The Innovative Metals Processing Centre (IMPC)

The Innovative Metals Processing Centre (IMPC) is an active part of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing. AMRC started as a successful collaboration between the University of Sheffield and Boeing and is today an R&D consortium of many large and small companies involved mainly in the aerospace, medical and motorsport sectors.

IMPC can work on any kind of application that is considered “innovative” and based on powder metallurgy and/or additive layer manufacturing (usually leading to net-shape or near net-shape products). The IMPC main aim is the implementation of novel technologies in industry. However, IMPC does not work only on the final stage of implementation, but on the full technology lifecycle up to the machinery installation in an optimised manufacturing facility. In other words, IMPC can prototype and optimise novel manufacturing processes for particular applications. In particular, IMPC can work on:

• Long term research on powder metallurgy processes
• Feasibility studies for technology readiness and business cases
• Process and product optimisation from different points of view:
• technical
• organisational
• management
• economic
• Process and product testing
• Process and product validation and certification
• Pre-production
• Knowledge transfer
• Final step of process implementation in factories
• Supply chain development both upstream and downstream, especially for the aerospace, medical and motorsport sectors

Spread of technologies