A novel, sequential, net-shape process will be developed to enable complex, light-weight components to be created with minimum waste capable of supporting a wide range of production volumes. Metal powders are encapsulated in a complex-geometry reusable rubber tool and isostatically pressed. The resulting compacts are fully densified using a novel hot isostatic pressing (HIP) method that enables the densification of multiple green compacts into full density. Key innovations include novel tooling method to produce partially consolidated complex compacts and novel processing route to simultaneously consolidate multiple components to full density.

Potential Impact:
The proposed research is timely, especially with the increasing use of high-value materials and the need for resource
efficiency by reducing the amount of material waste. In addition, for instance in the case of transport structures, weight
reduction improves the fuel economy. Specifically, there are environmental, legal, and economic pressures on the
automotive manufacturers to produce high strength-to-weight ratio structures with high fuel efficiency, and to minimise the
amount of waste produced during advanced material processing.

In the UK, the metals processing sector is worth approximately £1.3 trillion. With the recent push for reviving the
manufacturing sector in the UK, research in advanced manufacturing will speed up this revival and will increase the
competitiveness of the UK manufacturing sector. This project is led by the one of Centres for High Value Manufacturing
(Catapult Centres), the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), where the University of Birmingham (UoB) is a founding
research partner. We are currently involved in a number of projects with the MTC that benefit junior researchers and
doctoral students to acquire new skills of relevance to the manufacturing sectors. As such, these projects act as training
opportunities for the future manufacturing engineers.

The EPSRC, TSB, Materials KTN, and other research centres have recently published a number of reports that call for a radical development in the manufacturing sector in the UK, by adopting more resource-efficient technologies. This project is
aimed at understanding and underpinning resource efficient powder production and the industrial use of alloys that lead to
resource-efficient operation.