Additive Manufacturing / 3D Printing - Ref: RWK011012

The Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering is one of the largest and most successful engineering departments in the UK and boasts an established reputation for excellence in teaching and research, as well as strong links with industry. The work performed by the Additive Manufacturing Research Group is based around a family of processes comprising of adding layers of material and either bonding or fusing them together. These techniques are used to create 3D geometries directly from 3D CAD models with no need for tooling. These technologies are commonly being referred to as 3D Printing. The focus of the group is firmly placed on researching the use of these manufacturing technologies to directly produce end-use products. Products produced by Additive Manufacturing have advantages of greater freedom in product design and less reliance on high production numbers required for economic production. Furthermore, as is an increasingly major theme of our activities, our research also focuses on enabling greater potential value and application by integrating additional engineering or systems functionality within a single component.
The studentship will be available in the field of Additive Manufacturing including computer-aided-design, materials, and manufacturing processes. While there is no need for any of these topics to be application specific, our primary prior collaborations cover aerospace, automotive, medical, consumer and electronics industries. The PhD research will be conducted working within a wider research team comprising of academics, post-doctoral researchers, and technical staff, over a period of 3 years.