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Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing

Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing

Rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing technologies are based on freeform fabrication processes that manufacture parts rapidly and directly from computer aided design models without any tooling or numerical control programming. The technologies include Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) for components in engineering plastics and laser based Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) for parts fabrication and tool repair in high strength steels and other metals. The technologies allow development of complex prototypes for new products, new tooling, and industrial and biomedical applications.

Key Capabilities

FDM systems offer capability of layer by layer freeform fabrication in ABS and Polycarbonate thermoplastics. This system has been used in applications as varied as the manufacture of customised anatomical models for surgeons through to new polymer-metal composites for direct metal tooling

The DMD manufacturing process enables components and coatings to be deposited from steel, nickel, cobalt and titanium powders. The metal powder particles about 100 micrometers in diameter are melted together using a laser beam to form a metal track about 2 mm wide and 0.5 mm high. By moving the laser beam under computer control, it is possible to create 3-D metal parts directly from a computer model with high accuracy. These systems have been used to deposit dissimilar metal coating layers, repair and replace own barrier coatings and build complex 2D components.

Within this activity we utilise our expertise in Pro/Engineer system, SolidWorks, ANSYS and ABAQAS finite element analysis, B-SIM blow moulding simulation, and Moldflow MPI plastic filling simulation system to design, model and predict the behaviour of our manufactured components.

Current Projects/Activities

  • Tool wear prediction model for sheet metal stamping in automobile manufacture (AutoCRC funded)
  • Copper based bi-metallic tooling for high pressure die casting using laser metal deposition (Chancellor's Award funded)
  • Intelligent freeform bio fabrication of customised anatomical structures (ARC Linkage)
  • Creation of Negative Thermal Expansion structures using Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) technique

Research Team

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