Joint Strike Fighter 'Blisk' Pre-Production Facility

The Rolls-Royce facility at Hucknall in Nottinghamshire was chosen to develop production techniques to enable new “Blisks” (Bladed Disks) to be produced for the future engines for the forthcoming Joint Strike Fighter project in conjunction with the M.O.D. and the US Military.

Hucknall is a manufacturing facility based on an old wartime airfield. All the manufacturing buildings are old aircraft hangars and the largest one was ‘No. 9 Hangar’ at 80m x 40m.

SPIE WHS were selected as Main Contractor and were also Electrical, Mechanical and Civils Designer.

The project was completed in 3 stages:

  • Strip out existing plant, machinery and craneage, Fill existing machine pits with Concrete.
  • Install new M&E infrastructure, machine foundations and internal buildings
  • Install new cranes, in-load new machines with final connections & commissioning

There were a total of 11 machine foundations to design and construct, 3 crane systems, 3 internal Air conditioned manufacturing rooms and other ancillary machines and infrastructure including a new fire alarm system & access control system throughout the building.

The electrical services systems included the diversion of existing LV distribution switch panels to suit the new layout, provision of new supplies from substation and containment systems throughout the new shop floor layout. The mechanical services systems included new Air ring mains and receivers, HP and LP argon systems, water supply and drainage. Comfort air conditioning and fresh air was installed in enclosed occupied areas.

Rolls-Royce Plc had placed orders for new production machinery which had to be manufactured. The project had to meet these machine delivery dates. The Infrastructure/Services program was structured to meet the new production machinery delivery dates rather than meet the ideal construction phases. This brought its own complications but through detailed planning and negotiation the project was delivered on time and all new production machinery delivery dates were met.

Existing manufacturing processes within the original building included Acid process lines and Spark Eroding machining areas. These were decommissioned, stripped out and the areas cleaned by Rolls-Royce. The old Acid Process area was then converted to office space for 66 occupants and the Spark Eroding Tank areas converted to a canteen and toilet area.

In consultation with the local planning authority the building was to be brought up to the latest fire regulations. However as the building was in excess of 50 years old the original design/construction was not suitable due to the walls and roof being asbestos sheet with a flammable fibre board internal lining. The construction of the building support steels was not adequate to take the weight of a sprinkler system. It was decided to insert 2 fire breaks within the roof void between asbestos sheeting and internal lining & then spray 2 coats of Dulux “Pyroshield” paint on all the internal walls and ceiling of the hangar under the on-site supervision of ICI. This then gave a whole building rating of 1 hour.

Project Team

Client: Rolls-Royce Plc

Main Contractor: SPIE WHS Ltd.

Consultants: Gleeds

M&E Contractor: SPIE WHS

Structural Engineer: Ward Cole

Project Value: £2.3m