Technology being developed by a global consortium of companies and academic institutions could revolutionise the use of industrial additive manufacturing in the UK, bringing the advanced manufacturing of high-value components for key industries to the country for the first time.

The National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS), one of the UK’s fastest growing manufacturing research and development organisations, is welcoming its first group of official members from around the global manufacturing, engineering and technology sectors.

A Scottish consortium is set to use augmented reality (AR) software to help train surgeons on hyper-real 3D-printed models of human organs. The software will guide trainee surgeons as they perform ‘surgery’ on the lifelike models and will be used in the UK and less developed areas of the world.