In an optimistic and impassioned speech, UK Chancellor George Osborne referenced 3D printing as ‘a technology which could revolutionise everything’ during his visit to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the world leading Cambridge University. During a speech that cited the many world changing examples of British scientific ingenuity from Newton and Darwin to Higgs and Hawking and encompassing some seventy-eight Nobel Prizes in but a century, Mr. Osborne highlighted 3D printing and outlined the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult.
Today Manufacturing makes up 54% of UK exports and directly employs some 2.5 million people. There has been a huge decline since the 1970s, when manufacturing contributed a massive 25% of UK GDP. The High Value Manufacturing Catapult is a strategic initiative that aims to revitalise the manufacturing industry and was implemented with similar programmes in different sectors following extensive independent research. In a similar vein to the US’s focus on Advanced Manufacturing with America Makes, the ‘HVM Catapult’s network consists of seven technology and innovation centres, established and overseen by the Technology Strategy Board, with over £200 million of government investment.’
Regarding the milieu for 3D printing as advanced manufacturing in the UK, a general statement in Mr. Osborne’s speech provides context: ‘I asked James Dyson – one of our greatest inventors, and greatest entrepreneurs – to develop a long-term vision for science and engineering. He came up with the idea of technology centres – which bring researchers and businesses together to help commercialise technology. Now, translated into government – we have already set up seven of these so-called Catapult Centres. They cover everything from Cell Therapy to Transport Systems, the Digital Economy to Future Cities, Offshore Renewable Energy, Satellite technology and High Value Manufacturing.’
The High Value Manufacturing Catapult combines the strengths of seven existing centres across key manufacturing processes
- the Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) in Glasgow,
- the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) in Sheffield,
- the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) in Sedgefield,
- the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Ansty,
- the National Composite Centre (NCC) in Bristol,
- the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC) in Sheffield, and
- the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) in Coventry.
Manufacturing specialists should be aware of these projects already, but if new to the reader you can find the High Volume High value manufacturing – strategy 2012-15 here, high value manufacturing action plan 2013-14 with this link, and the website for the High Value Manufacturing Catapult here.
