Projects

Next generation high performance GMA process for additive manufacturing

Start date: Mar 25, 2024 4 months

To develop a new variant of the w-GMA process, enabling a much wider resolution-productivity range. This innovation will enable a new line of low-cost, versatile machines capable of satisfying the very different markets of large and small components.

Unknown value

Business partner and Innovate UK

Wire + Arc Additive Manufacturing for High-speed Flight

Start date: Sep 01, 2019 5 years

Unknown value

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory

Alternative cold work methods - Bending

Start date: Jan 01, 2015 3.5 years

Can bending be used to reduce residual stress alternatively to high-pressure rolling?

£ 60,000

EU

Alternative cold work methods - Pinch rollers

Start date: Jan 01, 2015 3.5 years

Can bending be used to reduce residual stress and introduce cold work alternatively to high-pressure rolling?

£ 60,000

EU

Alternative cold work methods - Side rolling

Start date: Jan 01, 2015 3.5 years

Can GMT be used to reduce residual stress and introduce cold work alternatively to high-pressure rolling?

£ 60,000

EU

Alternate peening strategies

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 2.5 years

What other ways are there to perform peening, besides laser? Can pneumatic hammering be used as well?

£ 75,000

EPSRC

High deposition rate laser based AM

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 2.5 years

Can laser be used in combination with the electric arc to increase WAAM's deposition rate even further?

£ 75,000

EPSRC

Laser peening for AM

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 2.5 years

Can laser shock peening be performed without ablative layer?

£ 75,000

EPSRC

Plasma gas control system

Start date: Mar 01, 2015 3 years

Looking at more precise control of the molten pool by acting on the plasma gas

£ 57,750

Internal

Oscillated wall study

Start date: Jul 01, 2013 3 years

Investigating the geometrical differences related to changes in the oscillation parameters

£ 38,500

Internal

Integrated deposition and machining

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 2.5 years

Using our unique flexible cell, we are looking at the challenges of integrating WAAM with machining

£ 75,000

EPSRC

Plasma hardware development

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 3 years

Development of WAAM-specific hardware

£ 57,750

Internal

Laser peening fundamentals

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 2.5 years

To obtain fundamental understanding of the process to make it more efficient and cost effective to enable use in various applications.

Unknown value

CIM in Laser Based Prod. Proc.

Oscillated wall features

Start date: Jul 01, 2014 3 years

Determining the geometrical characteristics of oscillated walls

£ 38,500

Internal

Compensation strategies

Start date: Jul 01, 2014 3 years

How do we control the changes in geometry associated to the changes in thermal conditions?

£ 38,500

Internal

Alternative cold work methods - Global Mechanical Tensioning

Start date: Jan 01, 2015 3.5 years

Can GMT be used to reduce residual stress alternatively to high-pressure rolling?

£ 60,000

EU

Pipe structure building methods

Start date: Jan 01, 2016 3 years

How can we build structures with elbows and changes in section?

£ 19,250

Industry

Mixed material pipe structure

Start date: Jan 01, 2016 3 years

How can we build structures with more than one material? Can WAAM replace complex cladding operations?

£ 19,250

Industry

Study of fundamental laser material interaction parameters in powder melting

Start date: Apr 01, 2014 3 years

This project will implement the model on the interaction between laser and powder for AM applications, following Cranfield's fundamental work on the Power Factor in laser welding.

Unknown value

CIM in Laser Based Prod. Proc.

Machining of WAAM parts

Start date: Oct 01, 2015 1 year

Investigating the datum requirements for WAAM parts and how to define the CNC toolpath for the post-machining.

Unknown value

Industry

WAAM process development for multi-axis deposition

Start date: Jan 01, 2016 1 year

Developing 8-axis motion to increase parts' complexity

Unknown value

Industry

Mixed material demo parts

Start date: Jan 01, 2017 1 year

Building graded parts in one shot.

Unknown value

Industry

Multi-dimensional rolling

Start date: Jan 01, 2014 3 years

Developing a multi-dimensional deposition and rolling system

£ 55,000

Innovate UK

Process monitoring temperature and shape (RAWFEED)

Start date: Jan 01, 2014 3 years

Enabling the HiVE machine to perform monitoring of temperature and shape

£ 55,000

Innovate UK

Shielding device study (part 2)

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 2 years

A local (trailing) shielding device for WAAM will be tested for the deposition of aerospace parts

Unknown value

Industry

CAM software development for WAAM

Start date: Jan 01, 2014 3 years

Developing WAAM-specific CAM software

£ 55,000

Innovate UK

CAM software development for rolling

Start date: Jan 01, 2014 3 years

Developing a WAAM specific CAM software for the generation of the roller's tool path

£ 55,000

Innovate UK

Testing of innovative plasma torch design

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 1 year

Testing of an innovative plasma torch developed by PWP Industrial

Unknown value

Industry

Active cooling for WAAM (part 2)

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 2 years

Cryogenic cooling (using argon) of WAAM parts will be tested to avoid the build-up of heat, improving productivity and properties.

Unknown value

Industry

Out of position deposition of titanium

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 1 year

Can titanium be deposited out-of-position without the need for support structures?

Unknown value

Industry

Laser smoothing of WAAM surfaces

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 1 year

A laser source is used to remelt the surface of WAAM parts and smoothen it by the controlled melt flow.

