£1 million Grant Awarded to 3D Printing Company by UK Research and Innovation Agency

The UK government’s Research and Innovation agency (UKRI) has announced a recent investment of £14 million into novel  projects in a scheme known as the Sustainable Smart Factory Competition. Funding has been granted to those companies which promise to harness technology in order to ‘drive energy efficiency, productivity and growth across key manufacturing industries’. These include AI, machine learning, and 3D printing! Photopolymer innovation company Photocentric was granted over £1 million for their scheme, known as Low Energy Autonomous Digital Factory (LEAD). 

Photocentric’s Liquid Crystal Magna is an example of an LCD SLA machine. (Photo credit: Photocentric).

Photocentric’s Plan

In order to be considered for the funding, firms had to demonstrate an innovative idea which could either optimize material usage, lower energy consumption in order to increase sustainability or reduce, reuse or separate waste materials. Photocentric hopes to achieve the latter. Years of work have been put into LEAD, a scheme in which LCD screens are used to harden liquids for SLA 3D printing. They plan to produce 3D printed parts autonomously and using recycled materials. This would be beneficial for productivity, efficiency and waste reduction. The agency hopes that the combined projects will create 1000 jobs across the UK and save 300,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, the same as taking 65,000 cars off our roads.

Chris Needham, Innovation Lead in the Made Smarter innovation challenge, said:

Effective digital technologies can have a substantial impact on the manufacturing sector, bringing outdated, inefficient and unproductive products and processes up the standards needed for a net zero industry of the future.

Governmental Funding for Innovation

This is not the first time that government funding has been offered to help the adoption of additive manufacturing. Its benefits for faster, customisable and more efficient business are becoming increasingly more recognised among these agencies. Recently the Ministry of Defence offered a contract for firms to produce 3d printed metal parts to compensate for shortages and ensure that supply lines are set up and maintained. In the US, the world’s largest metal 3D printer was recently commissioned, hoping to build hulls for combat vehicles. Further examples include a partnership with the University of Florida to 3D print titanium alloys for marine use. It is clear that 3D printing has a role to play in tackling current and future issues in manufacturing. For the full UKRI report, you can click HERE. 

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*Cover Photo Credits: UKRI