The United Kingdom’s Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and nine other European partners are collaborating in the design, scale-up, and build of a high energy ball-mill pilot plant for the production and validation of innovative nanostructured powders. These advanced powders will be suitable for high-value manufacturing applications such as cutting tools, medical implants, and a range of aerospace and automotive components.
The work is part of a four-year European research and development project titled “PilotManu,” which began in 2013 and is due for completion in September 2017. The project is well underway and has already experienced excellent results regarding the performance of the advanced powders for abrasive tools, and the development of the pilot plant.
The $5.8 million project, which is partially funded by European Union’s Framework Programme Seven, involves ten partner organizations across seven countries, bringing together various capabilities such as process engineering, materials investigation, product development and prototyping, characterization, application testing, and process economics. The project partners include CPI and MBN Nanomaterialia, IMDEA Materials Institute, +90, Putzier, INOP, Manudirect, Impact Innovations GmbH, Matres, and Diam Edil SA.
PilotManu is manufacturing the nanostructured powders with a proprietary high energy ball milling technology developed by lead partner MBN Nanomaterialia. The technology will allow for the manufacture of innovative advanced powders with ultrafine crystalline structures, meaning that products can be optimized to enhance strength, reduce weight, or provide excellent wear, corrosion, or thermal resistance. The achievements from the project will create a number of new product opportunities not only in the automotive and aerospace sectors, but also in other high-value markets such as healthcare and energy.
