News: New manufacturing technique to cut costs
Shaped metal deposition (SMD), a manufacturing technique pioneered at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing in Rotherham cuts out cutting out and also cuts costs.
The AMRC was the lead partner on the RAPOLAC (Rapid Production of Large Aerospace Components) project, a pan-European project to develop the process from an experimental proof of concept, to an automated manufacturing technology ready for use by a range of companies.
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.
The production of advanced high-tech components for aircraft and other aerospace applications is an expensive and time-intensive process involving design, prototyping and then machining of parts often using costly high strength-to-weight materials such as titanium.
While the traditional machining approach cuts out metal from work pieces, the new SMD process adds material layer by layer in a liquid metal deposition process. The end product requires minimal finishing, material waste is considerably reduced and the process has low to zero harmful emissions.
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 licensed the technology to the AMRC, which through the RAPOLAC project, would move SMD towards commercialisation.
Work on the three year project has now been proven to reduce production costs by as much as 40% by bypassing the prototyping stage and building a new part in a fraction of the time.
The SMD process reduces raw material usage, energy costs and eliminates the need for specialist production tooling. It also helps reduce the cost of inventory by 90% since the part designs are stored as computer files and then built to order.
Dr Rosemary Gault, RAPOLAC project coordinator at the AMRC, said: "The main objective of RAPOLAC was to validate the SMD for use within aerospace and develop the process to the point where it can reliably and repeatedly be used in manufacturing.
"The SMD process we have demonstrated can reduce by 60% the lead-time needed to produce new parts through the elimination of the tooling and prototyping stages. This could be of particular benefit to SMEs working on small batches of parts. The technology has the potential to allow smaller firms across the regions of Europe to diversify into the aerospace market and offer competitively priced precision parts."
The consortium has produced test parts for six different aerospace companies and is being invited to develop more for other sectors.
AMRC website
RAPOLAC website
Images: AMRC
The AMRC was the lead partner on the RAPOLAC (Rapid Production of Large Aerospace Components) project, a pan-European project to develop the process from an experimental proof of concept, to an automated manufacturing technology ready for use by a range of companies.
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.
The production of advanced high-tech components for aircraft and other aerospace applications is an expensive and time-intensive process involving design, prototyping and then machining of parts often using costly high strength-to-weight materials such as titanium.
While the traditional machining approach cuts out metal from work pieces, the new SMD process adds material layer by layer in a liquid metal deposition process. The end product requires minimal finishing, material waste is considerably reduced and the process has low to zero harmful emissions.
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 licensed the technology to the AMRC, which through the RAPOLAC project, would move SMD towards commercialisation.
Work on the three year project has now been proven to reduce production costs by as much as 40% by bypassing the prototyping stage and building a new part in a fraction of the time.
The SMD process reduces raw material usage, energy costs and eliminates the need for specialist production tooling. It also helps reduce the cost of inventory by 90% since the part designs are stored as computer files and then built to order.
Dr Rosemary Gault, RAPOLAC project coordinator at the AMRC, said: "The main objective of RAPOLAC was to validate the SMD for use within aerospace and develop the process to the point where it can reliably and repeatedly be used in manufacturing.
"The SMD process we have demonstrated can reduce by 60% the lead-time needed to produce new parts through the elimination of the tooling and prototyping stages. This could be of particular benefit to SMEs working on small batches of parts. The technology has the potential to allow smaller firms across the regions of Europe to diversify into the aerospace market and offer competitively priced precision parts."
The consortium has produced test parts for six different aerospace companies and is being invited to develop more for other sectors.
AMRC website
RAPOLAC website
Images: AMRC
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