Manchester Metropolitan University and Tatton Estate Management have revealed plans for a £6 million, 40,000 sq ft 3D printing facility in Cheshire’s Yarwood Heath Farm site.
An agreement to jointly develop the Cheshire 3D Print Hub, C3D, will be signed by both parties on Thursday, March 15.
MMU’s expanding 3D Printing ambitions
The hub forms an extension of MMU’s existing central Manchester 3D PrintCity facilities and will accommodate the region’s developing industrial digital technologies market. Prof. Craig Bank, chair in Electrochemical and Nanotechnology at MMU, says that the university will achieve this by supporting SMEs through postgraduate research projects and academic expertise, which could “take ideas from concept through to commercialisation”. Tatton Estate has allocated other parts of the Yarwood Heath Farm site to science and technology businesses.
C3D joins other facilities in the Cheshire Science Corridor, an enterprise zone designed to attract jobs and businesses to the area, including Capenhurst Technology Park, Thornton Science Park and the Alderley Park bioscience campus.
3D printing in Manchester is also well represented. Projects include a 3D printing lab at North Manchester General Hospital (NMGH) – that brings the technology in-house and is likely to save some of the £120,000 ($166,000) spent annually on outsourced 3D printing.
BiOspace, the area’s first open access laboratory and research into bio-printing at the University of Manchester are other areas where Manchester is applying 3D printing.
Looking forward
For the Bank, the long term goal project is “to create an open and inclusive science and technology hub. It will enhance our research and innovation infrastructure and capacities to develop excellence and promote business investment, including for SMEs”. Henry Brooks, Tatton Group’s managing director said “C3D will help contribute to the global imperative for the UK and the North West to increase manufacturing, to create wealth, jobs and social cohesion”.
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