The RPMA Committee

Graham Tromans, AMA Chairman (Loughborough University)

Graham is currently Manager of the Rapid Manufacturing Consortium, which is part of the Rapid Manufacturing Research Group at Loughborough University. He has been involved in Additive Manufacturing since 1990. Until the end of 2002 Graham managed the Rapid Prototyping and Tooling facility at Rover Group/Land Rover, this also involved work in conjunction with the BMW facility in Munich. After BMW sold-off Rover Group, he worked with Ford Europe, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Volvo.

During this time, he spent much of his time developing new applications for the technologies, specialising in the application of the technologies for use in the casting of metals. Altogether, he worked for Rover Group/Land Rover for 37 years, all of this time involved in prototyping processes. He has been on Overseas Science and Technology Missions for the Department of Trade and Industry to both USA and Japan, looking at the developments in RP/RM technology and applications. He has presented papers in USA, Japan and Europe.

Richard is a Professional Engineer – Rapid Prototyping (SP2) working for Rolls-Royce Aero engines in Filton, Bristol. He joined Rolls-Royce in 1980 as an undergraduate in Derby, moving to Bristol in 1985, initially employed on Automation projects in the Investment Foundry Environment, particularly for Investment Coating, Anodic Etching, writing software for a Voice Recognition System for Ultrasonic measurement of castings.

From 1990 through to the present, Richard’s focus has been to introduce, develop and provide a Rapid Prototyping Bureau for the rest of Rolls Royce. During the mid 1990’s, this facility has been a source of external income to Rolls Royce while RP was in its infancy as well as providing a service for internal customers. During this time, Richard has contributed to many RP conferences and publications.

Currently the facility consists of three stereolithography machines and one ThermoJet system, providing a range of products, including cored Quickcast patterns for direct casting applications, and the use of SLA & Thermojet for Foundry support and tooling applications.

Prof. David Wimpenny (De Montfort University)

Professor Wimpenny is one of the World’s leading experts in the field of Additive Manufacturing Technology (AMT). AMT is based on the production of objects from CAD data by the controlled deposition of material in thin layers.  His groundbreaking work at Warwick University and De Montfort University (since 2001) has paved the way for the use of AMT in the production of end use parts, including individually customised products and biomedical applications.  Recent research includes the development of the Selective Laser Printing (SLP) process for the rapid production of high integrity end-use parts.

Dr Greg Gibbons (Warwick University)

Dr Gregory Gibbons is a Senior Research Fellow in the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) where he has worked for nearly 10 years and now heads the Rapid Prototyping & Manufacturing Group (RP&M). Having previously gained his B.Sc and Doctorate in Physics at the University of Warwick, he has a thorough knowledge of materials technology, with a proven record in development of materials and processes for industrial applications. He currently manages a number of research programmes within RP&M, working closely with a wide range of industrialists, including BAE SYSTEMS, Ford and Alcoa.

He is specialised in the field of Rapid Prototyping, Rapid Tooling and Direct Manufacture and his recent research activities have focused on development of novel tooling technologies for automotive and aerospace applications, and include the Warwick IMRC funded projects CASPUR and FLAVIIR, the latter of which is a large-scale multi-university, multidisciplinary research project developing technologies for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles within BAE SYSTEMS. Other research interests include the processing of novel materials through layer-additive processes for high technology devices, including shape memory actuators and medical implants, security applications, and light-weight components.

Dr. Bibb graduated in Industrial Design in 1995 and then moved to the National Centre for Product Design & Development Research (PDR) to undertake doctoral research in rapid prototyping.  After obtaining his doctorate he established the Medical Applications Group, formed in response to the increasing demand for PDR’s expertise from medical companies and hospitals.  This service is still highly active and has supplied over 1000 medical models to more than 70 hospitals, universities, museums and medical companies worldwide.

 He moved to Loughborough University in June 2008 to continue his research into the effective application of advanced product design and development technologies in medicine.  The creation and pursuit of on-going collaborative research programmes has resulted in international conference presentations in the UK, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Japan, South Africa, Canada and the USA and more than 40 peer-reviewed publications.

Matthew Watkins (Loughborough University)

Matthew is the School and University liaison for the RPMA. Matthew studied at De Montfort University gaining a BSc in Industrial Design, an MSc in Rapid Product Development and a PGCE in Design and Technology.  Following this Matthew taught Design Technology in two large Secondary schools in both Leicestershire and Coventry and is currently undertaking a PhD in Sustainable Product Design Education at Loughborough University.