Additive Manufacturing of Advanced Functional Materials

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship focused on Additive Manufacturing of advanced functional materials. 

Modern products such as wearable electronics and electric vehicles are made from multiple material classifications covering polymers, metals and ceramics. Additive Manufacturing, commonly referred to as 3D Printing has been forecasted to revolutionise the way we design and manufacture goods. However, in isolation, these digital-driven techniques are typically limited by the range of processable materials, device performance and reliability. This studentship seeks to overcome the existing restrictions of manufacturing advanced products by combining additive, subtractive and assistive methods working in unison to produce precise, 3D, multi-material structures straight from a digital model. This PhD will have a particular focus on the manufacturing techniques to create high-performance multi-material ceramic-based structures which have applications covering automotive, aerospace, industrial processing and electronics.

This PhD will be conducted within the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds in collaboration with a UK based manufacturing firm. The external sponsor will ensure the relevance and applicability of the research while also offering the potential to learn more about industrial manufacturing operations. Applicants should have a keen interest in 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing technologies. Experience in building 3D printers or alternative computer-controlled manufacturing equipment would be an advantage.