Future Additive Manufacturing Platform Grant

The Additive Manufacturing & 3D Printing Research Group (3DPRG) at The University of Nottingham (UoN) is focused on the discovery and understanding of advanced Additive Manufacturing (AM) solutions for high value manufacturing and further advanced research applications. The foundations of the 3DPRG go back to the early 1990s and Richard Hague, Ian Ashcroft, Phill Dickens, Chris Tuck and Ricky Wildman have worked collaborated since the mid-2000s. This successful relationship was formalised in 2011 by the award of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in AM and crystallised with our move to UoN in 2012. Our academic grouping was further strengthened through the promotion to academic positions of Ruth Goodridge (2012) and Martin Baumers (2016). Together, we are a clearly established research group of scale that is internationally recognised as undertaking leading work in the field of AM. We have a strong track record in obtaining grant funding, of joint publications and of achieving impact (academic, industrial and societal).

With expertise and track record in both single and multi-material / multifunctional AM, our research approach is both user-centred and scientifically driven. Alongside strong and enduring interdisciplinary links to the physical and applied sciences that complement and extend our capabilities, we have built a core multi-disciplinary team of academics and researchers of ~100 people, housed in a purpose built laboratory. Our goal is to investigate the underpinning processes, materials and computational methods necessary for the successful execution and implementation of AM as a viable manufacturing tool. Our interest and focus on underpinning AM leads us to work with diverse industrial sectors and key (international) manufacturing companies to enable unique AM solutions across a myriad of applications.

With a strong history of research in AM, the UK now needs to capitalise on its deep fundamental knowledge-base to successfully implement AM in industry. However, as highlighted by the UK AM Strategy's interim report [], the range of technologies that are now being industrially deployed are primarily based on technological developments that are over 20 years old (first introduced for prototyping purposes) and there remain significant barriers to productivity in terms of the speed, reproducibility, accuracy, material range and functionality of produced parts. Hence, today's AM technologies are largely still not ready for implementation into most production environments, nor are they capable enough to service the needs of potential users, particularly when it comes to productivity issues (speed of production or material utility).

Our vision driving this platform proposal is to discover, understand and enable industrial implementation of AM solutions to address the issues of productivity and industrial scalability, with our ambition being that this will strengthen our engagement across the full value chain from discovery to deployment. This vision will require close relationships with all stakeholders, including academics in disparate disciplines; the wider innovation ecosystem (particularly the Catapults); manufacturers of AM equipment and materials; organisations involved in policy making; as well as end users in multiple industry sectors.

This Platform proposal is therefore centred on both addressing a subject of undoubted (inter)national importance alongside sustaining a research group of international renown. It will enable us to renew our long term research vision, through the exploration and exploitation of new and emerging science, whilst maintaining a focus on overcoming the challenges associated with implementing AM into industry.

Impact will be derived for the following:

- UK industry will gain impact through new research that further enhances the UK's leading position in AM technology and exploitation. We will open up awareness in industries yet to exploit AM, and impact existing products and new product conception and realisation, with corresponding economic, societal, healthcare and environmental benefits.
- The HVM Catapult (through the MTC) and its members will gain impact by exploiting the outcomes of lower TRL activities
- AM equipment and service providers will have first-mover advantage in benefitting from new research that will expedite their exploration of the design freedoms of AM and enable faster implementation of innovative products.
- The 3DPRG's research staff will benefit through enhanced career development, a multi-skilled working environment, opportunities to explore new 'risky' concepts and ideas, and an ever-widening network of academic / industrial partners.
- The University of Nottingham will benefit from further enhancing its internationally leading AM research, and in furthering interdisciplinary research both within the University and beyond.
- Doctoral Students will benefit through opportunities to debate new ideas and formulate research proposals, exposure to new high risk research projects, and to understand how to translate academic research into industrial practice.
- The public and society as a whole will benefit through job creation, and the potential for industry to robustly adopt a new and disruptive technology that will enable environmental, healthcare and economic gains.