Kingston University in the UK Installs £450,000 Robotic Additive and Subtractive Manufacturing System

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On November 5, Kingston University in the UK completed the installation of a £450,000 Zeus robotic hybrid additive and subtractive manufacturing system. The equipment was supplied by Rapid Fusion, a UK-based advanced manufacturing equipment company, and was deployed at the School of Engineering, Computing and the Environment at the university's Roehampton Vale campus. The system integrates large-format 3D printing, industrial scanning and CNC milling functions, and will be used for prototype manufacturing of complex components, small-batch processing, engineering research and student practical training. This is also the first time Rapid Fusion has installed a Zeus system at a university.

Zeus adopts a modular robotic manufacturing platform that integrates large-format polymer material extrusion molding and computer numerical control milling into a single machine. The system can sequentially complete part printing, 3D scanning and surface finishing, reducing the intermediate step of transferring printed workpieces to a separate CNC machine tool, and supports subsequent precision machining of complex structural parts and molds.

The system incorporates Zivid industrial 3D scanning camera equipment and ENCY robotic CAD/CAM programming software. By scanning the actual geometry of printed parts or molds, the software can generate corresponding robotic machining tool paths, linking scan data with subsequent milling operations and reducing the manual input of CNC machining paths.

Kingston University plans to use the equipment for prototype development and low-volume manufacturing of complex components, and to open related research applications to industry partners. The university will use the equipment to conduct research on integrated additive and subtractive manufacturing, and to introduce robotic printing, scanning and milling processes into existing research collaborations.

Rapid Fusion has also established a long-term technical and teaching cooperation arrangement with Kingston University, including equipment operation training, work placement opportunities for students, participation in future curriculum design, and exploration of joint research projects under the UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) program. Undergraduate and postgraduate students at the university will use the equipment to carry out practical robotic manufacturing operations.