Unknown value

CIM in Laser Based Prod. Proc.

wPOS - A 6 degree of freedom workpiece position and orientation sensor

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 3.5 years

Using lasers to measure position

£ 215,000

EPSRC

In-situ manufacture / repair of armoured vehicle

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 1 year

Can we manufacture or repair large aluminium structures in situ?

£ 25,000

Industry

Non-contact optical fibre interferometer for layer height and width measurement

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 3.5 years

Using lasers to measure shape

£ 215,000

EPSRC

Non-contact in-plane position and velocity measurement using laser speckle

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 3.5 years

Using lasers to measure position

£ 215,000

EPSRC

Manufacture of large aluminium parts

Start date: Apr 01, 2016 1 year

Larger and larger components

£ 25,000

Industry

Process monitoring, temperature and shape

Start date: Sep 01, 2014 3 years

Developing techniques to monitor temperature and shape

Unknown value

CIM in Laser Based Prod. Proc.

Aluminium interface studies

Start date: Feb 01, 2015 3 years

What happens at the interface between WAAM aluminium and wrought plates?

Unknown value

Industry

Aluminium - process optimisation

Start date: Oct 01, 2014 3 years

Optimising the WAAM of aluminium to improve process control

£ 58,000

Internal

Deposition of tantalum

Start date: Jan 01, 2016 3.5 years

Tackling the challenging deposition of refractory metals

£ 100,000

Industry

Aluminium development – baseline wires

Start date: Nov 01, 2013 3 years

Looking at the variability of aluminium wires

Unknown value

Internal

Aluminium development (part 2) including demo parts

Start date: Sep 01, 2015 2 years

Developing WAAM of aluminium further

Unknown value

Industry

Aluminium development – Rolling and HT

Start date: May 01, 2014 3 years

Looking at the effect of rolling and heat treatment on aluminium deposited by WAAM

Unknown value

Internal

Aluminium - Mixed wire study

Start date: Sep 01, 2014 3 years

Creating alloys in-situ

Unknown value

Internal

Aluminium development for armour applications

Start date: Mar 01, 2015 2 years

Improving WAAM of aluminium to increase its mechanical properties

Unknown value

Industry

Aluminum Metal matrix composites

Start date: Apr 01, 2016 3 years

How do we create aluminium MMCs?

£ 58,000

Internal

Design for WAAM

Start date: Aug 01, 2015 3 years

Developing design rules for WAAM

Unknown value

Internal

Medial transformation study

Start date: Jun 01, 2015 3 years

Using the medial transformation to improve tool path generation

Unknown value

Internal

Topological optimisation for WAAM

Start date: Dec 01, 2014 3 years

Can topological optimisation be applied to WAAM parts?

Unknown value

Internal

Process and properties for high strength steel

Start date: Oct 01, 2015 2 years

Developing WAAM of ER80 and ER90

£ 19,250

Industry

Effect of ambient oxygen on Ti properties

Start date: May 01, 2015 3 years

Investigating the effect of different oxygen concentrations in the deposition atmosphere

Unknown value

Internal

WAAM of medium strength steels

Start date: Dec 01, 2014 2 years

Developing WAAM of steel

£ 50,000

Industry

Investigation of Molybdenum and steel

Start date: Jul 01, 2015 2 years

Developing WAAM of molybdenum and steel

£ 50,000

Industry

Mixed high strength steel and inconel structures

Start date: Mar 01, 2016 2 years

Developing WAAM of graded HSS / superalloys structures

£ 19,250

Industry

CAD to toolpath generation

Start date: Aug 01, 2015 3 years

Developing our software to generate the tool path from an existing CAD file

Unknown value

Internal

Mechanical properties of Titanium: oscillated vs linear walls

Start date: Nov 01, 2015 1 year

How do the properties change based upon different deposition strategies?

Unknown value

Industry

Process and properties for Inconel 625 and 718

Start date: Oct 01, 2015 2 year

Developing WAAM of superalloys

£ 19,250

Industry

Cost analysis tool for WAAM including machining

Start date: Jan 01, 2015 3 years

Our cost estimation framework to calculate the cost of a part made by WAAM or machined from solid

£ 30,000

Internal

Multi-axis toolpath generation

Start date: Aug 01, 2016 3 years

Developing of our own software to exploit 16 axes

Unknown value

Internal

Feature recognition

Start date: Aug 01, 2017 3 years

Developing of our own software to go recognise features in existing parts from a WAAM point of view

Unknown value

Internal

Feature based design tool

Start date: Nov 01, 2015 3 years

Developing of our own software to design parts based on a library of standard features

Unknown value

Internal

Deposition of tungsten and molybdenum

Start date: Nov 01, 2014 3.5 years

Tackling the challenging deposition of refractory metals

£ 60,000

EU

Process control for laser-hybrid additive manufacture of metals

Start date: Dec 01, 2015 2 years

Improving the process control during laser-arc hybrid AM processing

£ 337,866

CIM in Laser Based Prod. Proc. + Industry

MODELLING APPLICATIONS OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING IN DEFENCE SUPPORT SERVICES

Start date: Jun 14, 2014 3 years

To develop a framework to assess costs and benefits of Additive Manufacturing applications in Defence Support Services for Royal Navy

£ 87,000

Industry, EPSRC

Effect of dopants on arc wander during MIG deposition of titanium

Start date: Apr 01, 2016 1 year

Can the composition of the shielding gas be changed to avoid arc wandering?

£ 50,000

Industry