The Digital Manufacturing Centre (DMC) has today announced that additive manufacturing (AM) experts Stuart Banyard and Jacques Wood have joined the growing team at the Digital Manufacturing Centre, transferring from the DMC’s founding company KW Special Projects. The leading high-performance engineering firm, KW Special Projects, led by CEO Kieron Salter, created the Digital Manufacturing Centre’s business case, ideation and match funding with funding partner SEMLEP.
“Working with Stuart and Jacques at KW Special Projects on a range of additive manufacturing projects makes it a natural progression to see them working within the Digital Manufacturing Centre. It was Stuart and Jacques’ work within AM that showed us [KW Special Projects] that there was value in creating a stand-alone additive manufacturing facility, run by experienced engineers, to assist a range of sectors for different projects; hence the DMC was born. I’m excited about our future and how our team is shaping up."
comments Kieron Salter, Digital Manufacturing Centre CEO.
“We’re only as strong as our team and I believe that the growth of the UK economy and manufacturing arm within that is due to the recruitment and training of skilled engineering staff – that’s why I’m delighted to introducing Stuart and Jacques to the Digital Manufacturing Centre team.”
Stuart Banyard, who has worked with KW Special Projects for over six years as Head of Advanced Manufacturing, will be taking on a newly-created role, Head of Application Development, responsible for all client additive manufacturing engineering requests and inbound new business enquiries. Specialising in composites for the majority of his working life and working in leadership roles across many disciplines including Formula 1, motor racing and high-performance vehicles, Stuart will also be responsible for managing delivery and key project gateway timelines to ensure deliverables are met or exceeded.
Stuart will have a broad overview on the types of material and technology applications that will benefit each client’s specific needs. With experience working with various AM metals and polymers, Stuart understands how each material and application works in the real world, so will be able to cross-check under each KPI and objective of the DMC’s clients’ needs. The DMC’s engineering team, and Stuart in particular, will look at each component, in relation to their requirements e.g. mechanical properties, structural, thermal, safety, as well as in relation to the intended application.
Working closely with Stuart will be Jacques Wood who takes up the role of Polymer Applications Engineer. Jacques, who has worked with Kieron Salter and the KW Special Projects team for over seven years, has a proven track-record of managing a number of polymer AM projects and parts builds across a range of industry applications from automotive, motorsport, land transportation and medical. Jacques brings with him a wealth of experience in project engineering and a mechanical engineering degree.
With a flat structure to lead innovation, Stuart and Jacques will manage and work alongside a team of engineers, developers and material specialists to deliver a holistic approach on parts production using advanced technologies. This personnel announcement follows recent news of Frederick Wray joining the Digital Manufacturing Centre as Operations Manager and the announcement of Nigel Robinson becoming Chief Operating Officer in September.
Physically opening in Q1 2021, the Digital Manufacturing Centre is an independent, technology agnostic production facility specialising in additive manufacturing. 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 Local Growth Fund 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.
The Digital Manufacturing Centre has a number of roles open and invites all interested parties to current and future postings with Tom Johnson, from Hernshead Recruitment, who is the Digital Manufacturing Centre’s recruitment partner. Hernshead Recruitment can be contacted on careers@digitalmanufacturingcentre.comor dmc@hernshead.co.uk
