20 AnnuAl RepoRt <strong>2010</strong> 211 210 261 275 187 186 AnnuAl RepoRt <strong>2010</strong> 6
IMCRC Current RESEARCh ThEMES high Value Assets Examples of high value assets include military platforms, production systems and major buildings. The IMCRC is delivering the tools, techniques and designs to maximise the utility and return from such assets whilst ensuring that companies, governments and the general public gain maximum benefit from the investments needed to produce these products. Project 211 - Business Driven Automation, is establishing a new end-user, businessdriven approach to automation systems development and support. The approach is highly generic and is applicable to the automobile industry and virtually all other automation sectors by providing tools to support their progressive reconfiguration and modification. Project 252 - Lean Construction Data Laboratory is exploring the use of ‘Lean Thinking’ to challenge current construction management and organisational theory and practice. The feasibility of this approach is being tested using live project investigations and case histories. Tools and techniques developed in the automotive industry are being evaluated for use in construction. Fast changing business environments require building owners to be able to change the function and performance of their facilities. Project 210 - Adaptable Futures, recognises high value building assets need to be designed and constructed for flexibility of use over the lifetime of the product. The aim of this project is to facilitate adaptable buildings, academic research studies and practical, real-life application. Factors leading to performance shortfalls and failures in buildings designed and built for energy efficiency are being studied in Project 271 - Predicted vs In-Use Performance of Buildings. The research will produce decision-making guidelines for designers, contractors and building operators, which will ensure any facilities in the future meet the needs of occupants. Next generation Technologies This theme provides industry and commerce with a radical set of technologies based on new materials, processes, and information systems which will transform existing practices and deliver innovative products to the customer. Project 215 – The 3D-Mintegration grand Challenge is destined to revolutionise the way small, complex products and components are manufactured by providing a radical new way of thinking for the end-to-end design, processing, assembly, packaging, integration and testing of complete 3D miniaturised/ integrated (3D Mintegrated) products. The work of this Grand Challenge (of which the <strong>Loughborough</strong> IMCRC is one of five IMRCs involved) will form the basis for next generation automotive, aerospace, telecommunications, medical and consumer products, which will combine significantly improved performance with higher added value, sustainability and ecoefficiency. The 3D-Mintegration project will also give companies valuable insight into how evolving practices in this field worldwide may be adopted and adapted for optimal exploitation in the UK. Project 275 - Smart Material Structures by Ultrasonic Consolidation, builds on a foundation of Ultrasonic Consolidation research to investigate the controlling mechanisms that enable the production of smart structures with integrated dynamic control and monitoring ability. This will permit the technology’s progression to high value industrial exploitation. Project 217 - Jetting of 3D Nylon Parts is investigating the feasibility of a new manufacturing process for nylon parts and aims to demonstrate that nylon can be produced by jetting one droplet of mixture on top of another, and that these processing conditions can be controlled to give reproducible material properties. Improving the properties and the repeatability of laser sintered polymers through advanced materials and processing research, is the aim of Project 251 - Advanced Understanding and Control of Polymer Sintering. This project has produced the first quantified appraisal of the repeatability of laser sintering and is comparing this process with traditional injection moulding manufacturing processes. Project 261 - Topologically optimised Additively Manufactured Metallic Structures, is investigating how Additive Manufacturing of materials compares with conventional manufacturing of the same materials, and how design optimisation methodologies may be utilised in conjunction with Additive Manufacturing to affect the design and manufacturing of complex, statistically optimised, metallic parts. The multi-disciplinary Project 186 - Personalised Sports Footwear: Elite to high Street (E2hS), aims to complete world-leading research into three different disciplines, and to use its results to enable the affordable manufacture of personalised sports shoes for different end users using additive manufacturing technologies. Closely linked to the E2HS project is Project 286 - Engineering gold Medals, a knowledge transfer project which is designing, developing, and manufacturing personalised sprint footwear for training and competition. Paralympics athletes are collaborating with the research team on behalf of UK Athletics. The IMCRC’s research into the use of the Additive Manufacturing techniques is not just limited to the traditional manufacturing industries. Project 187 - Freeform Construction: Mega-Scale Rapid Manufacturing for Construction, is developing a new ‘additive’ process capable of ‘printing’ full-scale building components. This process will generate geometric freedom and lead to the cost-effective production of bespoke panel systems including the integration of other features and reduce the quantity of material used to realise a given form. AnnuAl RepoRt <strong>2010</strong> 21
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