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Welcome to the Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Lab

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The Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Laboratory aims to significantly alter the way additive manufacturing (AM) is implemented in industry, changing it from predominantly being a prototyping method to a true high value manufacturing method. The Lab's main focus is on design for AM, new ways of developing and thinking about AM materials, and AM technologies and design methods.

AM is not simply a replacement manufacturing technology to make conventionally designed parts. Instead, it can be used to add great value to products. But, for this to occur, users must change their design approach to be AM-centric right from the start of the project. Working with AM requires a new design-thinking approach that can add great innovation to products.

We will provide the knowledge and education required to increase the industrial adoption of AM in NZ, help to initiate innovative start-up and spin-off companies, and promote the entrepreneurial drive that helps NZ compete internationally. But, most importantly, we will make the creative application of AM not only valuable but also fun!

 

 

"For innovation, you need to be able to fail fast and fail often. With additive manufacturing, you can now fail extra fast and extra often. And that's a good thing..."

 

 

About us

 

 


The Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Lab is a modern research facility for product development and manufacturing technologies, and a place where you can easily turn your ideas into reality. The lab is open to all university staff and students. The access philosophy for the Lab is one of open access with a welcoming attitude that encourages staff, students and industry partners to extensively use the facility to its maximum potential and explore new areas of use for the technologies.

We encourage you to come into the lab to ask questions and to explore ways in which AM can benefit you.

The Lab currently has 3 permanent staff members including:

And a number of PhD and masters students. Feel free to contact any of us for help with your projects.

 

 

 

Our research

 

 

 


The Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Lab undertakes research in a number of areas, chief among which are design for additive manufacturing (DfAM), the development of low-cost AM technologies, and finding novel applications of additive manufacturing in industrial production applications.

Much of the research we do is applied in nature, so we work extensively with companies in New Zealand and around the world to explore ways in which AM can be used to add value to the products they develop, and to help them compete internationally.

Use the buttons below to explore just some of our research areas, or contact us to suggest some new research projects that you may be interested in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our education

 


The Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Lab offers a range of design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) courses ranging from a half day to 4 days. These courses can be tailored to suit each company's needs, from novice to advanced, or focusing mainly on either metal or polymer AM, or both, and include a lot of hands-on exercises to get design engineers to really understand the implications of their design decisions from an AM point of view.

Topics covered in the training include the consolidation of many parts into one and methods to reduce material and weight, such as topology optimization and lattice/mesh structures. It covers ways to reduce expensive support material to minimize pre- and post-processing of parts. The courses can includes design considerations pertinent to all methods of polymer and metal AM and includes many best practices and DfAM guidelines. Participants will gain valuable hands-on experience by designing industrial parts and building them on AM equipment during the course.

We have been involved in courses at NASA, Wohlers Associates, Materialise, Siemens, Volvo, Alfa Laval, the NZ Defence Force, and many more.

Click HERE for a sample 2-day course outline.

Do not hesitate to contact us to discuss your AM education requirements.

 

 

 

Facilities

 

The Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Lab have access to a wide range of both traditional and ultra-modern manufacturing facilities. These include having access to the many high-end manufacturing workshops and analysis facilities within the university. Within the Lab itself, we have a range of additive manufacturing facilities ranging from desktop FDM, SLA and SLS systems to a range of in-house built systems for materials testing and other applications. In terms of industrial AM production, we have both metal and polymer laser powderbed fusion systems.




EOS M290 metal powderbed fusion system
Build size: 250mm x 250mmx 330mm (with a pause and powder refill at about 200mm)
Material: Aluminium (AlSi10Mg)

EOS Formiga P110 Veloce polymer powderbed fusion system
Build size: 193mm x 242mmx 321mm
Material: Nylon 12 (Polyamide 2200)

Protomax waterjet cutter
Max cut size: 300mm x 300mmx 25mm
Material: Almost any




Roland MDX 540 CNC machine
Cut size: 400mm x 400mmx 500mm
Material: Aluminium / Polymer / Wood
Cuts from STL files

Epilog Mini laser cutter
Cut size: 18" x 12"
Materials: Acrylic, MDF, etc.

Post-processing equipment
Shot peening
Heat treatment furnace
Polishing
Hand tools
Etc.

 

 

Contacting us

 

 


Physical address:
Building 901-324, University of Auckland Newmarket Campus
314-390 Khyber Pass Road, Auckland, 1023

Enter at gate 3 and park in a visitor parking spot and register your car at reception.

Email: olaf.diegel@auckland.ac.nz

copyright 2019, olaf diegel