On March 12th, GKN Aerospace CTO Russ Dunn will officially open the latest Additive Industries Process and Application Centre close to Bristol in the UK. This Centre is part of the global network of Additive Industries Competence Centres, also located in Eindhoven, Los Angeles and Singapore, each having their own specialism in different aspects of industrial additive manufacturing. The UK & Ireland Process and Application Centre’s core competence will be new materials and process development.

The Centre is located on the historic Filton Aerospace Park, directly in the middle of the growing additive manufacturing hub that is situated there. Filton has long been an important manufacturing site since 1910, with the adjacent Filton Airfield in operation throughout the last century. Its place in history was sealed with the development and production of Concorde in the 1960s and 70s. The area is already the established home for a number of world-class aerospace, advanced engineering and manufacturing businesses including Airbus, Rolls-Royce, and GKN. The Additive Industries building has had many aerospace related uses previously and was even used for lightning strike tests. After a complete renovation, the building is in line with all the highest standards, offering the best of working environments for the fast growing Additive Industries team.

Together with Russ Dunn, CTO of GKN Aerospace, Dr Mark Beard, Additive Industries’ Global Director Process & Application Development and General Manager of the Centre, and Daan Kersten, CEO of Additive Industries, will perform the official opening ceremony on March 12th. The event is expected to run from 10:30 to 15:30 with a full agenda of announcements and presentations. The afternoon seminar will include a presentation about the GKN Global Technology Centre, also in Filton of which Additive Industries is a partner, made by Paul Perera, VP Technology at GKN Aerospace. In addition we have Dave Best, Head of Business and Strategy for Airbus, talking about their additive manufacturing (AM) vision and the growing AM ecosystem now based in Filton. Jon Meyer, CPO for APWorks, will also present on why they choose to look to industrialisation in cooperation with the Additive Industries Competence Centre in Filton. Combined with a case study including GKN and ANSYS, a memorial opening of the Centre is guaranteed.