Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference 2022

Event date: 10th March 2022

HGF Patent Attorney Dr Robert Weinert-Aplin is attending and speaking at the Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference on 10th March 2022 in Milton Keynes, UK.

The Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference is a national forum for manufacturers and operators involved throughout the associated supply chains from across the UK. It is an opportunity to gather to discuss pressing issues facing the industry.

The event will cover various topical themes including: Industry 4.0, Digital Manufacturing, Smart Factory, Lean & Continuous Improvement, Robotics & Automation, Financing Investment, Industrial Blockchain, Research & Development, Precision Engineering, QEHS, Supply Chain & Logistics, Sustainability, Government Policy and Industrial Strategy, Exports and Skills & Training.

Dr Robert Weinert-Aplin will be speaking on ‘Is 3D printing changing the status quo for manufacturers and the supply chain?‘:

Additive manufacturing (AM) has advanced hugely over the last decade, and is benefiting a wider range of industries. Improvements in AM technologies has enabled companies to move from seeing AM solely as a prototyping tool to having AM processes embedded within the manufacturing and supply chains of the final product to provide more sustainable products with shorter lead times that were previously not economically viable. Traditionally, registered intellectual property rights (IPRs), particularly patents, would underpin a company’s decision to invest in new technology to change the status quo. However, the laws related to IPRs have arguably not adapted at the same pace as the technology they aim to protect. While new materials and manufacturing methods specific to AM sit comfortably within the patent system, the Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models which underpin the AM processes are at risk of falling outside the scope of the existing IPR regimes. In this talk, Rob discusses how AM is changing a product’s value chain and how IPRs can be used to protect your investment when incorporating AM processes into manufacturing and supply chains.