Automated Post-Processing Platform for Metals Additive Manufacturing – (PLATFORM)

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Metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a rapidly growing industry sector, with revenues rising by over 41% 2010-2014. Despite this, metal AM sales account only 7% of the global market. One of the key technical challenges facing the metal AM market, and limiting wider uptake, is the need for post-processing of parts to achieve the tolerances required. Currently post-processing is non-automated, time consuming and costly, and there is no commercial automated process currently available. The PLATFORM project aims to revolutionise the way in which metal AM products are finished by aiming to develop breakthrough computational techniques to deliver the world's first fully automatic Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software for part support removal and part machining, which will enable autonomous machining with no human input or expertise required. The PLATFORM project will also provide a cloud-based marketplace for the service network (including providers of metal AM building, geometry scanning, heat treatment and CNC machining) integrated within the CAM software, enabling clients of the CloudNCfAM automated CAM software to easily and cost-effectively access the most appropriate and capable service provider. The PLATFORM project will thus be the first of its kind to provide seamless automated metals AM part finishing, removing a significant barrier to the wider adoption of metals AM.