Manufacturing and Structural Integrity

Research in the Manufacturing area focuses on developing advanced manufacturing technologies specialising in subtractive and additive manufacturing, polymers, composites, and flexible metal forming technologies. Our expertise ranges from materials selection to machining and the effect of manufacturing processes on functional performance. The research spans a wide range of technology readiness levels (TRL) from fundamental to applied research. This includes several collaborations with the University's multi-million-pound Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.

Research in the Structural Integrity area covers a wide range of engineering applications and addresses industrial problems concerned with the performance of materials during manufacturing and the fatigue and fracture of components in service. State-of-the-art testing facilities and characterisation techniques (e.g. full-field strain and temperature measurements, high-resolution computed tomography-based damage quantification) are combined with advanced modelling techniques to predict the deformation and failure of a wide range of materials by considering the effect of both microstructure and manufacturing processes.

Our academics have expertise in a number of disciplines, including mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering, ergonomics and chemistry, and engage in research with experts from fields as diverse as biomechanics, psychology and biology.

---

Research centres

Centre for Advanced Additive Manufacturing

The Advanced Additive Manufacturing (AdAM) group at the University of Sheffield conducts world-leading research in the fast-emerging field of additive manufacturing (aka 3D printing).

Polymer and Composite Engineering Centre

The Polymer and Composite Engineering Centre (PCEC) is a state-of-the-art research centre dedicated to innovation in the science of polymers and composite materials.

---

Our experts

---

Facilities

To foster productive collaborations, our state-of-the-art equipment is based across a number of labs, with complementary facilities and expertise from other disciplines.

For example, our metal additive manufacturing work is primarily conducted with colleagues from our Department of Materials Science and Engineering, while our polymer additive manufacturing facilities are co-located with the University's composites labs. Examples of collaboration across technology readiness levels include machining research where experimental data is recorded at AMRC and analysed within the department.

The structural testing facilities are located in the Lea Laboratory. These include a range of loading capacity from 5-250kN electro-mechanical and servo-hydraulic test frames for axial, bi-axial and multiaxial (Tension-Torsion-Compression) testing. Our testing facilities are capable of running standard and highly customised material and structural loading tests. 

Micromechanical testing and damage characterisation is carried out in the Sheffield Tomography Centre.
Visit the Sheffield Tomography Centre