A Platform for Hybrid Manufacturing Process research
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leeds
Department Name: Mechanical Engineering
Abstract
Hybrid Manufacturing concerns digitally-driven and template-less manufacturing processes which are founded on cross-technology process platforms. Our group focuses on how truly transformative capability may be realised by the next generations of this ideology. Our Hybrid Manufacturing Process research is founded on the premise that future generations of products, with multi-faceted complexity and transformative capability may be realised through the combination of multiple process technologies within a singular platform, while incorporating emerging research from the physical sciences (such as functional materials). This aims to provide an exponential increase in the capability for complex manufacturing and the magnitude of resultant value.
Our pioneering research has been recognised by a number of eminent parties and international peers. Our research group possess unique research capability, which is significantly due to the recruitment and development of a cohort of outstanding researchers and our suite of globally unique experimental manufacturing apparatus. The growth and momentum of our current activity, along with our pipeline of future research and innovation, now warrants a supporting platform in order to secure and maintain our world-leading position. It will enable us to stengthen our strategic approach to leading research, allow us to continue to shape and capitalise on emerging opportunities, and further develop the next generation of truly interdisciplinary research leaders. This will ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of this exciting and valuable field of manufacturing process research.
Our pioneering research has been recognised by a number of eminent parties and international peers. Our research group possess unique research capability, which is significantly due to the recruitment and development of a cohort of outstanding researchers and our suite of globally unique experimental manufacturing apparatus. The growth and momentum of our current activity, along with our pipeline of future research and innovation, now warrants a supporting platform in order to secure and maintain our world-leading position. It will enable us to stengthen our strategic approach to leading research, allow us to continue to shape and capitalise on emerging opportunities, and further develop the next generation of truly interdisciplinary research leaders. This will ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of this exciting and valuable field of manufacturing process research.
Planned Impact
The UK's innovation capability is critically dependent on manufacturing as the route to achieving rapid and profitable commercialisation of new products, processes and services. Hybrid Manufacturing Processes will enable transformative next generation products featuring greater complexity and capability in application. Innovation and development in this area will support a variety of industries, and place the UK at the forefront of technological developments. This platform grant will enhance and accelerate impact through:
- Skills base - It will help to grow the UK's next generation of leaders in manufacturing. Our team will receive targeted coaching on topics such as; outreach, industry liaison, funding landscapes, mock panels, networking, cross-disciplinary publication strategy, independent leadership and routes to exploitation and commercialisation. Developing versatile skills through cutting edge research will enable our researchers to have the required tools for leading and shaping the future UK manufacturing landscape ensuring its position as a global leader in high value manufacturing. The platform grant will also enable researcher mobility across our research projects and secondments to industrial collaborators, thus providing a method for cross-fertilization of ideas to facilitate greater innovation across a range of beneficiaries.
- Increased spin-out activities - Spin-out companies are a major source of generating impact, wealth and employment in the UK economy. The Platform will provide a diverse set of training activities for all researchers so they can maximise the commercial exploitation of their research. They will be given the appropriate mentoring and guidance alongside the proactive support from experts and inspirational speakers that 'have done it' to create an entrepreneurial culture which strives for high growth and high value spin-out activities.
- UK economy - Manufacturing innovation is a driver for sustainable growth and creating economic value for the UK. Developing the next generation of hybrid manufacturing approaches will be key to providing this discovery and innovation for continued economic development.
- New exploratory research - This platform grant will allow speculative research, that is often otherwise difficult to enact, to be conducted in a responsive and efficient manner. Such fundamental research concepts are expected to inform the basis for future novel and innovative developments, ensuring the pipeline of high impact scientific and engineering breakthroughs.
- Wider public society - Developments in hybrid manufacturing processes will lead to greater resource efficiencies in production and material consumption allowing more sustainable manufacturing. New manufacturing techniques will enable revolutionary bespoke products that benefit society and lead to new discoveries in science and engineering. Our researchers will act as ambassadors for the UK and will conduct various outreach activities to inspire the next generation of individuals into science and engineering.
