From innovative prosthetics to bespoke engineering parts, researchers using the UTS ProtoSpace are only limited by their imagination.
Pushing the boundaries with 3D design
With a foot in the worlds of both engineering and design, Professor Jennifer Loy represents the new breed of researcher embracing the transformative potential of the UTS ProtoSpace.
The ProtoSpace spans 900m² and is home to Australia’s largest variety of additive manufacturing technologies.
Additive manufacturing is more commonly known as 3D printing. The term refers to more than 40 different technologies that use a range of materials for very different applications.
“The ProtoSpace facility is unique in the region, and even internationally, purely because of the scope of the machines that have been brought together,” says ProtoSpace manager Jon O’Neill.
“Because we have such a range of high-end printers, we can really drive different uses of 3D printing. We can introduce new ways of producing things and come up with new options for making parts and components,” he explains.
Loy agrees and says the ProtoSpace is a world-class facility “that provides a nexus for additive manufacturing research that works across disciplines”.
“That’s one of the main points of interest for us because it creates new collaborations and opportunities. Additive manufacturing is impacting research from medical, to construction, to fashion. Almost anything you can name has a link to 3D printing,” Loy says.
Researchers at UTS and ProtoSpace are developing innovative new additive manufacturing technologies specific to industry needs — that’s the future of additive manufacturing, working with bespoke processes for different commercial applications.
Loy’s research involves redesigning products for the technology, and redesigning business models to match. Her research examines how industries can embrace additive manufacturing to move from a mass production approach towards mass customisation for users.
This will have flow-on impacts on supply chains and transport costs, with potentially positive environmental outcomes, through the reduction of waste and creation of value-added products. It could even herald an age of “relocalisation of production in some industry sectors”, Loy says.
Using her design expertise, Loy also supports biomedical research, and is involved with innovative prosthetics development.
“There is potential to create body site specific parts and implants and rethink how we do surgery,” she says. “There are even ways of 4D printing — printing objects that are made in one form but can alter shape over time — for targeted drug delivery. We will essentially be able to harness 3D printing for the body, inside and out.”
There is potential to create body site specific parts and implants and rethink how we do surgery. There are even ways of 4D printing — printing objects that are made in one form but can alter shape over time — for targeted drug delivery. We will essentially be able to harness 3D printing for the body, inside and out.
The lab supports all aspects of the additive and advanced manufacturing process, from component design, manufacturing investigations and prototyping, all the way through to final product research and development.
More broadly, through industry and academic engagement, it’s supporting digital transformation in the New South Wales manufacturing sector to inspire a new generation of inventors, designers and innovators.
O’Neill says the potential of the technology is not yet fully known. It will all come down to new ideas and inspiration.