In May, Hidden Art visited the Metropolitan Works Digital Manufacturing Centre. Matthew Lewis, Business Development Manager, and Marc Collinson, Technical Manager, talked us through their impressive capabilities for computer aided product development.
On the digital manufacturing side, what is actually available for use at Metropolitan Works?
ML: The centre of digital manufacturing has been split up into two phases. We’re just completing the first phase now. It features just under a million pounds worth of equipment, including Rapid Prototyping, which is SLS, and z-core 3d printing. We’ve also got CNC routing, digital printing, laser cutting, 3d laser scanning. That’s it at the moment and it covers a huge spectrum of different kinds of techniques and processes.
We are just getting started on the second phase now, which is another one and a half million pounds worth of kit coming in over the next couple of years. It will include metal laser sintering for metal rapid prototyping and that will actually be up and running by the end of the
summer. We’re going to have water cutting, CNC metal milling and more rapid prototyping equipment.
Who is this equipment going to be made available to?
ML: It will be available for a certain amount of academic use; for students and staff of LMU and also for those from other colleges as well. But it is primarily there for commercial businesses to come in and get access to the equipment through our technicians. We have a dedicated team of two technical staff at the moment, but we are recruiting two more, and we will be adding to that in the next year as well.
What are some examples of what the rapid prototyping machines can produce?
ML: The CNC routering is a very large-format machine. On that we can router a piece that is 5m x 2m x 2m. So it’s pretty big. On the SLS rapid prototyping machine it actually builds in layers of .15 of a millimetre, so we could go down to jewellery components.
MC: It’s a process that grows materials. It’s an additive process rather than a subtractive process. The CNC machine takes material away from a block; the rapid prototyping machine actually grows objects from powders or liquids. And these objects can be used to test form, fit and functionality. You can very quickly change the files on the computer and make it again with a slight modification. 3d modelling computer programs drive everything we have, and it is fairly essential that people understand that side of it. The integrity of the files has to be good to drive the machines. If they’ve got those skills it decreases our workload and tasks and increases productivity. The 3d files and the introduction training classes we are bringing online this year. The second course that we’re running for introduction to CAD is on at the end of this month. We’ve invested in 12 mobile CAD stations so we can set up the training.
When will both phases of the machinery be ready?
ML: It’s due to be finished in December 2007. We’re building a new building on the West car park here to house all of the equipment.
MD: That’s going to include not just the machinery but workspaces as well. So people can come in on a project basis and work close to the machinery so they are more efficiently working within the same environment. And hopefully the environment is going to be a hot house of cultures, ideas and lots of things going on from different disciplines. It’ll be a really creative experience to be able to work in that sort of environment.
We will have CAD stations, literally a computer and a desk, with up-to-date legal commercial copies of software, that people can use and access on a half-day basis. There are going to be CAD suites for training. There will be conference rooms and reception rooms where they can actually meet clients. There will be small offices to rent on a weekly basis. We’ll have finishing desks, which you can rent on a half-day basis if people have produced a project on the machine and they want it sprayed or finished. They’ll be able to rent, on a weekly basis, a workshop space they keep their own tools securely and use it as a base close to the machines.
It’s a compact unit that everything is going to be housed in. We want people to use us based on projects, so they can actually quote for a job and know what the costs are when they quote for it. Then they can pre-book the time when they know that project will run. So they can tender for something and know the costs associated. If they don’t get it, they don’t need to book the space, if they do get it they know all associated costs and they’ve worked it into the quote. It helps people with that first step in business and allows them to get jobs they wouldn’t normally be able to quote for.