UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded project will develop new digital tools to extend in-process control from material production to delivery.
London, UK, 2 Nov 2021 – A consortium, led by Authentise (www.authentise.com), has been awarded a competitive grant by the UKRI’s Transforming Foundation Industries’ challenge, delivered by Innovate UK. The team of companies aims to develop and validate scalable digital tools to identify, create and enforce rules that reduce direct and indirect energy consumption and increase material efficiency in ceramic & metal additive manufacturing ("AM").
The partners include Photocentric, innovator and manufacturer of photopolymers and LCD based 3D Printers; ICD, provider of Metal Powders and Powder Metal Components; Materials Processing Institute, providing research and innovation services for the Foundation Industries; and TWI, the membership-based research and technology organization.
During the £1.7m SAMRCD (Scalable AM Rule Creation & Dissemination) project, Authentise, the leader in data-driven workflow tools for additive manufacturing, is developing tools that enable users to identify operating rules through literature, standards, experiments, and deep learning, and enforce these rules on future production to ensure more efficient and repeatable products. To do so, the partners will integrate direct data capture from across the materials and production value chain. Photocentric and TWI will test these tools in metal and ceramic AM studies that aim to reduce energy and material use in production. The material and related production data will be supplied by ICD and results will be validated by the Materials Processing Institute.
“Continuing studies and analysis will only achieve so much,” says Andre Wegner, CEO of Authentise. “Digital tools that can monitor, analyse, predict and alert a range of impact and deviations in standard operating procedures are fundamental to improve manufacturing processes, increase repeatability and reduce resource intensity of the process. Additive manufacturing rightfully has a reputation as a clean technology, but there is so much more to be done.”
“This is the first time that the impacts of actions are considered across the entire value chain, from material production to final part,” says Carl Hauser, Section Manager - Laser Additive Manufacturing of TWI. “The SAMRCD team includes partners from across that spectrum. Together, we are able to increase the scope of in-process control from very specific in-machine processes to end-to-end monitoring. Changing material production parameters slightly may have a material impact on part production success, for instance. Thanks to SAMRCD we won’t only know that but will be able to take direct action.”
“We’re delighted to have been selected for this highly competitive programme by UKRI’s Transforming Foundation Industries challenge,” says Paul Holt, CEO of Photocentric. “The launch of SAMRCD could not come at a more poignant time given the current headwinds facing foundation and manufacturing industries with energy costs soaring and cost of materials increasing as supply chains compete for key metals.”
Bruce Adderley, director of UKRI’s Transforming Foundation Industries challenge, said: “Collaboration is the lynchpin for innovation across these industries, as the opportunities for mutual benefits, re-use of by-products and the exchange of knowledge and skills will be essential for ensuring their journey towards improving their efficiency and productivity to meet new market challenges.
We have seen from the quality of applications just how new technology and a commitment to combined thinking can work together to address some of the key issues affecting the sector. The development of the tools proposed within the SAMCRD project would make a profound impact in energy reduction and accelerate additive manufacturing as a viable sustainable production process as part of the UK's manufacturing capabilities.”
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For information, please contact: Nicholas Parry, Authentise, nick@authentise.com, +447882055793
About Authentise
Authentise delivers data-driven process automation software for additive manufacturing. Its two products include AMES, a workflow management engine using machine data for automation, and 3Diax, a platform of manufacturing related software modules. These tools help Boeing, Ricoh, 3M, Danfoss and others at the forefront of R&D, prototyping and production to reduce effort and cost, improve traceability and transparency, and deliver quality. The products also serve as their core contextual data engine in manufacturing, enabling them to easily build connected Industry 4.0 solutions.
About TWI
TWI is a membership-based organisation, supporting both individuals and companies alike. It provides authoritative and impartial expert advice, know-how and safety assurance through engineering, materials and joining technologies to help design, create and operate the best products possible.
Descended from the British Welding Research Association (BWRA), TWI has grown into one of the foremost independent research and technology organisations. It spans innovation, knowledge transfer and problem resolution across all aspects of welding, joining, surface engineering, inspection and whole-life integrity management.
About Materials Processing Institute
The Materials Processing Institute is a research and innovation centre serving global steel and materials organisations that work in advanced materials, industrial decarbonisation, the circular economy and digital technologies.
The Institute has served as the UK’s national steel innovation centre since 1944 having been set up by Sir Winston Churchill’s wartime government just before D-Day to equip the British steel industry for post-war reconstruction. It celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2019.
Through collaboration with its customers, the Institute provides a range of technology and R&D based services and consultancy. It also has pilot and demonstration facilities and an SME Technology Centre to support supply chain businesses with the development of new technologies and products.
About Photocentric
Photocentric is the inventor of LCD-based 3D printing, and an award-winning specialist resin and LCD printer manufacturer based in Cambridgeshire, UK and Arizona, USA. Building on its vision of enabling custom mass manufacture with its innovative 3D printing technologies using LCD screens, Photocentric’s large format LCD printer range includes Liquid Crystal Magna, which delivers significant speed, volume, and cost savings to business around the world in a range of industries. Photocentric is a patent holder in visible light curing technologies and specialises in photopolymerisation, manufacturing an innovative range of photopolymer resins compatible with any printer operating from 355nm to 460nm.
About ICD Applied Technologies
ICD manufactures metallic components for demanding applications using Metal Additive Manufacturing, Advanced Machining and a variety of other associated metal powder forming technologies. ICD also offers rapid prototyping, component design, reverse engineering, and polymer printing. Their technology and capability is focused around supporting demanding industries such as motorsport, aerospace, energy and defence.
About ISCF
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund: The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund aims to bring together the UK’s world leading research with business to meet the major industrial and societal challenges of our time. The fund was created to provide funding and support to UK businesses and researchers, part of the government’s £4.7 billion increase in research and development over the next 4 years. It was designed to ensure that research and innovation takes centre stage in the Government’s Industrial Strategy and is run by Innovate UK and the Research Councils on behalf of UK Research and Innovation.
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● Image 1: Illustration of SAMRCD Data Flow
● Image 2: SAMRCD Process Flow