Facilities

The Monash Centre for Additive Manufacturing, (MCAM) forms an integral component of the Clayton Precinct’s advanced manufacturing capabilities and provides world-class infrastructure, expertise and collaborative opportunities.

The centre combines fundamental research into the characteristics and processing of light metal alloys and applies to them industrial additive manufacturing processes to create complex metallic components. Additive manufacturing is considered the third industrial revolution as it enables components to be built directly from computer design files without the need for tooling. This leads to vast savings on production and material costs in addition to reductions in lead times for the development of new products.

MCAM builds on a strong track record of excellence in materials and metals engineering research at Monash University, particularly from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The centre plays a coordinating role by harnessing numerous research capabilities in a synergistic manner for prescriptive industrial applications, while simultaneously adding value to multiple research programs.

Deakin University’s Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM), is highly complementary to the industrial scale facilities of the Monash Centre for Additive Manufacturing. With its highly customised alloy development facilities, Deakin University’s laboratories are capable of characterising and testing new alloys across the widest variety of research and development applications.

Deakin University also contributes its tailor-made equipment for testing advanced materials. This ensures novel alloys are exposed to supplementary stresses and conditions to ensure substrates are of the highest quality from lab bench, through to semi-industrial scales.

The University of Queensland's (UQ) involvement in the ARC Research Hub for Transforming Australia’s Manufacturing Industry through High Value Additive Manufacturing includes the contribution the facilities available within the UQ Centre for Advanced Materials Processing and Manufacturing (AMPAM).

AMPAM provides a focus for UQ's materials engineering and manufacturing activities and those of its partners in major successful national collaborative ventures. With AMPAM's industry and research members working together, the blending of technologies and processes will create new unique opportunities for materials development, processing and manufacturing.