The Centre in Advanced Fluid Engineering for Digital Manufacturing (CAFE4DM)

This 5 year project aims to address the challenges in understanding, creating and scaling up manufacturing processes for formulated products with particular reference to those in fast moving consumer goods (home/personal care and food products). The main objective is to develop a new modelling approach which will be combined with experimental measurements of the liquid properties to describe these complex fluids and enable a significant reduction in the conventional physical experimentation required to develop new formulations. The methodologies developed will provide a detailed understanding of the behaviour of these liquids under process conditions which will facilitate the decision making process and accelerate the introduction of new, innovative products to the market optimised to deliver benefits to consumers, e.g. shiny hair or mouthfeel for ice cream. The project brings together a multi-disciplinary team from the University of Manchester, the University of Cambridge and Unilever who are a global leader in the research, process design and manufacture of formulated products. The project is also supported by Process Systems Enterprise Ltd.. A major outcome of the project will be a demonstrator of the Industry 4.0 concept which will enable smart factories to be realised in the process sector and thus allow the UK to remain at the forefront of manufacturing in this field.

The main areas of impact for CAFE4DM are in the following:

Society and Environment through a contribution towards environmental sustainability through reduced waste and increased energy efficiency.
Economic through increases in R&D productivity and factory capacity.
People through the delivery and training of highly skilled researchers and the retraining of the existing workforce within the project partners, in particular Unilever.
Outreach and Engagement by contributing to disseminating the methodologies developed to other formulated product industries and to contribute to increased public awareness and understanding of science, engineering, economic and societal issues.

This impact will be realised through dissemination activities to a wide range of stakeholders (industry, government, academics, general public). CAFE4DM will promote an understanding of the environmental and energy benefits of the implementation of Industry 4.0 within the process sector through outreach events for both the public and industrialists. In addition, the economic impact of this change will be realised through the development of an exploitation plan in consultation with the external advisory board and dissemination of the methods developed to a wider industrial, regulatory and academic audience through stakeholder meetings, workshops and conferences. The development of the next generation of scientists, engineers and managers will be achieved through training and the strong interactions within the project between industry, academia and ISIS. All the researchers will have exposure to these areas providing them with a versatile skill set which will benefit society and the UK economic prosperity through the knowledge economy. This pipeline of talent will ensure that the strong relationship between the partners allows the development of the methodology to higher TRLs and will enable the UK to remain a leader in the rapid development of products into the market place. Regular outreach activities will enable CAFE4DM to have a strong impact on the relevant stakeholders and also develop the communication skills of the researchers within the project. The impact activities will be managed by an academic with CAFE4DM with time allocated within the project specifically for this task. In addition, the RAs and PhDs within the project will spend 5% of their time on the organisation and delivery of outreach events. The impact workpackage leader will be on the management group of the project to ensure that the impact delivery plan is achieved and remains aligned to the core research activities.