Ricardo opens expanded engine assembly plant

Just four years since it opened for business, Ricardo’s niche engine assembly plant at Shoreham in the UK has undergone an expansion which triples its size, provides significantly improved technical capabilities, and paves the way for  future low volume, multi variant engine production.

The Ricardo engine assembly plant is a true success story for advanced design, engineering and innovative manufacturing. In its newly expanded form, the facility incorporates a range of new laboratories and workshops capable of supporting prototype engine builds and advanced metrology. The expanded facility also includes a second dynamometer, capable of simulating real world load conditions and testing engines across the full range of power outputs.  

The expanded plant is now entirely self-contained and can operate independently of the support functions of the Ricardo Shoreham Technical Centre. This enables round the clock operation – something already demonstrated with the recent commencement of a second shift and doubling of production. Crucially, reflecting the increasing requirement for manufacturers to offer increasing numbers of product derivatives, the re-configured flexible production line is now capable of the simultaneous manufacture of multiple engine variants.

“The completion of this very significant expansion of our engine assembly plant is a great way to start the New Year, demonstrating Ricardo’s ability and commitment to deliver the ultimate in both engine design and innovative, quality-focused manufacture,” commented Ricardo Performance Products managing director Mark Barge. “The Ricardo engine assembly plant is a world-leading facility that has successfully combined state-of-the-art quality manufacturing principles in a near clean-room environment which, as at the start of 2016, now boasts the capacity to manufacture 5,000 high performance engines per year.”