- Skills base - It will help to grow the UK's next generation of leaders in manufacturing. Our team will receive targeted coaching on topics such as; outreach, industry liaison, funding landscapes, mock panels, networking, cross-disciplinary publication strategy, independent leadership and routes to exploitation and commercialisation. Developing versatile skills through cutting edge research will enable our researchers to have the required tools for leading and shaping the future UK manufacturing landscape ensuring its position as a global leader in high value manufacturing. The platform grant will also enable researcher mobility across our research projects and secondments to industrial collaborators, thus providing a method for cross-fertilization of ideas to facilitate greater innovation across a range of beneficiaries.
- Increased spin-out activities - Spin-out companies are a major source of generating impact, wealth and employment in the UK economy. The Platform will provide a diverse set of training activities for all researchers so they can maximise the commercial exploitation of their research. They will be given the appropriate mentoring and guidance alongside the proactive support from experts and inspirational speakers that 'have done it' to create an entrepreneurial culture which strives for high growth and high value spin-out activities.
- UK economy - Manufacturing innovation is a driver for sustainable growth and creating economic value for the UK. Developing the next generation of hybrid manufacturing approaches will be key to providing this discovery and innovation for continued economic development.
- New exploratory research - This platform grant will allow speculative research, that is often otherwise difficult to enact, to be conducted in a responsive and efficient manner. Such fundamental research concepts are expected to inform the basis for future novel and innovative developments, ensuring the pipeline of high impact scientific and engineering breakthroughs.
- Wider public society - Developments in hybrid manufacturing processes will lead to greater resource efficiencies in production and material consumption allowing more sustainable manufacturing. New manufacturing techniques will enable revolutionary bespoke products that benefit society and lead to new discoveries in science and engineering. Our researchers will act as ambassadors for the UK and will conduct various outreach activities to inspire the next generation of individuals into science and engineering.
Organisations
- University of Leeds (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Manchester (Collaboration)
- Kanthal (Collaboration)
- University of Liverpool (Project Partner)
- Newcastle University (Project Partner)
- University of Nottingham (Project Partner)
- Renishaw (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Manufacturing Technology Centre (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Marques-Hueso J
(2017)
A Rapid Photopatterning Method for Selective Plating of 2D and 3D Microcircuitry on Polyetherimide
in Advanced Functional Materials
Marques-Hueso J
(2018)
Flexible Electronics: A Rapid Photopatterning Method for Selective Plating of 2D and 3D Microcircuitry on Polyetherimide (Adv. Funct. Mater. 6/2018)
in Advanced Functional Materials
S. Taccola
(2022)
Micro-Scale Aerosol Jet Printing of Magnetic Materials for Soft Robotics
Shuttleworth MP
(2018)
A new digitally driven process for the fabrication of flex-rigid electronics
Smith M.A.A.
(2020)
Digitally-driven micro surface patterning by hybrid manufacturing
in Solid Freeform Fabrication 2018: Proceedings of the 29th Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium - An Additive Manufacturing Conference, SFF 2018
Smith MAA
(2018)
Digitally-Driven Micro Surface Patterning by Hybrid Manufacturing
Smith MAA
(2023)
A digitally driven manufacturing process for high resolution patterning of cell formations.
in Biomedical microdevices
Taccola S
(2022)
Micro-scale aerosol jet printing of superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticle patterns.
in Scientific reports
Description | Parts of this awards manufacturing research is now being investigated and developed for creating new devices for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, early disease diagnosis, and for maxillofacial prosthesis. This particularly illustrates the wider societal value of our manufacturing process research. Our manufacturing research has allowed us to contribute to the Advanced machinery and productivity initiative (AMPI) which stimulates and support rapid growth in the UK's machinery manufacturing sector. This illustrates the industrial value of our manufacturing process research. |
Exploitation Route | The aforementioned new healthcare device investigations have the potential to enable revolutionary future treatments that will save lives and allow patients to live without major side-effects. The industrial development of our research will provide economic and societal benefits. |
Sectors | Healthcare Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology |
Description | This platform grant provided underpinning support to a variety of our research activities. Examples of these uses include; enabling links and collaborations with national and international researchers, engagement with industry, and allowing us to explore and develop work across different disciplines. A number of the researchers that we have trained and developed have now progressed to positions in industry and other research institutes. Several of the manufacturing technologies investigated are now being further explored and developed in further projects and applications. |
First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
Sector | Electronics,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
Impact Types | Societal Economic |
Description | AMFaces: Advanced Additive Manufacturing of User-Focused Facial Prostheses with Real-Life Colour Appearance |
Amount | £5,540,752 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/W033968/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2023 |
End | 11/2028 |
Description | Advanced Machinery & Productivity Institute (AMPI) |
Amount | £22,600,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2021 |
End | 09/2026 |
Description | New minimally invasive technologies for the treatment of pancreatic cancer |
Amount | £1,522,147 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/V009818/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2021 |
End | 04/2024 |
Description | Towards a 'toothbrush' sensor for passive biomarker monitoring - "Sens Or Pass" |
Amount | £229,136 (GBP) |
Organisation | Cancer Research UK |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2022 |
End | 01/2024 |
Title | A Novel Computer-Controlled Maskless Fabrication Process for Pneumatic Soft Actuators |
Description | This dataset includes the raw data that is presented in the published paper "A Novel Computer-Controlled Maskless Fabrication Process for Pneumatic Soft Actuators". It encompasses all the unprocessed measurement data collected for treatment resolution, optical emission spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectric spectroscopy. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Further publication with SPIE |
URL | http://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/812/ |
Description | Aerosol Jet Printing for Maxillofacial prosthetics |
Organisation | University of Manchester |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Investigation of Aerosol Jet Printing technologies for fabricating soft flexible materials. |
Collaborator Contribution | Maxillofacial and oral surgery, 3D printing / additive manufacture, reconstructive science, biomaterials, colour science, and imaging. |
Impact | Please see researchfish of EP/W033968/1 for details |
Start Year | 2023 |
Description | Direct industry funded collaboration for hybrid additive manufacture of electrical heating technology |
Organisation | Kanthal |
Country | Sweden |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Development of a hybrid additive manufacturing process by Dr Robert Kay |
Collaborator Contribution | Industrial direction for the the development of a hybrid additive manufacturing process by Dr Robert Kay |
Impact | As an ongoing activity, covered by confidentiality agreements, there are no reports yet available |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | An invited talk for the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | An invited talk to the cohort of researchers in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training describing some of our research in new manufacturing processes. Conducted 15 March 2017. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | EPSRC Healthcare Technologies strategy launch |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Prof Harris was invited to present some of our research, particularly including this project, at the EPSRC Health Technologies strategy launch at Manchester's Industry & Science Museum. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Invitation to participate in CRUK-MRC-EPSRC Early Detection Innovation Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Supporters |
Results and Impact | 3-day sandpit workshops foster multidisciplinary innovation in cancer research across researchers, healthcare professionals, policy makers and technologists. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/funding-for-researchers/how-we-deliver-research/research-innovation... |
Description | Invited Opening Lecturer at the IDEA League Summer School |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Invited Opening Lecturer by Richard Bibb at the IDEA League Summer School on Computational Design for Additive Manufacturing |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://idealeague.org/computationaldesign/ |
Description | Invited Presentation on Hybrid AM at the National Physics Laboratory Manufactures Measurement Network |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | In January 2023 Robert Kay gave an Invited Presentation on Hybrid AM at the National Physics Laboratory Manufactures Measurement Network. Mainly engaged with Industry. 51-100 audience size. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Invited presentation to a EPSRC programme grant project meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was invited to make a presentation on our research in new manufacturing processes to a large of researchers working on miniaturised ingestible devices in the EPSRC programme grant EP/K034537/1 / EP/K034537/2. Conducted 12th October 2017. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invited speaker at Henry Royce Institute |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Invited speaker at the Henry Royce Institute for their Biomedical Materials Showcase: Biofabrication and 3D Printing for Biomedical Applications, 30 November 2021 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.royce.ac.uk/events/showcase-biofabrication-3d-printing/ |
