The proposed opportunity is to evaluate the technical feasibility of an Industry 4.0 compatible post-processing machine capable of adding a functionality to Additively Manufactured (AM) components. Current function-adding methods such as colouring and coating entail semi-manual production chains that are costly and time consuming. The proposed machine will simplify the part functionalising stage in additive manufacturing at scale.

Current most popular function-adding systems include water-based pot colouring methods and manual coating. Both methods are extremely water-wasteful, energy-inefficient and labour-intensive.

Additive Manufacturing Technologies Ltd (AMT), a Sheffield based manufacturer of smart industrial post-processing systems has invented and filed patents for a novel way to uniformly fuse material onto the polymer parts. The method can be used to colour Additively Manufactured (3D printed) parts or coat them with wide range of materials such as carbon nanotubes, antibacterial particles, metals, glass etc. The invented method uses zero water, green consumables and does not produce any waste.

This technology would disrupt the global AM market by creating new generation of AM parts that can be used for high performance applications that were not possible before, e.g. novel battery/capacitor components, functional military or satellite parts.