Xaar, a company which supplies industrial inkjet printheads, has launched a 3D printing team at its new base at Nottingham Science Park.

As revolutionary as 3D printing is, there’s definitely a way to go before it overtakes regular manufacturing methods. Xaar, a UK based company which supplies industrial inkjet printheads, hopes to change this.

In January, the company opened a new fabrication in Nottingham, UK. They intend on increasing the speed of 3D manufacturing while also hitting a £220 million sales target.

Using their new 3D printers, they are already producing running shoe heels. These are customized to perfectly suit the wearer. However, Xaar also plans to create parts for medicine, aerospace and other sports.

To scale them up for industrial volumes, they use a special process called High-Speed Sintering (HSS). It’s supposedly up to 100 times faster than previous industrial 3D printing processes.

Professor Neil Hopkinson was working at Loughborough University when he invented the technology back in 2003. Hopkinson explains:

“3D printing has traditionally been good for making very complicated shapes of one-offs or a few-offs but aren’t scalable to high production. But I’ve invented new technology that can make very complex shapes at high production volumes. 3D printing has had a lot of hype in recent years but it’s certainly going to have a profound way of changing the way things are made.”

Want to find out more about Xaar and their production methods? Head over to their website.

Xaar’s 3D Printing Parts Plan

Xaar’s industrial inkjet technology is already used across the globe, but the company is planning to expand fast. The company’s headquarters are in Cambridge, UK. They also have a new base in Nottingham. Also, they will open a lab in Copenhagen, too. However, the team in Denmark will focus on software development and design.

The aim for all of this growth is to meet the company’s 2020 “strategic vision”. This is to hit £220 million in sales within three years. Their current annual turnover is around £100m.

Xaar decided to open a lab in Nottingham due to the proximity to universities and local expertise. Hopkinson adds:

“We’re expecting this area to grow and to require a lot of heavily trained, highly skilled graduates, so it makes sense to locate ourselves in a part of the country where a lot of those graduates are being educated.”

The company opened the laboratory in January and have already hired seven people but expect to double this in the coming years.

Source: Nottingham Post