UK Design for Additive Manufacturing Network

该网络资助旨在将在增材制造设计（DfAM）不同领域工作的研究人员聚集在一起，以加强小组之间的沟通，为合作和创新提供重点，并最大限度地提高英国基于DfAM的研究的未来影响。增材制造（AM），也被称为3D打印，由于其独特的能力，例如能够生产极其复杂的形状，个性化产品，返岸生产，整合组件，通过材料最小化和消除工具和库存来减轻重量，具有改变许多英国行业的潜力。设计研究在将这些能力转化为社会和经济影响方面发挥着重要作用。事实上，通过设计，AM功能可以用于创新和高价值产品的开发。我们的工业、产品和工程设计研究社区是开发知识的基础，这些知识将使英国设计师和制造商能够通过增材制造提供更具成本效益和高价值的产品。这需要进行协调，以便在学科（包括设计、工程、计算机科学家、数学家等）、增材制造技术开发商和供应商、专业设计界和工业用户群之间进行定期、自由和开放的对话。DfAM与UKRI资助组合的广泛工程和科学学科相关，包括数字经济（例如设计，个性化），能源（例如储能），工程（例如仿真驱动设计），计算机科学（例如CAD软件），医疗保健技术（例如生物材料和组织）和制造未来（例如材料工程，制造技术，生物材料）。这意味着DfAM以一种切线的、碎片化的方式进化。尽管各个学科的研究小组都从基于dfam的研究中受益匪浅，但他们往往不认为自己的工作与设计相关。虽然在航空航天和医疗应用方面取得了显著的成功，但各小组主要专注于自己的学科，而且工业界和学术界的知识领域之间普遍缺乏沟通和协调。这种分散导致工作重复，缺乏对有关领域所取得进展的认识，不同部门之间的知识交流有限，研究能力增长效率低下，最重要的是在最有效地利用设施和设备方面。此外，由于DfAM经常被视为一门赋能学科，因此它从未成为协调此类研究活动的倡议的一部分。在英国，DfAM的形象仍然局限于学术界，该学科并没有成功地向UKRI、政府机构或更广泛的人群发出统一的声音。因此，随着DfAM相关性的持续增长，该学科发展出一种更加协调和统一的方法来启动冒险的多学科研究项目，应对未来的技术和社会挑战，同时为其他学科提供支持和联系，这一点至关重要。该提案旨在通过组建一个拥有不同成员和行业支持的英国DfAM网络来解决这一差距。它将协调英国的DfAM研究，促进共同利益的确定，促进知识转移，并加速DfAM研究在英国的影响。DfAM网络将通过会议、讲习班、研讨会、对设施和实验室的访问，以及一个协调良好的网站，把研究人员聚集在一起。

This network grant aims at bringing together researchers working in different areas of Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) to enhance communication between groups, provide a focus for collaboration and innovation, and to maximise the future impact of DfAM-based research in the UK.Additive Manufacturing (AM), also referred to as 3D Printing, has the potential to transform many UK industries thanks to its unique capabilities, such as the ability to produce extremely complex shapes, personalise products, reshore production, consolidate components, reduce weight through material minimisation and eliminate tooling and stock holding. Design Research plays a significant role in transforming these capabilities into societal and economic impact. In fact, is through Design that AM capabilities can be exploited for the development of innovative and high-value products. Our industrial, product and engineering design research communities are fundamental in developing the knowledge that will enable UK designers and manufacturers to deliver more cost-effective and high-value products through AM. This requires co-ordination to enable a regular, free and open dialogue between academic disciplines (including design, engineering, computer scientists, mathematicians, etc.), AM technology developers and suppliers, the professional design community and the industrial user-base. DfAM is relevant to a broad range of engineering and science disciplines of the UKRI funding portfolio, including Digital Economy (e.g. Design, Personalisation), Energy (e.g. Energy Storage), Engineering (e.g. Simulation Driven Design), Computer Sciences (e.g. CAD software), Healthcare Technologies (e.g. Biomaterials and Tissues), and Manufacturing the Future (e.g. Materials Engineering, Manufacturing Technologies, Biomaterials). This has meant that DfAM has evolved tangentially and in a fragmented manner. Although research groups across a wide range of disciplines benefit heavily from DfAM-based research, they tend not to consider their work, design-related. Whilst there is a notable success in aerospace and medical applications groups largely focus on their own discipline and there is a general lack of communication and co-ordination between knowledge domains in both industry and academia. Such fragmentation leads to a duplication of effort, a lack of awareness of the progress made in related areas, limited knowledge exchange between different sectors, inefficiencies in the growth of research capacity and crucially in the most effective use of facilities and equipment. Moreover, as it is often seen as an enabling discipline, DfAM has never been part of an initiative to co-ordinate such research activities. In the UK the profile of DfAM continues to be limited to academia, and the discipline does not successfully present itself with a unified voice to UKRI, government agencies or the wider population. Accordingly, as the relevance of DfAM continues to grow, it is crucial that the discipline develops a more co-ordinated and unified approach to initiate adventurous multidisciplinary research projects, meet future technological and societal challenges while providing support and reaching out to other disciplines. This proposal aims to address this gap by forming a UK DfAM Network with diverse membership and industry support. It will co-ordinate the UK's DfAM research, facilitate the identification of common interests, foster knowledge transfer and accelerate the impact of DfAM research in the UK. The DfAM Network will draw together researchers through meetings, workshops, seminars, visits to facilities and laboratories, and a well-co-ordinated web presence.