Adelaide will soon be home to the Southern Hemisphere’s most advanced, state-of-the-art metal 3D printing facility thanks to a $1.4 million State Government grant announced last night.

The grant will be provided to the University of Adelaide to establish the Additive Manufacturing Applied Research Network, which will create jobs and provide access for local companies to manufacture parts for the growing medical device and defence industries.

The metal 3D printing facility will be based in Northern Adelaide.

It will house three printers – one of which will be solely used and accredited for medical device manufacturing.

The facility will be the only metal additive manufacturing center in Australia that’s available to companies on a commercial basis.

Access to the world-leading technology will remove significant cost pressures and barriers for local manufacturers.

Several local companies have already sought access to the new facility.

The network will also involve the establishment of a plastics 3D printing facility at the City of Playford’s Stretton Centre, Munno Para.

The University of Adelaide’s Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing and Optofab Australian National Fabrication Facility, together with the Stretton Centre in northern Adelaide and CSIRO’s Lab 22 additive manufacturing centre will establish the applied research network as a state-of-the-art, metal additive manufacturing facility.

The new facility puts South Australia at the forefront of additive manufacturing and will be an asset for the manufacture of parts for the defence and medical device sectors. It will also provide businesses with a new tool to undertake research, product development and validation testing.

Background

The metal 3D printing facility is being supported through the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre, which aims to assist manufacturers to transition from low cost manufacturing to advanced manufacturing based on modern technologies and models.