Feds invest $8.2 million in University of Waterloo for additive manufacturing network

The University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Ont., will establish an Additive Manufacturing Alliance (AMA) with $8.2 million in funding from the federal government.

In a news release, the University said the aim of the AMA is to help businesses throughout southern Ontario overcome barriers to adopting advanced manufacturing technologies by providing access to the University’s specialized 3D-printing experts and equipment.

The alliance will leverage the school’s Multi-Scale Additive Manufacturing (MSAM) Lab, a research and development facility for metal additive manufacturing that was launched in 2017 and is said to be Canada’s most comprehensive academic research and development facility for next-generation metal additive manufacturing.

The project will support more than 90 businesses to commercialize nearly 30 advanced manufacturing technologies, create and maintain over 275 jobs and provide training and outreach opportunities for about 1,500 students, research associates and industry personnel. It will also expand MSAM’s geographical reach beyond Kitchener-Waterloo and the Greater Toronto Area, with new participating companies from across southwestern Ontario.

“This funding is instrumental in capitalizing on an unprecedented interest in additive manufacturing tech adoption in Canada,” said Mihaela Vlasea, assistant professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at the University of Waterloo. “It will be used to scale up research and development activities and move them into more mature stages of the product development cycle and stimulate technology transfer to achieve tangible economic benefits for SME partners.”