Additive Industries officially opens new Process and Application Development Centre in Filton (Bristol)

Dr. Raymond Clinton (Corky) Clinton Jr. (NASA) and Dr. Thomas Rohr (ESA) performed the official opening of Additive Industries’ new Process and Application Development Centre in Filton, near Bristol. Corky Clinton works for NASA as the Associate Director of the Science and Technology Office. Thomas Rohr is Head of Materials and Processes Section at the European Space Agency (ESA).

At the opening, the two representatives from the space industry were joined by Dr. Mark Beard, Additive Industries’ Global Director of Process & Application Development and General Manager of the Centre. Part of the opening ceremony was the presentation of Additive Industries’ flagship product MetalFABG2, which offers twice the productivity, compared to previous models. It features optimized gas flow, optimized heat management, updated process parameters and automated beam quality measurements.

Full potential of Additive Manufacturing

The new Application Centre in Filton is focused on enabling customers and partners to realise the full potential of metal AM solutions, providing professional services, and guiding the customer through the full application development process, including design for AM, process development, materials development, post processing and more. The Competence Centre is part of Additive Industries’ global network of Competence Centres, located in Eindhoven, Los Angeles, and Singapore.

The new centre is located at the historic Filton Aerospace Park, directly in the middle of the growing additive manufacturing hub that is situated there. Filton has long been an important manufacturing site since 1910, with the adjacent Filton Airfield in operation throughout the last century. Its place in history was sealed with the development and production of the Concorde airplane in the 1960s and 70s. The area is already the established home for a number of world-class aerospace, advanced engineering and manufacturing businesses, including Airbus, Rolls-Royce, and GKN.

Dr. Mark Beard, Global Director Process & Application Development at Additive Industries and General Manager of the Centre, commented: “Filton has a long and successful history in advanced engineering, aerospace and defense, driven by knowledge, innovation, enterprise, and excellence. Therefore, it is the perfect location for our new centre. We are strongly convinced that additive manufacturing is increasingly important for the aerospace and defense industry. Working here in the heart of this industry, we can collaborate firsthand with all parties and by doing so advance our technology on a daily basis.”

Ian Howe, CEO of Additive Industries, added: “In the aerospace and defence industry, metal additive manufacturing is key enabler and is now competing with traditional manufacturing processes for example, high value assemblies of machined & cast components.. In particular, in rocket and aviation engine development 3D printing is now being used to manufacture certified, high tolerance parts in these demanding applications while reducing costs. We are looking forward to working with our customers and partners at Filton and around the world to further advance our technology and their applications, in order provide component solutions with the optimum performance at the right price points to boost efficiency and effectiveness.”

The opening of the new Filton centre included a seminar on ‘Excellence in Space”, a panel discussion with representatives from the aerospace industry and a workshop on AM in space development. The virtual workshop, seminar & panel will be shortly available ‘On Demand’