3D Printing for Business
3D Printing has been making major advances in recent years across a wide range of industries, including Engineering, Medical, Aerospace, Fashion and Education, growing in size from £4m in 2014 to a projected £45m by 2025 making it an important consideration to businesses small and large.
3D Printing is now important to large and small companies alike, with some large companies using 3D printing to produce low volume components. However, the real benefit comes from using it in product development where it can be used to create prototypes that reduce the risk during the design process of expensive tooling mistakes, as well as reducing the time to validate a design.
At Aston University, we have been at the forefront of using 3D printing especially with the early adopters of the technology in the medical sectors, for example in the orthopaedic field.
Aston are now reaching out to SMEs to offer these 3D printing facilities as part of its UK Shared Prosperity Fund programme “Advanced Prototyping Facility” (APF). This programme allows SMEs to get business support in their design process by giving them access to some of the best minds in the academic world who can help in prototyping existing and new products.
As part of this Aston University can help model and print in a variety of materials upto 1m2. So allowing SMEs to get the benefits of 3D printing, only usually affordable to large companies, as well as getting to know the right functional materials to use in their products.
Contact us now to find out more about Advanced Prototyping Facility programme and funding.
