Jul 18, 2017 | By Benedict

Australia’s Griffith University is planning to build a multimillion-dollar Advanced Design and Manufacturing Institute (AdAM). The facility will be used to for several 3D printing purposes, and could be built as early as 2019.

Located in South East Queensland on the east coast of Australia, Griffith University is home to over 44,000 students working in a number of fields. And for those at the university studying medicine, engineering, and many other subjects, things are about to get a great deal more high-tech.

Griffith University says it is building a multimillion-dollar Advanced Design and Manufacturing Institute near the Gold Coast University and Gold Coast Private hospitals. The facility will enable university staff, researchers, and students to use 3D printing for a variety of purposes, with a special focus on medical applications such as 3D printed medical devices, surgical models, and even “3D printed body parts.”

The Australian university says its new AdAM facility will focus on additive manufacturing, advanced materials and nanotechnology, digitally enabled technology, and next-generation electronics. Target industries will include medicine, marine and boat building, creative arts and film, automotive, and several others.

Although the 3D printing facility is not expected to be built until 2019, with serious projects expected to begin the year after, the Queensland-based university is already working with a number of stakeholders. The university hopes to receive the backing of private companies to carry out work at the institute.

“The facility is at the planning stage,” said Professor Ned Pankhurst, Griffith University Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor. “The primary focus is...personalized orthopedic implants where you have the design, the scanning technology...and the clinical capacity together in the one place.

“The intention of the facility is basically a technology platform where we do work for and with industry, either around the direct production of products and services or helping industry advance a prototype.”

Professor David Lloyd of the Griffith University Menzies Health Institute Centre for Musculoskeletal Research said that the Advanced Design and Manufacturing Institute would create a number of jobs, for 3D printing experts and other professionals.

And according to Pankhurst, the new additive manufacturing facilities will benefit many areas besides medicine. New 3D printing equipment could, for example, be used to produce prototypes for inventions.

“A big problem for the manufacturing industry, when they’re presented with a new invention or a new idea, quite often they are presented with a proof of concept,” Pankhurst said. “That presents a risk for the company if they then have to take all of the financial and opportunity costs associated with shifting that proof of concept through to a prototype product.”

Pankhurst said the university could “share that risk” by enabling inventors to have a near-complete product ready to demonstrate, rather than a proof of concept.

Griffith staff expect to have lots of new 3D printing equipment up and running before the new facility is even built.

“We’re building a mini version of the 3D printing component on campus,” Pankhurst said. “We’ll have that up and running probably early next year so that we can develop skills and get used to industry working with us so we can do a rapid start around the AdAM project in around 2020.”

Last year, a student from Griffith University used additive manufacturing to make this amazing 3D printed guitar.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Application

 

 

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