CPI to help prove nanopowder process Will reduce costs of high energy ball milling

THE UK’s Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) will scale up a process for producing novel nano-scale powders to gauge its technical and commercial viability.

The €5.3m (US$7.28m) PilotManu ‘high-energy ball milling’ process produces homogenously-distributed powders with ultrafine crystalline structures, for use in the likes of wear-resistant coatings and abrasive tools. Current production using high-energy ball milling is too expensive and unproductive.

“The new improved pilot line will look to reduce the power consumption by 50%, scale up the production process by a factor of ten, which enables the supply of affordable material for industry consumption,” says Keith Robinson, CPI’s director of formulation.

The EU-funded PilotManu project is part of the bloc’s efforts to steer a transformation of its manufacturing sector by helping develop advanced manufacturing systems and materials.

The scaled-up industrial pilot line will produce materials that will then be tested in commercial applications to demonstrate the technological and commercial viability of the process.

“The nanoscale features of these materials will allow significant improvement of material performance such as physical-chemical-mechanical properties compared against bulk scale materials,” says Robinson.

The CPI is based in northeast England and provides facilities for companies to develop new processes. It is one of seven facilities used by the government as a so-called Catapult centre to propel promising innovations to commercial success. CPI forms one of ten partners in the PilotManu project, that also includes research institutes and engineering companies from across Europe.