Renishaw to speak on rapid manufacturing at TCT Live

In his presentation, entitled 'In the Rapid Manufacturing Dog Pack, Hype Barks but Reality Bites', Mr Pullin will examine the myths and realities surrounding additive manufacturing from the perspective of an industrial user that annually invests some 17 per cent of its sales revenues into research and development. He will analyse why it is that some 22 years after the first commercial systems became available, additive technologies have failed to fulfil their early promise beyond the world of prototyping, mainly due to slow cycle times, expensive raw materials, expensive service contracts and limited achievable geometries. He will however acknowledge their industrial role in quick turnaround, low volume work. The TCT Live 2009 Conference will concentrate on business critical technologies for product development and manufacturing, addressing key issues including the business reasons for adopting additive technologies, definitive manufacturing applications of additive fabrication, and future considerations such as economic, environmental and corporate social responsibilities. Other key industry figures that have already confirmed their participation in the conference programme include: Tim Wilkinson of Rolls-Royce; Dr Iain Todd of the AMRC; Bryan Cioffi of Converse USA; and Dr Neil Hopkinson of Loughborough University. Before creating Renishaw's pioneering Rapid Manufacturing Centre, Mr Pullin had various roles in production and development engineering. He has overseen a substantial investment in rapid prototyping/rapid manufacturing facilities, enabling faster testing of concepts and full scale production of parts produced using a variety of additive manufacturing technologies. Renishaw's in-house capabilities also include rapid prototyping of PCBs, injection moulding, vacuum casting and chemical etching, all aiming to reduce development lead times and increase the company's range of in house manufacturing technologies.