VIT Chennai signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SEDAXIS Advanced Materials Pvt. Ltd. to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Additive Manufacturing to democratize 3D printing amongst a broad set of stakeholders.
The VIT-Sedaxis Centre for Excellence would be located on the VIT Chennai premises and would help accelerate the adoption of 3D printing in various industry sectors such as automotive, aerospace, defense, manufacturing, consumer goods, education, service bureaus, healthcare, construction, and others. In line with the Centre’s vision to make 3D printing accessible across a wide user community, it will be equipped with cutting-edge professional-grade 3D printers across technologies that can be used by all SMEs(Small and Medium Enterprises) in the region. A good business case for mass adoption of 3D printing in India is only possible when the unit economics makes sense, which can happen when affordable machines are supported by the use of lower-cost open materials, a key focus area for the Centre. The Centre will have a research arm equipped with a range of 3D printers in a phase-wise manner for R&D applications including continuous composite fiber 3D printing and other open material/open parameter capable 3D printers. This would enable researchers from all domains to engage in advanced research on additive manufacturing equipment and materials development as well as new product development. The VIT-SedaxisCoE will also complement as a knowledge hub to support both industry and academia to access easily the benefits of 3D printing and help prepare the next set of professional and student workforce for careers in the 3DPrinting industry.
Remarking on this new collaboration, Dr. Kanchana Bhaaskaran, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, VIT Chennaisaid, “Vellore Institute of Technology has always been the frontrunner in closely collaborating with the industry as a way of creating industry-ready graduates and excelling in the research and product development activities. Today, we are excited to welcome onboardSEDAXIS Advanced Materials Pvt. Ltd., the industry partner, in our journey of fruitful collaboration in the domain of additive manufacturing. Besides providing solutions to the social and industrial problems, we are also looking forward to witnessing many remarkable outcomes as part of this association in terms of supporting academic research and projects.” Pro-Vice-Chancellor also emphasized that industries across all the domains situated in and around Chennai can utilize the VIT faculty expertise and the 3D printing facilities at the Centre for their manufacturing needs such as design, prototyping, tooling, and small-batch manufacturing of the components.
On the need for such facilities in India, Mr. VishwanathGodavarty, Business Head for 3DP at Sedaxis added, “It’s encouraging to see that one of the largest private universities in India has recognized the need to make 3D Printing more accessible to both industry and R&D/Academia and has joined forces with Sedaxis to fulfill our joint vision to democratize 3D Printing and help make it more accessible to the thousands of SMEs across the region. Through this CoE, we would be able to generate greater awareness of continuous composite fiber, affordable industrial SLS (Selective laser sintering), and R&D-specific solutions in 3D Printing.” Also, many enterprises struggle to translate the excitement they feel about 3D Printing into meaningful business opportunities. The CoE will support such use-cases as well with objective solutions that take the guess-work out and also negate the need for expensive 3rd party consultants.
The event was graced by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of VIT, Chennai, Dr. Kanchana Bhaaskaran, and following the MoU sign-off ceremony, members of both the VIT Chennai and Sedaxis teams took a tour of the upcoming CoE facility and a campus tour to review VIT’s advanced infrastructure and facilities.