UKRI Opens £17.6 Million Funding Call for Automotive and Aerospace Manufacturing Scale-up R&D: Additive Manufacturing as a Priority Area, Intent Submissions Due November 11

2026-11-11

On November 11, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) opened the Manufacturing Scale-up R&D for Automotive and Aerospace funding opportunity under its Advanced Manufacturing priority programme (IS8+), with a total of £17.6 million available. Key dates: the Intent to Submit survey closes on November 11, and full applications are due on December 9. Priority areas are scalable additive manufacturing, automated assembly, and electrified propulsion systems. Funding levels: large awards of £4.5 million to £5.8 million (up to four years) and small awards of up to £600,000 (up to two years). UKRI covers 80 percent of full economic costs, and industry partners must co-fund and provide letters of support. Value for buyers: official UK funding continues to bet on scaling up additive manufacturing (the UK is the Formnext 2026 partner country), creating a supply chain opportunity window for powder and equipment suppliers exporting to the UK and Europe, with local certification and partnerships as the main barriers to entry.

📰 News Source

This article was translated from a Chinese source.

Source URL not available

🧪 Related Material Grades

Metal powder grades mentioned in this article — specs, live prices & verified suppliers

316L Stainless Steel Powder

15-45 µm / 15-53 µm

→

17-4PH Stainless Steel Powder

15-45 µm / 15-53 µm

→

Ti-6Al-4V (Grade 5) Titanium Powder

15-45 µm / 15-53 µm / 45-105 µm

→

AlSi10Mg Aluminum Alloy Powder

15-45 µm / 20-63 µm

→

Inconel 718 Nickel Superalloy Powder

15-45 µm / 15-53 µm

→

18Ni300 Maraging Steel Powder

15-53 µm

→

Related News

ATLIX Announces xBuild Series at Formnext: xBUILD 5000 Four-Laser Production Solution, First Unit Worldwide Already in Production at Oerlikon

On November 12, ATLIX (formerly TRUMPF's additive manufacturing business, spun off in 2025) announced its xBuild series production solutions ahead of Formnext 2026 (November 17-20, Hall 12.0 D99). The xBUILD 5000 four-laser (4×1kW) laser powder bed system is the centerpiece of the company's exhibit. The TruPrint brand was fully renamed on September 1 and integrated into the xWorld architecture (xBuild 1000/2000/3000/5000). Automation specifications: build chamber of 500×500×400mm, adjustable spot size of 80-200μm, automatic multi-laser calibration every two layers (40μm accuracy), bidirectional powder recoating that cuts non-productive time by up to 50%, automatic build module exchange (about 15 minutes of downtime per part change), and Build-Job Restart support after power loss. The first production unit worldwide has been commissioned by Oerlikon at its Huntersville, USA site, serving aerospace, defense, and semiconductor customers, with additional orders planned from 2027. Value for buyers: four lasers plus fast module exchange minimize cost per part (over 50% lower than the previous generation in some applications), while 24/7 continuous production improves powder turnover and places higher demands on powder batch consistency and automated recycling standards.

2026-11-12

AltForm Debuts at Formnext: ZENIT Modular Inert Chamber DED Family and Print Brilliance 400 Four-Laser PBF

AltForm will unveil its ZENIT modular DED family at Formnext 2026 (Hall 12.0 E139): the ZENIT L (2x2 m, 1 robot), XL (4x2 m, 2 robots), and XXL (4x4 m, 4 robots). The inert atmosphere chambers support reactive alloys such as titanium and aluminum, are compatible with powder DED, wire feeding, and WAAM, and can be expanded and upgraded. Two new machines are also being launched on the powder bed line: the Print Sharp 200 (single laser, 200 mm cylindrical build chamber, open parameters) and the Print Brilliance 400 (four lasers, 420x420x450 mm build chamber), which share an AI-assisted software platform. The ZENIT line targets large parts for aerospace, defense, and energy applications, and the first chambers have already been sold. Value for buyers: inert-chamber DED offers a cost-controllable route for using titanium powder in large-part repair and manufacturing scenarios, while the combination of large-format DED and four-laser PBF covers the full range of small and large parts, creating a dual-channel pull on demand for titanium alloy and nickel-based powders.

2026-11-11

TANIOBIS prints crack-free niobium alloy rocket nozzles on four-laser system

German powder manufacturer TANIOBIS has confirmed that two niobium-based superalloys, C-103 and FS-85, can be printed crack-free at industrial scale via laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB). Nickel-based superalloys begin to soften above roughly 1050 C, so niobium alloys, with a melting point of 2477 C, are among the few candidate materials available for the high-temperature sections of rocket engines and hypersonic systems. Process parameters were first developed on a single-laser Renishaw AM400 and then transferred to a four-laser Renishaw AM500Q (4 x 500 W) with only minor adjustment: the C-103 process window widened to 95-255 J/mm3, while FS-85 spans 105-125 J/mm3. A demonstration nozzle 53 mm in diameter and 100 mm high came off the machine crack-free, with porosity below 0.1 percent and optical density above 99.9 percent; all 52 test blocks on the build plate showed porosity below 0.3 percent. The powder is produced from pre-alloyed electrodes by crucible-free EIGA gas atomization under argon, in a 15-63 micrometre particle size range with a D50 of about 30 micrometres; the particles are near-spherical with no satellites. Mechanically, FS-85 reaches about 750 MPa tensile strength at room temperature (C-103: 565 MPa); at 1500 C, C-103 strength falls to nearly zero, while FS-85 still retains about 220 MPa tensile and 195 MPa yield strength. Value for buyers: niobium alloy printing establishes an engineering path combining spherical powder and crack-free processing, providing a purchasable powder and process reference for high-temperature parts such as liquid rocket engine nozzle extensions and attitude-control thrusters; superalloy powder producers can benchmark against the EIGA spherical powder specifications.

2026-11-11

📡 Get Daily Industry Updates

Follow on X Join Telegram

View all news