Additive Manufacturing at NCME

Additive manufacturing (AM), commonly referred to as 3D printing, is a disruptive manufacturing method which has an increased uptake in recent years

Historically we would form our material and subtract material, leading to waste, to our final geometry. AM allows us to minimise waste by adding material selectively instead of reductive methods like machining. AM has options to print with polymers, ceramics and metals.

The NCME is focused on plastic-based AM. The NCME has 2 major polymer AM capabilities, wire feed and powder bed. Powder-based AM is revolutionising manufacturing by allowing fine layers of material to be deposited and sintered or melted selectively; leading to a controlled production with very low waste.

This layer-wise approach also allows us to produce bionic designs inspired by nature which were previously impossible to manufacture by traditional methods.

See the image for an example of development potential with AM.

These powder bed methods are used heavily in aerospace, space systems and high-end motorsport. Many Formula 1 teams now print wind tunnel, aerodynamic and low-temperature requirement polymer parts for their cars.

With the latest acquisition by the NCME, the students at the University of Bolton will be trained in how to design for and manage industry standard AM capability in one of our new for 2019 Masters programmes.

When the install is complete we will release a further blog to tour you around the AM facility.

Rob Higham

Senior Lecturer

Motorsport & Automotive Performance Engineering