EPSRC NetworkPlus In Digitalised Surface Manufacturing: Towards "World's Best" Processes

涂料是大多数产品性能的关键，它们通过提高效率和延长其保护的产品的寿命以及减少稀缺散装材料的使用来促进可持续性。因此，涂料是国家制造业的重要组成部分，为许多行业做出贡献，包括航空航天，能源，汽车和建筑。然而，到目前为止，与高价值制造业相比，英国涂料行业在设计，开发，制造和产品实施的各个方面都严重落后，特别是在数字化程度方面（如“工业4.0”概念所体现的那样）。这个EPSRC NetworkPlus在数字化表面制造是必要的，因为目前还没有英国大学，拥有所有所需的跨学科专业知识，在表面工程和数字化制造，并有缺乏“连接”的知识，在数字化领域的涂层制造过程在英国工业。该网络将汇集多个学科的学术和工业专业知识，以应对英国涂料制造业数字化的挑战。该网络将创建一个社区，能够进行创新的前沿研究，最终使涂料制造业达到一流的高价值制造水平。围绕表面制造的数字化方法建立的英国范围内的网络可以为英国的表面工程和先进涂层社区带来最佳的制造工艺（“第一次正确”）。该NetworkPlus的创建将有助于捕捉和了解该领域当前的制造场景和泵注数字化活动。该网络内开发的新的跨学科研究社区将协助英国PLC开发可预测，数字化和更具生产力的制造方法，为一流的涂层制造工艺提供途径。这将为英国所有主要工业部门带来弹性和提高生产力。涂料行业的最终用户涵盖所有行业，因此该网络的经济和社会影响将是广泛的。反过来，涂料制造业的数字化也将意味着产品上涂层的好处是完全可记录和可访问的，这是实现对制造产品寿命和性能的统计可靠知识所必需的。这对于实现涂层产品的全生命周期评估以及所用涂层的可持续性影响至关重要，有助于实现弹性制造的长期目标。

Coatings are key to the performance of most products and they contribute to sustainability by enhancing the efficiency and extending the life of the products that they protect, as well as by enabling the reduced use of scarce bulk materials. Therefore, coatings are a vital part of the nation's manufacturing industry, contributing to many sectors, including aerospace, energy, automotive and construction. However, until now the UK coatings industry has been severely lagging behind compared to High Value Manufacturing sectors in terms of all aspects of design, development, manufacture, and implementation into products, particularly in terms of the degree of digitalisation achieved (as epitomised in the "Industry 4.0" concept). This EPSRC NetworkPlus in Digitalised Surface Manufacturing is needed because currently there is no UK University that has all the required interdisciplinary expertise in surface engineering and digital manufacturing and there is a lack of 'connected' knowledge in the area of digitalisation of coating manufacturing processes in UK industry. The Network will bring together academic and industrial expertise in multiple disciplines to address the challenges of digitalising the UK coatings manufacturing sector. The Network will create a community that will be able to carry out innovative leading-edge research which will ultimately allow the coatings manufacturing industry to achieve the best-in-class levels of High Value Manufacturing. The development of a UK-wide network around digital methods for surface manufacturing can bring optimum manufacture processes ("right first time") to the surface engineering and advanced coatings community in the UK.The creation of this NetworkPlus will serve to capture and understand the current manufacturing scene and pump-prime digitalisation activity in this area. The new interdisciplinary research community developed within the Network will assist the UK PLC to develop manufacturing methods which are predictable, digital-enabled and more productive, providing the pathway to class-leading coating manufacturing processes. This will bring resilience and improved productivity across all key UK industrial sectors. End-users of the coatings industry span all sectors and thus the economical and societal impact of the Network will be wide-ranging. In turn, the digitalisation of the coatings manufacturing industry will also mean that the benefits of coatings on products are thoroughly recordable and accessible, as is needed to enable statistically robust knowledge of manufactured product lifetimes and performance. This is vital to enabling full life-cycle assessment of coated products and the sustainability implications of the coatings applied, contributing to the long-term aims of a resilient manufacturing.