De-risking the transition to industrial scale production
Additive manufacturing (AM) is transforming how high-performance components are designed, produced and tested. Yet, moving from a successful 3D-printed prototype to an industrial-scale manufacturing process can be complex, costly and commercially risky.
Faced with fragile international supply chains, soaring energy costs and relentless global competition, many manufacturers simply cannot afford long validation cycles and steep learning curves usually required to scale new technology.
At the AMRC, we deliver R&D projects focused on solving real manufacturing challenges and accelerating the adoption of industrial additive manufacturing. We support your ideas from early-stage development through to industrial validation and scale-up.
By de-risking adoption, we help you unlock the full benefits of additive manufacturing – from lighter, higher-performing components and reduced material use to shorter lead times, greater design freedom and more agile production.
Bringing the latest research to the shop floor
With our unique combination of deep technical expertise and industrial-scale facilities, we are recognised as leaders in both optimising established methods like Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) and moving next-generation AM technologies from research into real-world manufacturing environments.
- Right first time: We research long-term material performance under real operating conditions to ensure quality, reliability and repeatability in your process.
- From prototype to production: We’ll help you scale to full production capability, including process validation, standards compliance and supply chain integration.
- De-risk innovation: Adopt new technologies and optimise matured ones quickly through digital manufacturing workflows and data-driven insights to improve your products and processes.
Key capabilities
We develop digital tools to assess and improve the design of your components specifically for metallic additive manufacturing, enabling greater freedom in your designs.
It allows you to move beyond simply replicating conventional designs and instead fully exploit the benefits of AM — unlocking dramatic weight reduction, consolidated assemblies, and maximised component performance.
As the only organisation in the UK with an established, dedicated AFSD capability, we are pioneering the production of large-scale, high-integrity metallic components, especially those using materials like aluminium and titanium alloys that are difficult to weld or process using fusion-based methods.
It ultimately leads to high-quality, structurally robust large components with improved material properties. By bypassing traditional manufacturing bottlenecks, this capability could replace high-cost, long lead-time castings and forgings to secure and agile your supply chain.
While LPBF is the established industry standard for complex metal parts, scaling it to high-volume, flawless production still requires advanced engineering. We bridge this gap by focusing our research on core challenges like process stability and part-to-part repeatability.
We’re also widening the range of materials that can be processed using LPBF and developing digital twins and modelling approaches to enable support-free manufacturing. This approach moves LPBF from low-volume prototyping into a reliable, fully validated serial production capability with minimized post-processing.
We develop and apply directed energy deposition (DED) technologies for large-scale component manufacture and repair, particularly for high-value parts with long lead times. To enable reliable, repeatable builds at scale, our research focuses on advancing real-time process control, optimising material integrity and developing specialised deposition strategies to mitigate residual stresses and enhance deposition productivity.
By ensuring consistent results and extending the operational life of critical components, we help you to reduce waste material and shorten lead times, while introducing strategic flexibility into your supply chain.
Make AM work for your business
We can help you with the full industrial lifecycle, taking you seamlessly from early-stage design through to validated, production-ready components.
Alongside expertise in the established and next generation additive manufacturing technologies, we also focus heavily on critical post-processing including finishing and heat treatment, as well as rigorous inspection, testing, and qualification.
By bringing all these printing and finishing elements together in one place, we help address key challenges around repeatability, material performance and qualification workflows. Working with us in our facilities reduces the risks involved in moving from prototype to scalable production - just as we did when partnering with startup Fyous to test the company’s new tooling solution on AM components with complex geometries.
By integrating additive manufacturing processes with intelligent, data-driven digital systems, we’re helping to keep your business and the UK at the forefront of advanced manufacturing.
Find out what we can do for you
Speak to our experts about using additive manufacturing to improve your processes.