News: AMRC pioneers a new manufacturing technique

The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing (AMRC) is a lead partner in an international research project that has successfully brought a new manufacturing technique for the aerospace industry to the brink of commercialisation.


Eight academic and industrial partners from four countries collaborated on RAPOLAC (Rapid Production of Large Aerospace Components). The three-year project has developed the shaped metal deposition (SMD) process from an experimental proof of concept, to an automated manufacturing technology ready for use by a range of companies.

SMD produces components by welding a continuous metal wire into the desired shape. This reduces the wastage involved in machining parts from a larger block, and removes the need for the expensive tooling used in forging. It also provides significant reductions in the design and production time of large aerospace components.

The SMD technology was initially developed by Rolls-Royce plc, but was not widely adopted for commercial production for several reasons. The welding process had to be manually controlled by a skilled technician, and there was little understanding of the material properties of the parts produced by such an innovative process.

Rolls-Royce licenced the technology to the AMRC which through the RAPOLAC project would move SMD towards commercialisation.

Based on the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, the AMRC is a £100m partnership that has successfully bridged the gap between academia, industry and government.

Researchers at the AMRC focused on optimising the SMD process, ensuring that parts are produced with the best achievable material properties in the most efficient way.

Rosemary Gault, RAPOLAC project manager at the AMRC, said: "SMD was a very promising technology when it came us, but companies weren't interested because it was very labour intensive and we didn't understand the material properties.

"Thanks to the funding from the EU Framework Programme and the hard work of all our partners, it's now been fully modelled and automated. It's ready to go into wider production, and we're talking to a number of companies from aerospace and other sectors."

The expertise of partners involved in the project came together to create a system that involves a robot arm carrying a TIG welding head, operating in a sealed cell filled with a neutral gas. The automated system can produce parts from a computer-aided design (CAD) model.

Parts made by SMD are near-net shape and require minimal machining to finish. The technique can substantially reduce the cost and lead time of producing prototypes and short-run manufacturing. The technique can also be used to produce hybrid components by adding complex structures onto large cast or forged parts.

RAPOLAC consortium members are now seeing keen interest in the SMD technology from industry. They have already produced test parts for six different aerospace companies, and have also been approached by companies from other sectors including medical and motorsports.

AMRC website
RAPOLAC website

Images: rapolac.eu