DRAMA: accelerating additive adoption in aerospace

Digital Reconfigurable AM Facilities for Aerospace

Key Activities

DRAMA has built a new metal powder bed facility at the National Centre for Additive Manufacturing at MTC. In the project the consortium has developed a range of assets to support UK supply chain companies in their adoption of AM. These assets have been road tested during the project and the support will continue to be available after the project. The assets developed are: the Knowledge Hub (an on line resource library), a new open access metal powder bed facility and support for supply chain companies to support AM strategy development, to support AM product and process development and to support production implementation. In the project, the team has also road tested a number of our AM training courses.

Benefits

The new metal powder bed facility at the National Centre for Additive Manufacturing, is a place where companies can come and learn about the end-to-end additive manufacturing process chain, from design through to verified product. Supply chain companies can access a range of digital tools at the facility to help them rapidly develop their products. Our digital technology partners - Ansys Granta, Autodesk and ATS Global - have developed their digital solutions for design, data management and operations management during the DRAMA project and these can be demonstrated in the facility. We also have access to a wider range of tools - both commercial solutions from our members and tools created by us. 

The support packages were trialled with 19 companies in the aerospace or additive manufacturing supply chains. 

MTC's Role in the Project

The MTC was the project lead and coordinated all of the partners, supported by the Aerospace Steering Group. 

Other Details

• Project partners: MTC, ATS, Autodesk, Granta Design, MAA, NPL, Renishaw, University of Birmingham

• Funding body: IUK and supported by ATI