Search Results (17)

Additive manufacturing (AM) enables the fabrication of complex, customisable components from metals, composites and polymers such as polylactic acid (PLA); however, the process commonly produces poor surface finishes and inherent defects. Centrifugal disc finishing (CDF) is an established mass finishing technique in conventional manufacturing but remains insufficiently characterised for additively manufactured polymers. This exploratory study investigates the influence of CDF on fused deposition modelling (FDM)-fabricated PLA components with varying geometrical features, focusing on three-dimensional surface parameters including average areal surface roughness, skewness and kurtosis. Samples were processed up to 720 min with analysis at predetermined intervals to capture transient and steady-state-like behaviour. Surface characterisation was conducted using non-contact optical interferometry to obtain quantitative roughness data and three-dimensional topographical maps, supported by digital optical microscopy and gravimetric analysis to quantify material removal rates. Analysis of the experimental data indicated apparent relationships between processing time, geometry and surface response. Results indicate that material removal behaviour and roughness evolution may be geometry-dependent. Flat and convex surfaces appeared to follow expected transient-like and steady-state-like behaviour, whereas restricted geometries and intricate features exhibited distinct responses with characteristic transition times. Surface roughness reductions ranged from 36% to 89% depending on geometry. These findings provide preliminary quantitative insight into geometry-specific mass finishing behaviour, supporting improved process understanding and informing future optimisation of post-processing strategies for additively manufactured polymer components. Full article

Marine bacteria are increasingly explored as alternative microbial platforms for the production of high-value biopharmaceuticals. In this study, we investigate the Antarctic marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis TAC125 (PhTAC125), an unconventional host capable of yielding soluble and biologically active human cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 (hCDKL5). This serine/threonine kinase plays a crucial role in neuronal development, and its deficiency causes CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder, a severe and currently untreatable neurodevelopmental disease. Recombinant production of hCDKL5 is a prerequisite for the development of enzyme replacement therapy; however, current manufacturing processes remain insufficient for industrial translation, particularly in terms of product quality and functional consistency. To address these limitations, we developed dedicated analytical strategies: protein accumulation was quantified using a customised sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) designed to selectively detect full-length hCDKL5, while protein functionality was assessed by mass spectrometry-based quantification of autophosphorylation, a critical determinant of kinase activation. These complementary tools were applied to characterise hCDKL5 production under different growth conditions. Overall, this work establishes an integrated analytical framework aligned with a Quality by Design approach, enabling the simultaneous assessment of yield, structural integrity, and functional activation, and providing a robust basis for rational process optimisation towards scalable hCDKL5 manufacturing. Full article

Industrialised construction (IC) represents a foundational strategy for overcoming entrenched productivity constraints and supply shortfalls in the housing sector. By enabling the mass production and mass customisation of advanced kit-of-parts systems, IC supports more efficient, predictable, scalable, and sustainable building delivery through integrated, standardised, and digitally enabled processes. However, adoption remains uneven due to fragmentation across regulatory, organisational, and technological systems. This paper presents a systematic literature review and thematic synthesis of the literature published between 2000 and 2025 to examine performance outcomes, adoption trends, digital integration maturity, and emerging platform-based design for manufacture and assembly (P-DfMA) approaches, and the main drivers. The review shows that significant performance gains are achievable, including notable reductions in construction time and cost variability, along with substantial reductions in material waste, together with measurable improvements in quality, safety, and delivery predictability. However, widespread uptake of IC remains constrained. This is largely driven by regulatory misalignment, rigid and bespoke procurement and delivery models, inconsistent and unstable supply chain capacity, and the lack of standardised components and integrated digital workflows. Building on these insights, this paper examines the key enablers required for sector-wide transformation toward an ecosystem that supports standardised kit-of-parts solutions, digitally driven design-to-production workflows, and aligned policy and procurement frameworks that are capable of delivering scalable and repeatable industrialised housing. The findings provide a consolidated evidence base and identify the key enablers for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and researchers working to move from project-centred delivery models to platform-based, digitally integrated, and industrialised construction systems. We searched Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar, complemented by targeted industry and policy repositories; the searches were last updated on 1 December 2025. After screening, 117 sources were included. The review was not registered, and no review protocol was prepared. Full article

