Additive Manufacturing UK (AM-UK) exists to establish the UK as a world leader in the development and adoption of Additive and 3D Printing technology.

Setup in 2014, AM-UK was initially a government supported collaboration to help drive the UK’s additive manufacturing strategy. In 2020 AM-UK became part of the wider Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) family. The MTA is now in the process of developing the services which will benefit and drive forward the AM and 3D Printing community in the UK.

AM National Strategy

In 2018 the UK released an Additive Manufacturing National Strategy Paper. This paper provided a vision to drive the UK to the forefront of commercialised additive manufacturing, supporting the high value manufacturing sector that is key to the UK’s manufacturing industry. The specific aims established as part of the strategy were as follows:

• Address identified technology and market barriers that impede the rapid commercialisation, competitiveness, and productivity of the whole additive manufacturing supply chain
• Devise and deliver the training and education programmes needed to provide additive manufacturing engineers for today and for the future
• Help industry to exploit the competitive advantage to be gained by using additive manufacturing for prototypes, tooling and end-use parts
• Develop additive manufacturing techniques, materials, inspection processes and standards to deliver outstanding results at industry-leading quality at scale
• Provide the necessary infrastructure to help industry obtain commercial benefits from additive manufacturing
• Create a ‘showcase’ for additive manufacturing to demonstrate how well it works in practice, supported by regional support as appropriate
• Develop a strong network of additive experts in the UK and support knowledge transfer
• Help industry to access public funding and grants
• Continue to undertake detailed market analysis to identify the opportunities, barriers and impacts
• Attract funding, leveraging both private and public sources, to pursue opportunities enabled by research and innovation

In 2020 AM-UK became part of the wider MTA family. The MTA are now driving forward these aims to establish the UK at the forefront of this technology.

To see how the strategy was developed please see this link: