From Industry 3.0 to Industry 4.0: Additive Manufacturability

Digital manufacturing is aligned well with the UK Industrial Strategy to become a more innovative-based economy and to support for commercialisation. Additive manufacturing (AM) - an upcoming and disruptive digital technology - is tractable for a wide range of applications ranging from biomedical to aerospace industrial sectors. With the technological benefits of manufacturing flexibility, consecutively adding material layer-by-layer enables sophisticated and complex parts to be additively manufactured with minimal waste, created timely and cost effectively. However, investment in basic scientific understanding of the AM process plays a major role in the successful adoption of the metallic AM in aerospace and biomedical applications. This will help the UK develop technical-level skills and trained people to progressing technologies from laboratory to commercial success. The project, therefore, fits the need of this priority area. The work concerns about the simulation of solid-liquid-vapour transition and relevant thermal fluid mechanics at the AM technological applications. The aim is to use computational modelling to design AM alloys and improve the AM processing through the optimisation of chemical constituents and process conditions, which will be backed up with through-process testings. Non-equilibrium databases for thermo-physical properties will be obtained for establishing processing-structure-property-performance relationship using theory, experiments and computation under the framework of integrated computational materials science. A science-based AM design rule is derived to maximise the use of raw materials with zero-waste and recyclable fashion, and to ensure the integrity of additive manufactured components for repair technology in aerospace usages. It is also anticipated that the effective use of AM technology in aerospace sector especially for repair and manufacturing purposes will lead to disruptive innovation in other innovative technologies such as medical applications.

This proposed research programme will help UK to maintain its leadership in the field of Digital Manufacturing priority area, especially additive manufacturing (AM) by contributing new knowledge into this research area. The simulation-based engineering science tool generated from this research programme will impact the AM research and development to construct an approach to novel alloy design rule and better innovative process for repair application. The research programme will also have a disruptive impact on economy, environment and society to support the Industry 4.0 in the upcoming digital age. Academic-industry collaborative venture with Rolls-Royce plc will be maintained to ensure that the research outcome from this programme influences the AM manufacturing practice within the company, especially in repair technology. The EPSRC UKRI Innovation Fellowship will provide an opportunity to develop Dr Chinnapat Panwisawas' career path and research group with the strong link to industries. The trained researcher will obtain a better understanding of AM process modelling to be beneficial for alloy design and advanced processing science. The research impact of AM technology in the area of Digital Manufacturing will be achieved by implementing research and development programme in designing novel process and better-performing superalloys. The UK innovation-based economy will then foster the research knowledge into industrial content thoroughly to improve productivity and drive into a more innovative economy. This is to support for commercialisation and future opportunities.