Mass customisation in the automotive industry has exploded the number of wiring harness variants that must be assembled, tested and repaired on the shop floor. Existing CAD or schematic formats are too heavy and too coarse-grained to drive in-line, per-VIN validation, while supplier documentation is heterogeneous and often incomplete. This paper presents a pin-centric, two-tier graph model that converts raw harness tables into a machine-readable, wiring-aware digital twin suitable for real-time use in manufacturing plants. All physical and logical artefacts—pins, wires, connections, paths and circuits—are represented as nodes, and a dual-store persistence strategy separates attribute-rich JSON documents from a lightweight NetworkX property graph. The architecture supports dozens of vehicle models and engineering releases without duplicating data, and a decentralised validation pipeline enforces both object-level and contextual rules, reducing initial domain violations from eight to zero and eliminating fifty-two circuit errors in three iterations. The resulting platform graph is generated in 0.7 s and delivers 100% path-finding accuracy. Deployed at Ford’s Almussafes plant, the model already underpins launch-phase workload mitigation, interactive visualisation and early design error detection. Although currently implemented in Python 3.11 and lacking quantified production KPIs, the approach establishes a vendor-agnostic data standard and lays the groundwork for self-aware manufacturing: future work will embed real-time validators on the line, stream defect events back into the graph and couple the wiring layer with IoT frameworks for autonomous repair and optimisation. Full article

Additive manufacturing (AM) has transformed mass customisation by allowing personalised production with remarkable efficiency. This systematic review compiles findings from 61 peer-reviewed articles (2010–2024) to highlight strategies for implementation, technological facilitators, challenges, industry applications, and evaluation frameworks relevant to mass customisation in AM contexts. Utilising the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology, the review applies stringent inclusion criteria and thematic analysis to create an in-depth understanding of this developing area. Four major strategies for implementation have been identified: combining AM with conventional manufacturing, integrating customer-centred design, establishing flexible manufacturing networks, and creating adaptive production systems. Key technological facilitators include capabilities for multi-material processing, integration of digital workflows, and advanced monitoring of processes, while obstacles consist of limitations in materials, challenges in quality assurance, and complexities related to digital asset management. Industry applications reveal tailored approaches specific to medical, industrial, and architectural sectors. This analysis presents a multi-tiered implementation framework encompassing strategic, tactical, operational aspects and performance evaluation aspects to assist organisations in embracing AM-based mass customisation. This framework fills a notable gap in existing literature by aligning personalisation goals with operational efficiency. This paper also outlines future research priorities, such as creating standardised evaluation methods, improving system reliability, incorporating sustainability, and leveraging emerging tools like AI for process improvement. Ultimately, this review bridges theory and practice, offering a clearer path forward for mass customisation in the era of AM. Full article

Everything as a Service (XaaS) is commonly understood as the general tendency to replace sales contracts with service contracts. Most research in this area agrees that XaaS is a trend, but it points to many drivers. It could be strategies improving customers’ expense model, servitization strategies, customer feedback, mass customisation, and machine learning. However, we do not find contributions considering the relationship between XaaS and economies of scale. When sales contracts are replaced by service contracts, ownership is elevated from the customer to the provider. Thus, possible benefits from economies of scale linked to the ownership of products are then also elevated from the customer to the provider. In this article, we consider the claim that economies of scale may be an underlying driver of the XaaS trend. A review of 140 firms shows that the products with the greatest potential for economies of scale are the ones most frequently provided as a service. This suggests that economies of scale linked to ownership are an underlying driver of XaaS. Thus, ownership-related economies of scale may be a predictor of XaaS. Full article

