NCAM project to unlock additive for highly regulated industries

Funded by UK Research and Innovation through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, the ‘Daedalus’ NCAM project based at the Manufacturing Technology Centre will be led by Bristol-based HiETA Technologies. Joined by Coventry-based Arrowsmith Engineering and global enterprise software business ValueChain Enterprises, the project hopes to make the UK ‘the go-to place for forward-thinking manufacturing’.

David Brackett, NCAM group technology manager and senior engineer on the Daedalus project, told The Engineer: “Additive manufacturing unlocks greater design freedom by reducing dependence on a tool, such as a cutting tool in the case of machining which limits physical access to the material you want to remove, or a mould tool which requires provision of removability from this tool and amortisation of the cost across lots of identical parts.

“This all means that with AM, you can make the part that is nearer to being optimal for the application - e.g lighterweight, more efficient, more compact etc - as you have fewer manufacturing constraints, and these can typically be highly complex parts.”