Additive manufacturing (AM) is a technology by which physical objects can be built directly from 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) data, and is widely acknowledged as an enabler for revolutionizing the manufacturing landscape. It replaces traditional production methods like casting and machining, and enables essentially arbitrary geometric shapes to be produced. Although significant progress has been made on AM hardware development, there is a lack of efforts regarding material characterization, design tools and methods to efficiently bring AM to practical use in the aeronautical area. In particular, Topology Optimization (TO) – a finite element based design method – is an unusually evident and potentially fruitful technique for designing AM structures. However, the mechanical properties of AM components differ substantially from the properties of the same components produced by conventional methods, and AM components can have complex shapes, such as grid-like structures, that cannot be achieved by using conventional production methods. Therefore, the AddMan project deals with: • Material characterization by establishing fatigue properties and geometry dependent material behavior as well as AM specific build requirements • Development of novel TO methods, as well as CAE methods for metal AM which make use of the material properties generated in AddMan • Development of Design for AM-guidelines that are implemented in an automated knowledge based engineering framework including connection between TO and flexible parametric CAD models, to enable holistic product optimization and • Development of a cost effective post-processing strategy for AM components in order to increase fatigue performance. These developments build towards the overall aim of enabling aerospace industry to efficiently redesign and manufacture optimal system components for reduced weight and costs while meeting the prevailing stress and fatigue requirements and regulations.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

This proposed investment will generate a world-class micro-scale digital fashion production facility. The research it enables will drive new forms of highly-responsive business models for UK garment manufacturers, encourage new forms of research partnerships and enable UK Fashion Practice Research to affect policy change towards carbon neutral manufacturing. The Living Lab will be hugely impactful across multiple sectors with beneficiaries include the robotics, digital, engineering and fashion sectors and lead to the transformative reconfiguration of the UK fashion manufacturing industry needed for a sustainable future. Manchester Fashion Institute, a standalone entity as part of The School of Arts and Humanities at Manchester Metropolitan University, will repurpose two spaces at the heart of MFI - equipping a highly visible showcase - a Robotics Living Lab - and a Work in Progress (WIP) space. Fashion Practice Research led by the Living Lab's designer/ researchers in collaboration with SME fashion designer/fabricator businesses and digital and robotics engineering is central to the vision for an agile, digitised fashion industry. Automation offers the capabilities to innovate in manufacturing processes where the UK could become a leader in the field for small scale, on-shored production. However, tooling needs to be affordable for SMEs, making cost and accessibility the two driving factors for any new development. The Robotics Living Lab at MFI will ideate, test, and develop new tooling solutions in an acknowledgement that innovative manufacturing processes bring new value propositions to small fashion design businesses. Future tooling recommendations in this new field come in the forms of robotic tabletop/desktop solutions, build-your-own /modular systems or multi-use robotics that can run flexibly and both learn and suggest fabrication processes and sequencing. New developments in CAD software further enables predictions of energy usage per tool use suggesting strong capabilities for AI-enabled carbon monitoring during production cycles. To facilitate skilful design-led manufacturing that is sustainable and moves towards being carbon neutral, businesses are keen to avoid mono-solutions therefore enabling them to fully leverage the investment in new accessible entry-level machinery. Predictions for the future of work strongly suggest the gap between engineering and design will continue to shrink. Working with new tooling will allow designers to leverage technology to create quality jobs, building capacity for creatively fulfilling employment. Tooling for a newly configured industry needs to be user-friendly and adaptable for use by differently abled people, directly supporting onshoring agendas and strengthening local supply chains. The high levels of sustainable repurposing and retrofitting of the two interconnected sites reflects a commitment to ameliorating climate crisis, net zero manufacturing, and renewables as core principles. Important to this vision is the visibility of the lab and the new courtyard showcase to demonstrate practice research and attract students, visitors, and academics to the work of the lab. Through critical appraisal, questioning and holding to account the way fashion is traditionally made and consumed the Lab will enable students to become better-informed designers, makers, manufacturers, technologists; publics to be better informed consumers; academics to become enthusiastic collaborators in transdisciplinary research practice and in developing joint methodologies.

As one of Europe's largest multidisciplinary research organisations, STFC has world-class research facilities and capabilities. It is responsible for funding much of the research in UK universities in the fields of astronomy and other space sciences, particle physics, and nuclear physics, and in this context it provides the main UK interface to leading international organisations such as CERN, ESA, ESO, ESS, FAIR, NASA, etc. STFC also operates its own world-class, large-scale research facilities in the UK such as the Central Laser Facility, ISIS pulsed neutron and muon source, Diamond Light Source, the Microelectronics Support Centre, the Hartree Centre for Computational Science and Engineering, and the Boulby underground laboratories. Through its support of science, STFC has had a significant impact on the UK academic community, which has seeded strong connections to UK business, especially in the areas near Daresbury Laboratory in the Northwest and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the South East. The innovation hubs of Harwell Oxford and Sci-Tech Daresbury are well known to local high-tech business, and the co-location of world-class scientific facilities and business incubator space has resulted in the generation of important links to the community. STFC is in the process of further improving commercial access especially for SMEs via the Bridging for Innovators (B4I) programme, which will provide a single point of access and support from STFC scientists in addressing commercial challenges. While the capabilities within STFC are well known in academic circles across the UK, there is a significant knowledge gap for businesses outside of the immediate area of STFC's facilities. The Midlands region for example is home to much of the UK's strength in the manufacturing, transport and service sectors, yet the companies in the region have yet to exploit the internationally leading scientific expertise to be found in the areas STFC supports. The aim of this proposal is to develop a pilot Regional Centre that can bridge the knowledge gap and help local business find solutions to high-tech challenges, innovate manufacturing techniques and find new partnering opportunities and markets to thereby improve productivity, build R&D capacity and accelerate growth in the region. The effort builds on the B4I programme within STFC, which provides the route to access advanced analytical technologies, supporting expertise and capabilities within STFC. The University of Birmingham (UoB) together with the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) are planning to create a hub for communicating and connecting the opportunities of B4I and the capabilities of the STFC science base to Midlands business.