The production of Energetic materials has remained largely unchanged for 150 years. This project will be used to build a safety compliant production 3D printer system that will print energetic materials unmanned. The design of the 'pellets' that are printed will increase the efficiency of the material by at least 20%. This will be achieved by a much more controlled 'burn' resulting in greater velocities, and yet lower pressures created. This will enable the reduction of ordnance weights. The controlled burn will also increase accuracy of larger caliber munitions. The DOD have been working for 3 years developing a robust and commercially viable 3D printing solution for Energetics. The Raplas SLA 3D printing system has been confirmed as the only solution found to achieve this. The DOD and MOD are in a data exchange on the subject. Raplas is seeking funding to move from the R&D stage to a commercially viable product for 3D printing of Energetics. This requires development of a Div1 Class1 system for the safe printing of the Energetics, and automated handling of the materials for post processing in an unmanned environment. Raplas has partnered with the EPA Group munitions manufacturer. EPA will test and further develop the materials to achieve optimum performance and design the 3D printed structures to achieve the required burn rates to maximise the advantages of this process. This opportunity will revolutionise the use of energetics. It will give enhanced performance, greater accuracy, reduce munition weight and ordnance weights to name just a few of the benefits.

Sand casting has been used in the automotive industry and other manufacturing sectors to produce metal components, but the process has been unchanged mainly due to a lack of investment since casting Foundries do not want to risk changing their conventional operations. Recently, 3D printing systems have assisted the Sand Casting industry by building sand cores, but all that the OEM's offer at this time are bulky and expensive systems that require a lot of manual post-processing. The main motivation of the project is to introduce a much needed, significant step change in the casting industry, to manufacture geometries, previously non achievable in series production volumes, at a cost that matches today's restrictive processes. The new opportunities show major component weight savings using less material and post processing. The technical challenge of the project is to develop a system which can achieve rapid cycle times whilst remaining cost competitive for production volumes. The UK Foundry industry has gradually diminished as a result of overseas competition with lower labor and operating costs, often to the detriment of casting quality. The UK Foundry industry has therefore adapted, over the years, to specialise using their casting expertise and knowledge in higher complexity and high quality/value components. The project will provide a low cost automated rapid manufacturing capability capable of competitively producing from one off prototype to mass production cast components with minimal lead times.