Public Funding for Aletheia Imaging Solutions Limited

Greater Manchester (GM) has world class research capability in developing advanced materials and has a growing materials innovation cluster within the city region. Globally there is a gap in companies able to provide sustainable materials for manufacturing supply chains, and also a market failure in industries ability to scale up and adopt sustainable materials in manufacturing applications. This presents a major economic opportunity for GM -- and there are plans to realise this through GM Combined Authority's (GMCA's) and Rochdale Development Agency's (RDA's) development of a Centre of Expertise in Advanced Materials & Sustainability (CEAMS), which will be built in Atom Valley/Rochdale. Our programme, "Supply Chain Pilots for the Centre of Expertise in Advanced Materials & Sustainability (p-CEAMS)", supports GMCAs ambitions in the development of CEAMS, leveraging GM's existing strength in materials research, alongside the UK's High Value Manufacturing Catapult's (HVMC's) competency in building supply chain capability. Our programme: 1) Addresses current supply chain gaps in provision of sustainable advanced materials by: \*Connecting regional businesses to National supply chain needs in advanced materials including polymers, composites, biomaterials, technical textiles, coatings, and digital manufacturing of materials (Materials 4.0) \*Supporting regional businesses to develop solutions to these needs \*Demonstrating scale up AND application of new advanced materials and digital technologies in industrial processes, through collaborative pilot projects 2) Supports the development of CEAMS and ensures this becomes a long-term capability for GM by transferring activity and follow-on work into the CEAMS -- creating starter pipelines for this investment 3) Uses the activity to catalyse strategic links to inward investment, accelerating advanced materials business clustering in GM through collaborative creation of new material supply chain enterprises, and through the attraction of existing advanced material supply chain companies to GM. Our consortium, comprised of Rochdale Development Agency (RDA), University of Manchester (UoM) Institutes (Royce, GEIC, SMI Hub), National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Science and Technologies Facilities Council (UKRI-STFC), and the UK's High Value Manufacturing Catapult, will exploit existing infrastructure within GM and nationally to catalyse cross-sector and cross-supply chain collaborations, developing viable business models to ensure quality and sustainability of AdM systems that deliver innovations, revenue and productivity/GVA benefits for GM businesses and the region .

Aletheia Imaging Solutions Ltd is an industrial metrology spin-out from The University of Manchester and is commercialising cutting edge technology that is opening up new possibilities for the use of additive manufacturing (AM) in the aerospace, automotive, defence, medical, nuclear and semiconductor industries. AM is a powerful novel manufacturing method, capable of producing components with far greater geometric complexities than could be realised with traditional methods for significantly lower cost. AM faces a major barrier to its widespread adoption caused by defects that can be randomly introduced into components produced by AM in the manufacturing process. These defects can cause a component to fail, rendering AM unsuitable for the production of mission critical parts. X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) is a non-destructive imaging modality that allows AM components to be inspected for internal defects, thereby permitting the integrity of parts intended for mission critical applications to be verified. Aletheia offers a patent pending 3D calibration target and automated software solution that facilitates the determination of spatial resolution, measurement errors and measurement confidence of datasets acquired by X-ray CT. Aletheia's technology enables the performance of X-ray CT imaging systems to be validated, allowing for the measurements taken from X-ray CT scans to be applied to real components, including AM parts. In this A4I funded project, Aletheia will work with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the extensive instrumentation and expertise available there to develop a certification routine that will allow the feature dimensions on the 3D calibration targets themselves to be validated. In order for the 3D calibration target to return precise measurements of the metrological performance of an X-ray CT system, it is important that the dimensions of features on the calibration targets are known accurately. This grant will fund experts at NPL to explore the use of various measurement techniques, including coordinate measurement machine (CMM), optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), for the measurement of feature dimensions on Aletheia's 3D calibration targets. NPL will also assist Aletheia in automating these measurement routines, enabling the developed certification method to be applied at scale to large volumes of Aletheia's devices. Work will also be carried out by Aletheia to integrate the measurements obtained during certification into Aletheia's automated analysis software and to adapt the methodology such that it is consistent with existing ASTM, ISO and VDI standards in X-ray CT.

Aletheia Imaging Solutions Ltd (AIS) is an industrial metrology spin out from The University of Manchester. At the heart of the AIS business plan is an innovative, patent pending, piece of technology, a 3D calibration target capable of permitting the calculation of spatial resolution and measurement confidence in X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT). The AIS 3D calibration target enables users to exploit the vast capabilities of XCT for non-destructive testing (NDT) purposes. Through detailed case studies performed in collaboration with industrial partners, the AIS approach to XCT metrology has been proven to be a reliable means for calibrating XCT equipment. The AIS approach is intended to allow XCT users to inspect additively manufactured (AM) components for defects in order to allow them to be deployed in mission critical applications. XCT can only be relied upon as an NDT method for mission critical components if the XCT instruments employed to carry out the inspections are calibrated and the corresponding spatial resolution and measurement confidence values are known. The AIS 3D calibration target provides these parameters. AM is much faster and more economical than alternative fabrication methods, so customers stand to achieve vast cost savings by using the AIS approach to enable AM to be employed as their chosen manufacturing technique. Although it is proven that the AIS 3D calibration target works and is a highly effective tool for XCT metrology, there is currently no way of calibrating the 3D calibration targets themselves. It is inevitable that errors in the manufacturing processes used to produce the AIS devices will result in small geometric variations between supposedly identical devices. In this project, AIS will work with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to develop a characterisation routine to use imaging techniques such as scanning electron microscopy to profile the dimensions of the features on the 3D calibration targets. It is intended that this routine will output a "fingerprint" of the characterised device, detailing any variations between the actual device under investigation and the idealised design. The project will seek to determine the optimal imaging technique for carrying out the characterisation and engage in the development of a digital solution to enable the results to be used in subsequent calculations using the AIS devices. Successful completion of the project will enhance the utility of the AIS 3D calibration targets and ensure AIS maintains its position as a world leader in the XCT metrology market.