Oct 11 2002
The ability for UK manufacturing industry to compete in world markets received a major boost with the announcement on 5 September by Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt of PowdermatriX, a new Faraday Partnership for Rapid Manufacturing through Powder Processing. “Faraday Partnerships play a vital role by helping firms to work in close collaboration with the best researchers to produce innovative new products and processes” said Hewitt. “They make the most of developments in science and innovation – crucial to raising productivity.”
Over 60% of all industrial products involve powder materials and processing, so the ability to produce such materials and manufacture them into successful structural components is critical to a wide range of industries and markets. From a PC disc reader to a machine cutting tool, a dental filling to a watch case, the range of applications involved is extremely broad. Nevertheless, the advanced ceramics, powder metallurgy, magnetic materials and hardmetals sectors have characteristics in common, and it is here that opportunities exist for the development of new manufacturing routes, the use of nanopowders, the manufacture of novel functional and structural components, and for environmentally sustainable products with low waste.
The PowdermatriX partnership will develop a single network of companies, associations and universities uniting the powder processing sector and allow common problems to be identified and addressed. Collaborative research projects will be developed, with the emphasis on co-operation rather than competition. New technologies will be demonstrated in industrial applications and disseminated through case studies. The research and development programme will address
- Faster and flexible net shape manufacturing
- Achieving greater product consistency
- Reduction in lead times
- Synthesis, handling and forming with finer particle sizes and nanopowders
- Development of alternative materials
The core partners in PowdermatriX are CERAM Research, the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, Birmingham, Loughborough and Manchester/UMIST universities, the European Powder Metallurgy Association, the British Hardmetals Association, and the National Physical Laboratory. Over 50 companies have already agreed to support the partnership, including a significant proportion of SMEs and several OEMs which will benefit technology translation up and down the supply chain.
For more information on powder metallurgy, click here.