EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Additive Manufacturing

EPSRC添加剂制造创新制造中心将创建一个可持续的、多学科的专业机构，作为英国和国际关注的焦点-添加剂制造及其应用的首选之地。该中心将进行用户定义和用户驱动的创新研究计划，以支持添加剂制造作为跨多个行业的可持续和增值的制造过程。添加剂制造(AM)是使用添加剂层制造技术直接生产最终使用的零部件。它能够在一系列材料中制造几何形状复杂的中低批量生产部件，除了最初的产品设计之外，几乎不需要固定工具或人工干预。AM实现了许多价值链配置，例如个性化零部件制造，但也支持在高成本基础经济体内进行经济的小批量生产。从高价值航空航天/汽车制造到创意和数字产业，这种创新的制造方法现在正在全球各行业得到接受。到目前为止，AM的研究几乎完全集中在单一材料、均匀结构(聚合物、金属和陶瓷)的生产上。EPSRC添加剂制造创新制造中心将从展示传统功能水平的单一材料、‘被动’AM工艺和应用转向研究下一代多材料主动添加剂制造工艺、材料和设计系统的挑战。这种变革性的方法是生产工业所需的新一代高价值、多功能产品所必需的。中心将首先探讨两个主题，作为更广泛的研究组合的核心，并在一系列平台活动的支持下。第一个主题是如何设计、集成和有效地实施多材料、多功能制造系统，以满足工业最终用户对预装的多功能设备和结构的需求。在宏观层面上，这将涉及几种方法的融合，以增加产品在制造阶段的嵌入价值，方法是可能在逐个体素的基础上直接打印/沉积电子/光学轨道；通常需要在不同温度和条件下进行处理的不同材料的加工和粘接将特别具有挑战性。第二个主题将探索用于小型复杂部件的AM的潜力，将单一材料AM扩展到微观产品中的光学/电子路径的印刷，并着眼于直接整体印刷电子产品。平台活动将提供机会进行基础研究和行业驱动的先导研究，这些研究既是对以主题为基础的研究的补充，也是对主题研究的派生，并提高中心的能力和能力，创建一个真正的全国性英国中心和网络，使英国在添加剂制造的国际研究和工业开发方面处于领先地位。

The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Additive Manufacturing will create a sustainable and multidisciplinary body of expertise that will act as a UK and international focus - the 'go to' place for additive manufacturing and its applications. The Centre will undertake a user-defined and user-driven programme of innovative research that underpins Additive Manufacturing as a sustainable and value-adding manufacturing process across multiple industry sectors.Additive Manufacturing (AM) is the direct production of end-use component parts made using additive layer manufacturing technologies. It enables the manufacture of geometrically complex, low to medium volume production components in a range of materials, with little, if any, fixed tooling or manual intervention beyond the initial product design. AM enables a number of value chain configurations, such as personalised component part manufacture but also economic low volume production within high cost base economies. This innovative approach to manufacturing is now being embraced globally across industry sectors from high value aerospace / automotive manufacture to the creative and digital industries. To date AM research has almost exclusively focused upon the production of single material, homogeneous structures (in polymers, metals and ceramics). The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Additive Manufacturing will move away from single material, 'passive' AM processes and applications that exhibit conventional levels of functionality, toward the challenges of investigating next generation, multi-material active additive manufacturing processes, materials and design systems. This transformative approach is required for the production of the new generation of high-value, multi-functional products demanded by industry. The Centre will initially explore two themes as the centrepieces of a wider research portfolio, supported by a range of platform activities. The first theme takes on the challenge of how to design, integrate and effectively implement multi-material, multi-functional manufacturing systems capable of matching the requirements of industrial end-users for 'ready-assembled' multifunctional devices and structures. Working at the macro level, this will involve the convergence of several approaches to increase embedded value to the product during the manufacturing stage by the direct printing / deposition of electronic / optical tracks potentially on a voxel by voxel basis; the processing and bonding of dissimilar materials that ordinarily require processing at varying temperatures and conditions will be particularly challenging. The second theme will explore the potential for 'scaling down' AM for small, complex components, extending single material AM to the printing of optical / electronic pathways within micro-level products and with a vision to directly print electronics integrally. The platform activities will provide the opportunity to undertake both fundamental and industry driven pilot studies that both feed into and derive from the theme-based research, and grow the capacity and capability of the Centre, creating a truly national UK Centre and Network that maintains the UK at the front of international research and industrial exploitation in Additive Manufacturing.