AMP - Advanced Manufacturing Park

Additive Manufacturing

AMRC - Additive manufacturing R&D for aerospace components
Additive manufacturing processes are time-compression-technologies that create near-net shaped components from CAD models to product deposition. Generally this is done without the requirement for any additional processing. In essence, this process is creating components by adding material on rather than removing material.

Additive manufacturing processes employed by the AMRC include; Shape Metal Deposition; Metal Injection Moulding (MIM); Powder Deposition using EBM.
www.impc.org.uk/alm.php

 TWI - Laser deposition R&D
TWI's laser direct metal deposition systems use lasers supplying beams which can be focused to a spot from 0.2mm to 2.5mm plus in diameter. This makes the process suitable for depositing both fine detail and bulk materials. Laser deposition can be used for repair, build and rapid prototyping. The equipment located at TWI's Yorkshire site, gives the company an outstanding range of capabilities, which are relevant to a range of applications, including; Build of medical implants; Repair of mould tool surfaces; Repair of high value parts such as aero engine components and military vehicles; Tipping of turbine blades with protective coatings; Surfacing of oil and gas drilling components.
www.twi.co.uk/content/dmd_lasertwi.html

TWI - Cold Spraying R&D
Cold Spraying, or more precisely Cold Gas Dynamic Spraying (CGDS), is a high-rate material deposition process in which powder particles (typically 1 to 50 µm) are accelerated to velocities in the range 200 to 1000 m s-1 in a supersonic jet of compressed gas at a temperature much below the melting point of the feedstock powder (ambient temperature to 700°C). Upon impact with a target surface, the solid particles experience plastic deformation that disrupts thin surface films (such as metal oxides) and provides intimate conformal contact between the clean metal surfaces under high local pressure. This permits bonding to occur and layers of deposited material to be built up rapidly.

A number of materials have already been proven to be suitable for cold spraying, including; metals, refractory metals, alloys and composites. Applications include aerospace, automotive, oil and gas, power generation, motorsport, medical, petrochemical and electronics.
www.twi.co.uk/content/twi_yorks_coldspray.html