LPW Technology, a market leader in the development, manufacture and supply of cutting edge metal powder solutions for Additive Manufacturing (AM), has established a new R&D facility. The facility is located within the internationally recognised Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, UK.
The purpose of this significant investment is to further develop LPW’s products and solutions to address the issues of metal powder degradation and contamination during the AM process. The facility, which houses a number of metal printers, will be led by LPW’s Technical Director, Andy Florentine.
Dr Phil Carroll, MD and founder of the business commented that “In addition to expanding our powder manufacturing capabilities, we see the future of metal AM in solving the problems associated with how the powder is reused within the AM machine. We call the solution PowderLife – a metal powder lifecycle management system that strictly controls risk and traceability for AM metal part manufacturers. It is an integrated suite of software, hardware, analysis, applications support and, of course, metal powders.”
Part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, and located at Sci-Tech Daresbury in Cheshire, Daresbury Laboratory is a UK government facility dedicated to world leading scientific research in fields such as accelerator science, bio-medicine, physics, chemistry, materials, engineering and computational science.
Andy Florentine, further commented that “By combining these skills with LPW’s expertise, we are together creating a ‘Centre of excellence in metal 3D printing’ here in the UK that will support the global industry.”
As Michael Norris, Head of Business Incubation from STFC, Daresbury commented “We are delighted that LPW Technology has chosen to locate in our facility. This is an excellent example of UK scientific funding, STFC world-class R&D facilities and a dynamic, self-made business coming together to meet the commercial, process manufacturing needs of high tech industries such as aerospace, transportation, medical, defence and energy sectors.”
LPW is an innovative market leader adding knowledge and reliability to the fast growing metal 3D printing industry. The company has 90 highly skilled staff working from LPW’s head office in Runcorn, Cheshire, along with offices in the US and Germany. The Company has developed a unique portfolio of products and software to increase yield and reduce risk in the AM proces.