The Waterbeach-based company is in the running for a prestigious award, thanks to its pioneering Ebflow™ technology.
It has been nominated in the Manufacturing Technology Innovation category at the Engineering & Manufacturing Awards, to be held in London later this year. This category recognises innovative manufacturing techniques that are having a tangible impact across industry.
Ebflow™ is making waves across the energy sector by helping to speed up construction of key infrastructure components such as wind turbines and small modular nuclear reactors.
Bob Nicolson, Managing Director at Cambridge Vacuum Engineering, said: “Being shortlisted for this national award is testament to the ground-breaking nature of our Ebflow™ technology and the outstanding results it is delivering.
“Faster, leaner, and cleaner, Ebflow™ can help accelerate manufacturing across an array of applications, and in the case of the energy industry, could be the key to speeding up the drive toward a new era of sustainable energy production. We eagerly anticipate the outcome of the awards ceremony in September.”
Ebflow™ was recently used to fast track production of a monopile foundation for an offshore wind turbine for Dogger Bank, the world’s largest offshore wind farm.
The monopile transition piece – created using Ebflow™ – was part of RapidWeld, a pioneering project funded by Innovate UK and led by a consortium including SSE Renewables, CVE, DNV, Sif Netherlands B.V, Agile NDT and The Welding Institute (TWI).
The RapidWeld project team achieved welding speeds at least 25 times faster than the current default manufacturing method. Production required 90% less energy, cost 88% less, and produced 97% less CO2 emissions.
Ebflow™ also recently helped Sheffield Forgemasters cut the amount of time needed to weld a small modular reactor (SMR) pressure vessel demonstrator from more than a year to less than 24 hours – a move that could help reshape the future of nuclear reactor production worldwide and bridge the gap in the UK’s energy market.
CVE is headquartered in Waterbeach and has regional offices in Beijing, China, & Massachusetts, USA, as well as a global network of agents.
The company designs and builds process solutions, with more than 60 years’ experience manufacturing electron beam (EB) systems in a range of industrial sectors including aerospace, nuclear, automotive, oil and gas, and sensors.
The company exports around 95% of its systems with primary markets in USA, China, India, and Europe. CVE’s range of EB welding equipment includes systems ranging from 50-200kV with beam powers up to 100kW.
The Engineering & Manufacturing Awards will take place on Wednesday, 4th September, 2024, at the London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square.