Mr Farid Dailami

• Position:Associate Professor for Knowledge Exchange in Manufacturing
• Department:FET - Engineering, Design and Mathematics
• Telephone:+441173282861

Area of expertise

CV Farid Dailami

He joined Crossley Engines, builders of diesel engines in Manchester in 1965 as an engineering apprentice and worked in various workshops in the first three years.  His training covered turning, milling, lapping, honing and other fine finish operations used in the assembly of fuel pumps and injectors. He was also engaged in the assembly and fitting and testing of impellers pumps for chemical industries. He then moved to cylinder head assembly section, followed by a period spent on assembly of large diesel engines.  He then moved to the Drawing and Design office followed by The Production Engineering, the Quality Control office and finally before leaving in 1985 he had held the position of the company Welding Engineer for the previous four years.

He moved to Engineering Department of UWE (at that time Bristol Polytechnic) in mid-1987 to pursue a PhD in robotic assembly. However, in 1989 he was invited by the then Head of Research of the Engineering Department to lead the first EU/DTI funded research project in robotic assembly secured by the Engineering Department of Bristol Polytechnic. The Polytechnic had been awarded funding from the Eureka-FAMOS funds to lead a pan European research project in robotic assembly.  As the work package leader he and his team were tasked with design, procurement and commissioning of two large gantry robots for the InFACT project.  They delivered the robots to the InFACT team after around 14 months, where successful trials were carried out to demonstrate flexible assembly automation.

Following the success of InFACT, the university secured further Eureka-FAMOS funding for the ALASCA Project to develop a flexible assembly system for large products. Dailami led a team of engineers to design, procure and deliver the robotic assembly equipment. He and his team developed various elements such as tools, fixtures, and in particular, a device that included variable stiffness compliance and tool changer. The team took the device to Italy and successfully demonstrated it at Zanussi in Italy.

In addition, as part of ALASCA, Dailami designed, developed, delivered and commissioned a robotic materials handling system for delivery of dummy nuclear fuel pellets to an experimental fuel rod manufacturing plant at the British Nuclear Fuels limited at Springfield, Preston. The trials with this equipment were successful and ALASCA was completed circa 2000. After completion of the project BNFL purchased the equipment from UWE.

As part of a consultancy project by the engineering School, Dailami developed a robotic loading system for insertion of small turbine blades in a fixture prior to machining, this proved successful and was followed by another short project in using water jet cutting of flash on blisks. Both projects were for Rolls Royce aerospace company.

In 2007 Dailami was appointed as the manager of a program to assist Karlovac Polytechnic in Croatia to develop a Mechatronics and Automation course funded by the European Union as part of the pre-accession program. Over a two-year period, he spent extended periods in Karlovac to assist the Head of Engineering to develop the curriculum and module contents for a Mechatronics BSc. He further delivered a series of lectures to both students and delegates from industry on various topics in manufacturing. In addition to the program of study, the project also helped create Centre for Mechatronics, Karlovac (CMK). In addition, he was instrumental in bringing a close cooperation and an MOU between Karlovac Polytechnic and Karlovac Technical School.

In 2010 Dailami again acted as a consultant to the INTREPID project, a two year long EU funded project, to assist Karlovac Polytechnic in setting up a modern, fully equipped and resourced laboratory. This laboratory facilitated advanced engineering services to the local industry in areas such as CNC machining, vision inspection, Rapid Prototyping, Ultrasonic Inspection and printed circuit board manufacture. This project was successfully completed and resulted in a highly advanced engineering laboratory in what is now Karlovac University of Applied Sciences.

Between 2012 and 2014 Dailami managed and delivered the Advanced Engineering and Aerospace Innovation Network Program, an ERDF funded initiative, that UWE offered to local industry. This multimillion-pound project had significant effect on the South West industries. This project enabled the Engineering Department to assist a start up from Swindon to explore potentials for diesel fuel derived from plastic waste. After the initial exploratory work by Dailami and his team, a successful  KTP was carried out, followed by a two years long Innovate UK funded project to demonstrate the application of the waste plastic derived diesel fuel and monitor emissions, performance and wear. This project was successfully completed in 2019.

In 2013 Dailami was appointed as the BRL’s Robotic Innovation Facility (RIF) manager, to deliver a five year long Framework 7 research program in application of robotic to a variety of uses. RIF was part of the ECHORD++ program. The final review meeting of this program awarded it a ranking of excellent by the European Commission. During this project, RIF developed and delivered a series of robotics workshops  for the NatWest and Barclay clients.

In 2018, Dailami led the team that is delivering SABRE, an ERDF funded three-year program to help SMEs in the Bristol area. This £1m program has been successful in de-risking robotic and automation applications and has helped a number of start-ups and SMEs in their examination of robotics.

He is also running the UWE’s work package of TERRINet, a pan European offering to develop skills for PhD candidates in robotics. Currently the program is awaiting clearance of Covid 19 restrictions to welcome European and South American researchers to RIF. It is expected that many others will be visiting RIF in the next year.

He has been awarded circa £220k EPSRC/ATI funded project to collaborate with Rolls Royce in developing a co-botic cell for repair welding of jet engine components. This three years long program started in January 2021.

Over the past twenty years Dailami has supervised or led around nine Knowledge Transfer Partnership projects. One of his project was awarded a ranking of Outstanding by Innovate UK, the funder of the KTP Programme. Over the same period, he has supervised around eight PhD students; he is currently Director of Studies for one student. He has also supervised numerous BEng, MSc Project students.

He has also taught a number of modules including robotics and mechatronics over many years, currently he delivers the Electromechanical Systems Integration, Master’s module for which he is also the module leader.

Dailami holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Salford University and an MSc in Information Technology for Manufacture from Warwick University.

He is a member of the IET.

Areas of expertise :

Robotics, Automation, Manufacturing

Publications

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