Members of the CMF together with some guests from the Worshipful Company of Founders were able to visit The Manufacturing Technology Centre, MTC in Ansty, near Coventry, to listen and learn about some of the latest developments in additive technology.
Host for the visit was Ruaridh Mitchinson, Technology Manager – Additive Manufacturing, National Centre for Additive Manufacturing who explained how the MTC is able, through its range of world leading technologies, equipment and support funding, be a technological playground to SMEs in the UK manufacturing sector, enabling them to seek advice from the MTC technicians and engineers and try out and test ideas, de-risking innovation.
The MTC, which is part of the UK’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult has extensive experience across a range of industry sectors which is used to help develop manufacturing system solutions to solve industrial challenges for the short and longer term. It blends a range of services to focus on productivity improvements, cost reductions, innovation, de-risking the introduction of new technologies in the workplace and helping to accelerate the UK’s industrial growth.
Michael Moore then described an Innovate UK and industry co-funded project that the team from the MTC are doing with CMF members, Todmorden foundry, Weir Minerals, entitled “Improving Foundry Sustainability using 3D Printing of Patterns”. The foundry is a global supplier of equipment for the mining and mineral industry and many of the parts they engineer require large complex and carefully designed wooden patterns to be made and then stored (in dry conditions), until a sand mould for another cast part is required, which may only be occasionally. The ability to digitally store and then print the patterns in a highly recyclable polymer would mean that the wooden patterns were no longer needed and patterns would not need to be stored. Over time this could lead to significant savings in materials and costs for the foundry. The project is looking to understand the capabilities of the process and how resilient the resin materials are for repeated re-use, as part of a wider feasibility study for the foundry.
During the visit, members were able to have a tour to see the extensive facilities including metal powder bed fusion, design for AM and process simulation, polymer additive manufacturing, directed energy deposition, binder jetting, and ceramic AM, as well as a range of innovative joining technologies.
As one of the attendees so aptly noted, “What a fascinating visit. Until then I thought 3D printing was just 3D printing. I now realise that there is a whole new world of 3D printing”.
