Taking care of the fine detail

Ask any engineer where the future of manufacturing lies, and high on their list of technologies will be 3D printing.

The technology, also known as additive manufacturing, allows components that are too complex to be built using conventional techniques to be produced at the touch of a button.

Additive manufacturing also makes it possible for engineers to design and build individual parts using different materials, each of which give the finished component a particular property.

In this way, engineers can precisely design the material of their part at the same time as they design its shape, according to Professor David Wimpenny, chief technologist at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Coventry, which recently opened the government and industry-backed National Centre for Net Shape and Additive Manufacturing.

“The strength and integrity of components and products made by additive manufacturing often exceeds that of conventionally produced parts,” he said. “Complex shapes and structures can be made with no joints or weaknesses.”