For additional news stories please visit the News page.

Posted on: 3/12/2013 12:00:00 AM... Four new research centers focused on manufacturing innovations in the fields of electronics, laser use in production processes, medical devices and food production, have been established in the UK through a £21 million Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant. As part of a £45 million package of planned investments in manufacturing research, the centers will begin work by the end of 2013, involving faculty from 15 universities across the UK and more than 60 project partners from industry.

EPSRC currently supports 12 centers across a wide range of fields. These include centers focused on additive manufacturing, industrial sustainability, and crystallization. These four new centers bring the total to 16. The new centers are:

Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Large Area Electronics: This center will tackle the research challenges of scale-up and high-yield manufacture and testing of complete systems incorporating multiple functional elements to support manufacturing in this sector. An active outreach program will also promote the adoption of these technologies by large end-users and the wider UK electronics manufacturing industry.

Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Food: Focused on meeting the challenges of global food security, this center will cover the scientific and technological requirements of the food industry along the whole value chain. Technical gaps will be addressed by a convergence of multi-disciplinary technical inputs from process engineering, chemical engineering, material science, food science, microbiology and toxicology, life cycle analysis, ICT, and advanced manufacturing.

Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Laser-based Production Processes: Two key research themes have been identified for this center, covering laser precision structuring, and joining and additive processes. Research will extend from the basic science of material behavior modeling and laser-material interaction processes to manufacturing feasibility studies with industry.

Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Medical Devices: This center will take an integrative approach, exploring two flagship research themes— “stratified design and manufacture” and “near patient personalized manufacture.” It will work on everything from design solution and simulation through product manufacture to patient delivery and outcomes. The initial focus will be on medical devices for musculoskeletal and cardiovascular disease, where the cost of device failure is high and there is a clear need for throughout-life reliability.

For More Information:

• Visit the EPSRC Website

For additional news stories please visit the News page.