Description | Invited talk at Italian Institute of Technology |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Russell Harris gave a invited talk at the Italian Institute of Technology entitled 'Digitally-driven manufacturing processes for healthcare' |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Invited talk at Leeds Celebrates World Cancer Day 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Russell Harris gave an invited talk entitle 'New device technologies for cancer treatment' |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Invited talk at TU Delft Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering to present hybrid AM research |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | In August 2022 Robert Kay gave an Invited talk at the TU Delft Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering to present our hybrid AM research. About 30 people attended. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Invited talk at the Bragg Exchange 2023 conference at Leeds |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | In January 2023 Robert Kay gave an invited talk at the Bragg Exchange 2023 conference at Leeds titled "Hybrid Additive Manufacturing of Advanced Functional Materials". 100+ attendees |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Invited talks at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Prof Harris was invited to present his manufacturing research at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart Germany. This was followed by a tour of the Institute to meet their researchers and view their extensive portfolio of research projects. The next day Prof Harris presented to their community of around 200 PhD researchers at their annual retreat in Michelsberg. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://future-manufacturing-processes.leeds.ac.uk/news/invited-talks-at-max-planck-institute-for-in... |
Description | Invited visit and presentation at Bosch Research Campus |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Prof Harris, along with his colleague Prof Valdastri (https://www.stormlabuk.com), were invited to visit Bosch at their new research campus in Renningen. They presented their shared vision across Manufacturing Processes and Robotics with Bosch's senior research leaders. This included illustrating our recent research projects and discussing where there may be avenues to mutually build new innovations around this. The new facility at Renningen is an outstanding environment where industrial research and innovation may flourish. More details can be found here https://www.bosch-presse.de/pressportal/de/en/research-campus-in-renningen-176321.html |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://future-manufacturing-processes.leeds.ac.uk/news/invited-visit-to-bosch-research-campus/ |
Description | Participation in European Robotics Forum 2020 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Prof Harris represented the University of Leeds membership of euRobotics AISBL at the European Robotics Forum 2020 in Spain. This is the most popular networking event in Robotics with more than 1000 participants from industry, research, politics and business. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://robmosys.eu/event/european-robotics-forum-2020/ |
Description | Participation in Material Research Society Spring Symposium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Several of our researchers participated in the Material Research Society Spring Symposium 17-23 April 2021 to engage and debate the latest research in materials science and advanced manufacturing methods for this. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.mrs.org/meetings-events/spring-meetings-exhibits/past-spring-meetings/2021-mrs-spring-me... |
Description | Presenter and Senior Mentor at Newton Funds event 'Digital Hospitals' in Peru |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | In June 2019, Professor Harris was invited to act as a senior mentor at a digital manufacturing and medicine event in Peru entitled "Digital Hospitals". The four day event provided UK and Peru based researchers with an opportunity for unique dialogue, training and debate about the use of novel digital design and manufacturing techniques across several healthcare areas. Specialists from various UK educational and Peruvian institutions were invited to present their respective research, and show how their manufacturing innovations can benefit global healthcare. Prof Harris said 'I was impressed by the research that I saw being conducted in Peru. It also allowed me to recognise some of the unique challenges they face as a region in medical and manufacturing technologies. I hope that we may be able to form further collaborative activities to assist one another and widen the impact of these technology fields'. More details can be found in the local language at https://puntoedu.pucp.edu.pe/noticias/medicina-de-vanguardia/ |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://future-manufacturing-processes.leeds.ac.uk/news/invited-specialist-at-digital-hospitals-even... |
Description | RAEng Research Day talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Invited talk on Hybrid Manufacturing at Royal Academy of Engineering Research Day |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Research demonstration for visit of EPSRC Healthcare Technologies team and SAT |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Supporters |
Results and Impact | Research demonstration for visit of EPSRC Healthcare Technologies team and SAT |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Russell Harris invited talk at TIPS/ISPO/BACPAR 2019 in Manchester |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Prof Harris was invited to speak at the TIPS/ISPO/BACPAR 2019 at the Lowry, in Manchester. This event covers topics including rehabilitation medicine, research, practice, prosthetics, orthotics, engineering, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, neuroscience, assistive devices and technologies. The invitation reflects the growing recognition of the value of new manufacturing processes can make to these important applications. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.ispo.org.uk/events-tipsispobacpar2019/ |
Description | Talk at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk and meeting regarding Aerosol Jet Printing |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Talks for the Design for AM network |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Talks for the Design for AM Network by Co-I Dr Robert Kay, with contributions by Co-I Prof Richard Bibb |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Training activity |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | As part of our researcher training within this Platform Grant, we conducted the first in a series of debates of research methods. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Visit to Boston Children's Hospital |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation and discussion at Boston Children's Hospital USA regarding fabrication research |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |