Layers of manufacturing

Britain’s manufacturers will soon have access to a tool that is likely to take lightweight research to new levels.

Unique to Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), the bespoke machine will let the West Midlands team investigate whether plasma transfer arc (PTA) welding and additive manufacturing (AM) can be used to manufacture light-weight 3D components.

Put simply, AM builds parts gradually through the deposition and heating of layers of metal powder and WMG’s machine, delivered on 9 March 2012, is expected to provide fresh insights into exploiting the process.

The machine, described as a ‘hybrid additive subtractive manufacturing system’, will be employed for lightweighting research, for investigating the direct, tool-less manufacture of parts for sectors, including automotive, autosports and medical.

The finished parts created by Warwick’s latest research tool may represent a paradigm shift in Britain’s manufacturing capability, but the machine itself is essentially a CNC device. Dr Gregory Gibbons, a senior research fellow at WMG, told The Engineer that the PTA torch can be simultaneously fed from a powder or a wire feed, making it highly flexible.