PrintCity MMU
Our first TCT UK User Group this summer, no matter which direction the conversation steered, there was one thread our group of experienced additive manufacturing (AM) users continued to pull on: skills.
The so-called ‘skills gap’ has many facets. For some, it's about building education programmes that cater to the manufacturing skills of the future. For others, it means equipping industry with an understanding of AM's how and why. PrintCity, a thriving AM centre based at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK, is tackling both.
In addition to offering its unique MSc Digital Design and Manufacturing course, PrintCity is using its growing fleet of AM technologies to educate SMEs, and just wrapped up a 3.2 million GBP European Regional Development Funded project to help companies in Greater Manchester adopt digital manufacturing technologies.
Speaking with Mark Chester, Product Development Specialist at PrintCity, there are multiple reasons companies are looking to explore new methods of manufacture: supply chain rigidity, magnified by the pandemic; sourcing challenges brought on by Brexit. But for PrintCity, a hub where both students and businesses can learn firsthand about AM, it’s a two-way street.
“It's really beneficial for us to help companies adopt these technologies so that our graduates then have opportunities in the marketplace,” Chester explained.
150 companies were targeted through the project. Some would come in with preconceived ideas about AM and leave with an entirely different view, and a machine on their shopping list. Others who had already tried 3D printing without any real support on how to leverage its benefits, went away armed with fresh ideas. As Chester shared, a tour around PrintCity’s lab which includes primarily polymer machines from Formlabs, Prusa, HP, UltiMaker and Stratasys, amongst others, alongside an abundance of real-world applications, is usually where the lightbulb goes on.
“It's our duty to make sure that people don't get the wrong technology,” Chester said. “We've had companies that have come to us and said, ‘We bought this really expensive machine and it's just gathering dust,’ or they might have jumped on the technology years ago and it wasn't very good. We don't want companies to learn about a technology, have a bad experience, and then put them off even further.”
Jacobson Group, which owns the sporting goods brand Gola, came to PrintCity from another project focused on reducing its carbon footprint. The company wanted to use 3D printing to reduce the number of shoe samples it was manufacturing and shipping over the world every year. With guidance from PrintCity, the company decided to use Keyshot digital visualisation software to create realistic vendors of its samples, which could be instantly shared globally while reducing lead times and environmental impact. Using that same 3D data, 3D printing was then identified as a perfect alternative to its traditional shoe mould making process.
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Exhibit at the UK's definitive and most influential 3D printing and additive manufacturing event, TCT 3Sixty.
AM adoption and AM skills go hand in hand. While manufacturers bemoan a lack of digital skills in the talent pool, there are plenty of graduates coming out of universities with them in tow. In fact, some companies that have come through PrintCity’s programme have directly hired students afterwards.
“We have an advisory board for our masters course where we get companies to tell us what skills they want from students,” Chester shared. “It’s alright having an amazing course, but if it's not fixing any problems around the skill gap, then what's the point?”
The work continues. PrintCity just launched its Centre for Digital Innovation programme, funded through a 100 million GBP Government Innovation Accelerator to enable SMEs in the North West to access knowledge, research and facilities across artificial intelligence, cyber security, industrial digitalisation, and immersive technology.
“We're definitely open for business in that sort of regard,” Chester added. “We just need to keep that conversation between industry and places like [us], but also the [TCT UK] User Group, and just share what everyone's doing. […] We want the best for the industry and the best for our students – and the best for 3D printing in general.”
