Bromley Technologies Ltd´s Formula Ice programme.

Professor Keith Ridgeway, AMRC co-founder, said: "We are delighted to be working alongside a world-class company in Bromley Techologies. With our combined expertise in engineering technology, we have developed an innovative package for the British skeleton bobsleigh team. We will be eagerly watching Kristan and Shelley's performance and wish them every success at the games."

Professor Mike Hounslow, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Engineering at the University of Sheffield, said: "The University of Sheffield has a proud tradition in both sport and engineering. It's great to see both come together in the work done at the AMRC."

Mike Maddock, COO of Bromley Technologies, said: "We just want to say a huge thanks to the AMRC and Materialise for helping bring together the final pieces of our technology programme for Vancouver. Without their help and that of our other Formula Ice sponsor companies, we certainly wouldn´t be going into this week´s Games as serious medal contenders."