Welsh Design Firm to Benefit from £1m 3D Printing Project
Chepstow based product design consultancy, ITERATE Design + Innovation has been awarded an InnovateUK grant in order to develop an advanced 3D printing technology.
The collaborative research project between the University of Warwick; Printed Electronics Ltd; and C Enterprise (UK) Ltd, makers of the CEL Robox, will focus on combining deposition of polymer based materials with electrically conductive inks; potentially replacing the need for wires to be used in electro-mechanical product assemblies.
Gethin Roberts, Managing Director at ITERATE says “there are no machines on the market that accurately and reliably combine these two dissimilar materials to create production-grade results. Current 3D print technology is based on a Cartesian co-ordinate system (X,Y,Z), depositing one layer of material on top of another in a single plane to create a 3D object. This method has inherent limitations that affect surface finish, geometric tolerance and robustness. This project will overcome these challenges so that industry can cost effectively develop new products across an exciting array of market sectors – spanning military to healthcare.”
Throughout the lifetime of this 18 month project, the design team at ITERATE will be seeking to engage with product manufacturers and end-users who could take advantage of this new additive manufacturing process. The technology will provide distinct benefits to products that incorporate plastics and electronics by helping to reduce weight; complexity; cost; and time-to-market.
To find out how your product could benefit from this technology, please call +44 (0)1291 442181, email gethin@iterate-uk.com or visit www.iterate-uk.com