Digital Manufacturing Centre announces Nigel Robinson as its Chief Operating Officer

The Digital Manufacturing Centre (DMC), a new advanced manufacturing venture by KW Special Projects, has appointed Nigel Robinson as Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately, to deliver the establishment and growth of the UK’s stand-alone additive manufacturing production facility.

With extensive engineering, operations, quality and management knowledge, as well as a focus on the next-generation additive manufacturing technologies, Nigel is a key hire within the leadership team and will be working directly with the Digital Manufacturing Centre’s CEO, Kieron Salter.

As Chief Operating Officer for the UK’s stand-alone digital manufacturing production facility, Nigel will be focused on the launch and growth of the DMC from an innovation point of view, ensuring the latest technologies are represented at the DMC, as well as building a team around key staff members and focusing on developing the client portfolio.

Nigel’s recent experience includes working as Chief Executive Officer of one of the largest additive manufacturing production sites in the UK, with a background in mechanical engineering and additive manufacturing.

Now, as Chief Operating Officer for the DMC, focused on the production facility’s launch in Q1 2021, Nigel’s responsibilities and remit will also include working with Kieron Salter, CEO, on the appointment of key innovation partners and clients. These partners will either be in the form machine manufacturers or polymer and metal materials suppliers, or key government agencies including South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP) and the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC). Nigel will also act as the first point of contact with any future client and their needs.

Focused on bringing the latest manufacturing technologies to businesses in the UK and around the world, Nigel will be working with key decision makers within the world’s leading businesses, across multiple sectors. Although the DMC is regarded as being sector agnostic, meaning it will provide engineering and production solutions to all industries and teams that can benefit from additive manufacturing methods, the DMC will primarily will work with automotive, aerospace, defence, industrial and medical industries both in small- and large-scale projects.

Commenting on Nigel’s appointment to the team, Kieron Salter, Digital Manufacturing Centre CEO said:

“Nigel is a forward-thinker, and one of the most experienced operators in the industry. Working as Chief Operating Officer I’m confident his experience will bring the DMC and its clients huge benefits in additive manufacturing. Being a former CEO and with strong leadership skills, Nigel and I will work together on everything from our factory fit out and equipping it with the correct technologies [machines and materials] but also working with current and future clients, and building our team in readiness for next year’s opening. I’m trusting Nigel to deliver my vision of a state of the art UK manufacturing capability.”

Nigel Robinson, Digital Manufacturing Centre COO said:

“Coming from an extensive engineering background and with over seven years’ experience with additive manufacturing technologies I’m hugely excited to start this journey with the Digital Manufacturing Centre alongside Kieron [Kieron Salter, CEO of the Digital Manufacturing Centre] and our growing team.

“Additive manufacturing represents one of the most flexible and advanced manufacturing methods, but also has the benefit of reducing waste and being able to create components with different materials, within metals and plastics [polymers]. From low volume (even minimum quantity of one) to full-scale industrialised production, there are so many benefits to this technology and I’m excited to bring it to a range of clients and industries through the Digital Manufacturing Centre. 2021 is going to be an exciting year, and I can’t wait to showcase our collective vision for the future.”

Differing from innovation campuses or start-ups, the Digital Manufacturing Centre is a stand-alone production facility dedicated to digital manufacturing in the form of additive manufacturing in polymers and metals in the UK. The DMC is committed to becoming technical partners to bring lighter, stronger and more durable parts to a range of clients and industries.

Being technology agnostic means that the DMC will offer the best and most optimised technology in accordance to a client’s needs and briefs, while acting as a sector agnostic organisation will see the DMC work with a range of materials and machine outputs to provide parts for multiple products. The DMC’s objective is to help its clients exploit additive manufacturing, by being engineering led and collaborating with their teams, to develop the best and most appropriate manufacturing solutions for their specific requirements.

Based within the Silverstone Technology Cluster, run by MEPC, in the South East Midlands region of the UK, the DMC is part-funded by the SEMLEP LGF and the ideation match funding and business case was developed by leading high-performance engineering and additive manufacturing specialist engineering solutions provider, KW Special Projects, of which Kieron Salter also leads as CEO.