WMG’s SME Team at the University Warwick are to reveal how they can help West Midlands SMEs solve low volume manufacture challenges, at a special free event on the 3rd December designed to help SMEs successfully take a product idea into low volume manufacture.

WMG researchers will show how they are working with injection moulding company Barkley Plastics Ltd to deliver low volume injection moulding solutions for several new products, including an innovative medical product, through the novel, cost effective use, of Additive Layer Manufacturing (3D Printing).

ALM technology has been used to print polymer inserts that are capable of producing more than 200 injection moulded parts. With a build time of only 4 hours and a cost per set in the low hundreds of pounds, it is a highly attractive manufacturing route for companies looking to bring new products to market.

Dr Ben Wood, Technology Transfer Specialist at WMG’s International Institute for Product and Service Innovation said:

Very often when moving from prototype to production, the capital investment needed for tooling prevents SMEs from bringing their new products to market. By using ALM as a tooling solution for low volumes before mass production, the whole process of taking a product idea to market is made much more cost effective and reduces the number of barriers.”

After meeting so many SMEs in the Midlands with similar issues around scaling up production, I started to experiment with the ALM technology we have. Pretty quickly I realised that we had a solution right under our noses and we were able to get the inserts and tooling printed to trial.”

Maurice Cassidy, Technical Director at Barkley Plastics said:

We are excited to be collaborating with WMG on this new low volume solution. Many of our clients will find this solution appealing and we are currently in talks with a new customer about how they can use this technology to trial some new product prototypes.”

WMG’s SME Team is running a workshop to showcase the technology on 3rd December. It is free to attend to West Midlands SMEs with less than £40 million turnover and fewer than 250 employees. More details at: https://lowvolumemanufacture.eventbrite.co.uk

For further information please contact:

Peter Dunn, Head of Communications, University of Warwick,
UK Tel: 024 76 523708 Mobile 07767 655860 email: p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk

or

Lisa Barwick, WMG, University of Warwick
Tel: 024 76 524721 or 07824 540845 L.Barwick@warwick.ac.uk

PJD 26th November 2013