Rolls-Royce has officially opened its new £100m advanced aerospace disc manufacturing facility in Washington, Tyne and Wear, UK.

Opened by deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and business secretary Vince Cable, the new facility will have an annual manufacturing capacity of 2,500 fan and turbine discs, which will be installed in a variety of Trent aero engines, including Rolls-Royce Trent XWB.

To be fully operational in 2016, the plant will use manufacturing methods developed at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) in Rotherham.

"We invested £687m in facilities and equipment around the world last year."

AMRC is part of a network of research centres with an objective to work with businesses to apply university research in order to speed-up the commercialisation of new and emerging manufacturing technologies.

Rolls-Royce Aerospace president Tony Wood said Rolls-Royce is committed to investing for future growth in order to deliver for its customers.

"We invested £687m in facilities and equipment around the world last year," Wood said. "This facility will use ground-breaking manufacturing techniques to produce discs for our Trent engines including the world’s most efficient aero engine, the Trent XWB."

Meanwhile, the UK Government has announced £45m funding for research and development to reduce carbon emissions by using lightweight composite materials to make Rolls-Royce engines.

The research will also focus on changing parts of the engine design for making them more efficient and reducing the time it takes to manufacture them.

Defence Technology