10 years of PROGRESS10N

The NCAM facility officially opens

June 2015 saw the official opening of the centre, attended by leading industry and government figures including  the Director of Manufacturing Engineering & Materials at Rolls-Royce Plc, ATI’s Chief Technology Office r and Anna Soubry, the then Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise. 

The CASCADE programme begins

The CASCADE programme,  funded by AMSCI , aimed to establish a UK based powder supply chain for net shape and AM parts. Liberty Speciality Steels (LSS) and the MTC worked collaboratively with seven other partners to develop a range of technologies across the metal powder production, handling and part forming supply chain. Enabling LSS to establish its first powder production facility in the UK (now operated by Globus Metal Powders Ltd) and Farleygreene Ltd to develop new AM powder handling equipment  .  
 

The EWIRA programme starts

The EWIRA programme, part of Clean Sky 2, saw MTC collaborate with international    partners, including Aciturri (project lead), Airbus Defence & Space, and Caetano Aeronautic to de-risk the adoption of critical aerospace parts made from AM technology. It focused on redesigning, manufacturing, and validating lightweight aileron hinge brackets while evaluating EBM process variables and Ti-6Al-4V material properties. The programme successfully demonstrated a route to 13% weight and 90% waste material savings.
 

ESA AM benchmarking centre (AMBC) is launched

The European Space Agency (ESA) recognised NCAM’s capability in AM to support ESA’s ongoing development of AM processes. MTC formed international collaborations across academia and industry to develop future, space relevant, AM technology and applications.  These include novel Copper & Aluminium alloys, production of large structures by AM, developing fatigue software tools, and investigating surface finishing techniques for complex AM parts. Findings were then disseminated to wider the supply chain to accelerate and de-risk up take of this technology .

First AM PhD Students Finish 

Our first supported AM PhD completes their PhD . Since then, NCAM has supported over 30+ AM related PhDs from universities including Nottingham, Birmingham, Warwick, Loughborough, Imperial, Edinburgh, Derby, and Sheffield 

MTC convenes the UK AM community to develop the UK’s National Strategy for AM

NCAM supported to the development of the UKs UK’s National AM Strategy by pulling together over 100 experts across industry, academia and professional  sector bodies to provide input through working groups covered topics including: cost, investment, financing, design, IP protection & security, skills, education, standards & certification, and testing & validation.

The strategy made key recommendations to the government to ensure that the UK capitalised on the opportunity that AM presents.
 

MTC becomes the first partner in ASTM Centre of Excellence outside the US

NCAMs expertise and capability, together with extensive industry links were recognised as a key enabler to lead the development of new global industrial standards for AM. To date NCAM has led and contributed to 23 separate AM standards activities on an international level, ensuring the UK's voice is heard when defining the next generation of AM standards.
 

Completion of ADMIRE Programme

The three-year programme, funded by Erasmus+, enabled the AM industry, research centres, and universities across 5 different countries to reply to the urgent need for a highly qualified workforce in AM. As a result the European Metal AM Engineer Master Degree were adopted by Universities in Europe (Including Cranfield and Birmingham Universities in the UK) 
 

Advancing AM adoption in aerospace through DRAMA  

DRAMA (Digital Reconfigurable Additive Manufacturing facilities for Aerospace) was led by NCAM to deliver national assets and capabilities to enable acceleration of metal powder bed additive manufacturing (AM) in the UK’s aerospace supply chain.

Outputs included; an open access metal PBF facility with end-to-end AM process chain capability, including digital infrastructure, an online AM knowledge base,   delivery of technical packages to support 22 SMEs  accelerate their AM adoption journey.

Since the completion of the programme over 150 new AM projects have been launched, from 80+ different companies using the DRAMA facilities.
 

NCAM Assisting Ministry of Defence

NCAM has provided the Ministry of Defence (MOD) with expert advice to help shape the future direction of AM within MOD. NCAM played a pivotal role in delivering critical information that helped establish Project Tampa, an initiative aimed at integrating additive manufacturing into the Defence supply chain to enhance the availability and reliability of military equipment.

NCAM maintains a close relationship with the MoD through various activities, including hosting events, technical expertise, and serving as Co-chair of the MoD’s Additive Manufacturing Executive Group. 
 

MTC AM apprenticeship receives accreditation

The MTC’s Additive Manufacturing Apprenticeship were awarded accreditation by the Specialist Awarding Organisation for Engineering & Manufacturing. The MTC worked with government, industry, and academia partners, to define a national competency framework that set out the knowledge, skills, and behaviour required to operate in the various job roles in an end-to-end additive manufacturing production environment, forming the foundation for the apprenticeship programmes and short course curricula. 
 

Further expert led AM training courses are launched

Through our MTC training team, NCAM helped create over 20 AM focused training courses to provide the UK manufacturing industry and AM organisations with highly skilled experts of the future.

Training courses cover topics which include: Advanced Intro into AM, Business case development, Design for AM, Process development, Powder management, Health & Safety and much more
 

The ATI AM Aerospace Strategy is launched

'The Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) worked together with NCAM to pull together a new additive manufacturing strategy and roadmap for the UK aerospace sector.

The ATI AM Strategy and Roadmap was developed following an extensive consultation where NCAM convened over 50 partners from across the aerospace industry including OEMs, Supply chain, and Academia working towards a collective vision for 2030 to see an order of magnitude growth in the number of flying AM parts in civil aerospace, designed and delivered by a fully capable end to end UK supply chain.