Public Funding for Xaarjet Limited

"AM (Additive Manufacturing) offers significant benefits over many conventional production methods: digital production flexibility, reduced material waste and exceptional design freedom. Processing ceramic by AM offers the potential to create complex parts without tooling and offers precise material control which is not possible by conventional processing methods. The widespread adoption of ceramic AM technology is however hindered by material availability, process maturity, material properties and cost. In particular, the inability to melt ceramics and the requirement for organic phases to aid processing, create significant barriers. In the CerAMake project novel material chemistry will be developed which exploits the unique processing characteristics of piezoelectric inkjet technology providing significant microstructural control and improved properties via a scalable ceramic binder jetting platform. Advanced material characterisation and evaluation techniques will be applied to validate the suitability of the material throughout the process chain, providing a baseline chemistry applicable to a wide variety of ceramic materials. This will result in the first ceramic AM technology capable of achieving highly complex parts in a rate capable system suitable for multiple market sectors. CerAMake is also focused on uniform deposition of powder based feedstock material as a substrate for the novel fluid chemistry. Conventional deposition methods limit the range of material/powder particle sizes which can be used, generate anisotropic properties and produce low powder bed density resulting in high part porosity or significant firing shrinkage. The novel deposition process used in CerAMake is designed to uniformly compact the print bed, resulting in higher powder density and homogeneity of the green specimen, aiding the development of mechanical isotropy in the final part. This homogeneity is also essential for uniform densification of unfired parts, facilitating the fabrication of fully dense, complex ceramics. To demonstrate the innovation in the new approach, material requirements from three distinct sectors of the ceramics industry (high performance ceramic manufacture, refractory filter production and, decorative and practical homewares) will be identified, produced and functional demonstrators manufactured for evaluation by end-users. This new integrated material and process capability will act as an enabler for increased uptake of ceramic AM in the UK, leading to higher levels of confidence and investment. This will boost the productivity and competitiveness of the partners in the project and will have a transformative effect on the UK ceramics industry as well as placing the UK AM sector in a leading position."

Additive Manufacturing (aka 3D Printing) offers the pharmaceutical industry significant opportunities to create novel products with unique benefits for patients. However, there is a major challenge in demonstrating the viability and scalability of using ink jet printheads. This project aims to overcome these challenges, and build confidence in the potential opportunities for ink jet technology in the pharmaceutical industry.

Our vision is to create an automated intelligent post processing machine, capable of finishing additively manufactured thermoplastic polymer parts to an injection moulded level surface finish. Current finishing methods are labour intensive, costly and time consuming. Accounting for between 5- 60% _\[Innovate UK funded FACTUM project\]_ of the cost depending on part complexity, size and volume. This machine will address the pressing challenge in additive manufacturing of post process surface finishing, particularly at high production volumes. The project team's objectives are to: 1. Create a saleable automated post processing machine capable of generating a repeatable and reproducible surface finish equivalent to that achieved in injection moulding for additively manufactured parts. 2. Develop intelligent algorithms that control the amount of post processing for a given material and geometric design. 3. Develop a machine that is integrated into the digital manufacturing chain. The project is focused on: Automated and predictable surface finishing for thermoplastic polymer parts. Significant quality improvement of the finished part. Reducing costs through the elimination of manual surface finishing. Significantly improving part turnaround time. Innovation lies at the heart of the machine through: Use of proprietary process, discovered by the University of Sheffield, that smooths the surface of parts using solvents. Use of automated process feedback to control the level of finishing applied. Use of algorithms to manage different materials and geometric designs thereby creating an intelligent machine architecture.

This project will develop supply chain and full scale production capabilities for novel Additive Manufacturing Technologies based on laser sintering (LS) and high speed sintering (HSS) for application in three major industrial sectors within the UK economy. These include Fast Moving Consumer Goods (Unilever), Aerospace (BAE Systems) and Space (Cobham Technical Services). The manufacturing capability owned by Loughborough University will be developed and exploited by the consortium partners that comprise in addition to end-users, manufacturing machine capability developers (Xaar), product design speciality (Sebastian Conran Associates) and polymer processing and additive manufacturing specialists (Farapack Polymers Ltd) based at the University of Sheffield. The project will deliver a validated supply chain with suitable demonstrator products in multiple industry sectors and an appropriate exploitation plan for effective commercialisation of LS and HSS.

Awaiting Public Summary

Awaiting Public Summary