Near Net Shape Manufacturing

Through our world-leading facilities - Royce Discovery Centre and Royce Translational Centre - our capabilities enable industrial and academic communities to explore and expand metal technologies.

Demonstration artefact showing varying orientations of meso-structures produced by 3D printing
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Near Net Shape Manufacturing offers more efficient material usage, and can significantly reduce machining requirements to better meet national challenges in sustainability, recycling, and the circular economy. These processes can offer greater flexibility, previously inaccessible structures, and reduced costs for the next generation of complex components. 

For Royce at the University of Sheffield, the capabilities enable UK industrial and academic communities to explore and expand metal technologies related to powder, wire, and melted ingot routes. This relates to leading and popular Additive Manufacturing techniques such as Selective Laser Melting and Electron Beam technologies. 


Equipment

Royce hosts equipment to deliver emerging processes such as Field Assisted Sintering Technology/Spark Plasma Sintering (FAST/SPS), as well as wire fed Directed Energy Deposition processes, and hybrid processes using post-process hot forging. 

Additionally, the loop between feedstock and Near Net Shape components is closed within Royce - with a range of powder production facilities for use with alloys discovered/manufactured on equipment from other Technology Platforms.


Key Case Studies

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Part of the Henry Royce Institute network

The capabilities here at Royce at the University of Sheffield enable UK industrial and academic communities to explore and expand metal technologies related to powder, wire, and melted ingot routes. This relates to leading and popular Additive Manufacturing techniques such as Selective Laser Melting and Electron Beam technologies.

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Centres of excellence

The University's cross-faculty research centres harness our interdisciplinary expertise to solve the world's most pressing challenges.