PrintCity Round Up – June 2021

Welcome to the PrintCity Monthly Round Up, the newsletter for keeping up to date with all aspects of PrintCity.  Each month we will be recapping what has happened across the different areas of Manchester Metropolitan University PrintCity. Be sure to visit our round up at the end of each month to see what our team has been doing!

Key News

Congratulations to Gaynor Saunders from Its All About Shoes for going on Dragons Den and getting investment. Its All About Shoes is a sustainable shoe manufacturer based in Manchester who faced the Dragons last month. The company previously received support from the GC Business Growth Hub and PrintCity to develop a range of visuals and prototypes which Gaynor took to the Den. We look forward to seeing how the investment drives the company in the future. A recording of Gaynor’s pitch can be found here in addition to a link to Heelz and Toez.

3D Print of the Month

Each year, we present a student with the PrintCity Excellence Award which recognises the development and achievements of individuals accessing our services. This year, we awarded the award to Second Year Fashion Design and Technology student Roya Rasouli for her fantastic 3D printed project shown below. Roya has been exploring 3D printing onto textiles to produce couture using recycled PLA material. Follow this link to learn more about Roya’s latest project.

Research Update

Following the start of the first PrintCity Network Cohort in May, the programme received the first set of Additive Manufacturing equipment. The new equipment included a variety of different technologies including Fused Filament Fabrication, Stereolithography and Selective Laser Sintering. Our PrintCity Technical staff are very excited to get their hands on the Fuse 1 and Sift 1 by Formlabs, we are looking forward to seeing what this machine is capable of.  The new equipment will allow Greater Manchester based companies accessing the PrintCity Network Programme to produce new product, processes, and services over the next two years. More information about the programme can be found here.

MSc ID Highlight

Our MSc Industrial Digitalisation students are currently very busy working on their individual research projects, which we are looking forward to sharing over the next couple of months. This month we wanted to celebrate some of the work produced by our students during their last assignment. Within the Generative Design and Immersive Realities module, our students are asked to create a bespoke VR headset using the skills they have learnt and develop over the last year. The image below shows a fantastic selection of VR headsets produced by this years MSC ID cohort.

Staff Spotlight

Jack Thomas is the Technical Specialist for our PrintCity Network programme. Previously to joining the programme, Jack Studied Textiles in Practice at Manchester School of Art. He then went onto studying the MSc Industrial Digitalisation at PrintCity. Whilst developing his skillset in Additive Manufacturing, Jack began integrated textiles processes and workflows into his research, which brings a unique perspective to his role as Technical Specialist.