Brightlands Materials Centre
Brightlands Materials Centre
Brightlands Materials Centre logo
A new research and development centre has collaborated with global safety science organisation, Underwriters Laboratories to provide additive manufacturing training to emerging markets.
UL and Brightlands Materials Centre have signed a Letter of Intent, with the latter set to host the training workshops at their Brightlands Chemelot Campus (BCC) in The Netherlands.
The goal of the partnership is to promote the advancement of AM technologies the global manufacturing industry.
“Brightlands Materials Centre’s goal is to bring together entrepreneurial and innovative companies, leading academic researchers and the next generation of top talent in inspiring R&D programmes with the long term vision to boost sustainable development in the field of materials,” said Marnix van Gurp, Managing Director of Brightlands Materials Centre. “AM is one of the most promising emerging manufacturing technologies for materials of today. We are excited to collaborate with UL to extend advancements in innovation, safety and quality of AM materials.”
The training curriculum, which UL has developed, consists of three tiers and will be presented on Brightlands Materials Centre’s sites. It will span introductory industry knowledge through more advanced design, and technical, more hands-on learning. The final, more practical, phase focuses on the continued learning and development of AM technical and business professionals.
Initially, the Brightlands Materials Centre will only deliver the first two tiers of the curriculum which encompasses foundation level learning, as well as more complex design, material, process, business and quality and safety courses. The training initiative will be launched during the 3D Printing Materials Conference at the BCC on February 2nd 2017. On this day, conference attendees will have the chance to attend single-day versions of two UL AM training workshops: ‘Selecting AM Materials & Processes’ and ‘Fundamentals of AM Designs.’
“Our vision is to collaborate with the additive manufacturing industry to further develop innovation, safety and quality,” said Simin Zhou, Vice President of UL Digital Manufacturing Technologies. “We see this new relationship with Brightlands Materials Centre as a natural extension of that vision. Their demonstrated commitment to AM via material. Service and facility development is a perfect complement to UL’s AM training, facility safety, and material and process programmes. We look forward to expanding AM knowledge throughout Europe together.”
Going forward, UL and Brightlands Materials Centre also intend to collaborate on AM material research, testing and certification, and the development of an additive manufacturing centre of excellence.
