A £10 million development centre,
which aims to accelerate deployment
of a range of innovative near net
shape powder-based manufacturing
processes, has been created by the
University of Sheffield’s Department
of Materials Science and Engineering,
following dialogue with regional
advanced manufacturing companies.

The Mercury Centre attracted over
£5m of investment from the European
Regional Development Fund and has
acquired a series of equipment which
will deliver cutting edge capabilities in
a range of advanced manufacturing
technologies such as 3D printing,
functional coatings and surface
treatment. These include:
Additive layer manufacture of high
value alloys based on an Arcam S12
Functional 2.5D printing of
electronics and biomaterials with
Aerosol Jet Deposition
Novel material processing via Spark
Plasma Sintering for rapid
development of new ceramics
Metal Injection Moulding and
sintering
Electron beam processing for
joining, surface treatment and
building parts
These are supported by advanced
materials characterisation techniques,
and product/process design and
simulation capabilities. Near net
shape manufacturing using these
techniques allows components with
complex geometries to be created
directly from computer models.