The technologically advanced learning ocean system—wave energy converter (TALOS-WEC) project addresses the urgent need for sustainable and efficient energy solutions by leveraging the vast potential of wave energy. This project presents a pioneering approach to wave energy capture through its unique multi-axis and omnidirectional point absorber design. Featuring a fully enclosed power take-off (PTO) system, the TALOS-WEC harnesses energy across six degrees of freedom (DoFs) using an innovative internal reaction mass (IRM) mechanism. This configuration enables efficient energy extraction from the relative motion between the IRM and the hull, aiming for energy conversion efficiencies ranging between 75–80% under optimal conditions, while ensuring enhanced durability in harsh marine environments. The system’s adaptability is reflected in its versatile geometric configurations, including triangular, octagonal, and circular designs, customised for diverse marine conditions. Developed at Lancaster University, UK, and supported by international collaborations, the TALOS-WEC project emphasises cutting-edge advancements in hydrodynamic modelling, geometric optimisation, and control systems. Computational methodologies leverage hybrid frequency-time domain models and advanced panel codes (WAMIT, HAMS, and NEMOH) to address non-linearities in the PTO system, ensuring precise simulations and optimal performance. Structured work packages (WPs) guide the project, addressing critical aspects such as energy capture optimisation, reliability enhancement, and cost-effectiveness through innovative monitoring and control strategies. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the TALOS-WEC, detailing its conceptual design, development, and validation. Findings demonstrate TALOS’s potential to achieve scalable, efficient, and robust wave energy conversion, contributing to the broader advancement of renewable energy technologies. The results underscore the TALOS-WEC’s role as a cutting-edge solution for harnessing oceanic energy resources, offering perspectives into its commercial viability and future scalability. Full article

Design and production technology of natural fibre reinforced polymers not only aims to offer products with a lower environmental impact than conventional glass fibre composites but also caters for designers’ needs for the fabrication of lightweight free-formed architectural components. To combine both characteristics, the forming process itself, once scaled up, needs to be based on efficient material moulding strategies. Based on case studies of adaptive forming techniques derived from the composite industry and concrete casting, two approaches for the mass production of customised NFRP profiles are proposed. Both processes are based on foam from recycled PET, which is used as either a removable mould or a stay-in-place (SIP) core. Once the textile reinforcement is placed on a mould, either by helical winding of natural fibre prepregs or in the form of mass-produced textile preforms, its elastic properties allow for the free-forming of the composite profile before the resin is fully cured. This paper investigates the range of deformations that it is possible to achieve by each method and describes the realisation of a small structural demonstrator, in the form of a stool, through the helical winding of a flax prepreg on a SIP core. Full article

With the increased demand for customisation, developing task-specific robots for industrial and personal applications has become essential. Collaborative robots are often preferred over conventional industrial robots in human-centred production environments. However, fixed architecture robots lack the ability to adapt to changing user demands, while modular, reconfigurable robots provide a quick and affordable alternative. Standardised robot modules often derive their characteristics from conventional industrial robots, making them expensive and bulky and potentially limiting their wider adoption. To address this issue, the current work proposes a top-down multidisciplinary computational design strategy emphasising the low cost and lightweight attributes of modular robots within two consecutive optimisation problems. The first step employs an informed search strategy to explore the design space of robot modules to identify a low-cost robot architecture and controller. The second step employs dynamics-informed structural optimisation to reduce the robot’s net weight. The proposed methodology is demonstrated on a set of example requirements, illustrating that (1) the robot modules allow exploring non-intuitive robot architectures, (2) the structural mass of the resulting robot is 16 % lower compared to a robot designed using conventional aluminium tubes, and (3) the designed modules ensure the physical feasibility of the robots produced. Full article

The contemporary consumer market determines the use of mass customisation by manufacturers. Therefore, from the point of view of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), concept data and communications and analytics are relevant to the implementation of the mass-customisation strategy. The problem involves at least three subjects: how to connect the currently available information system within an enterprise with new I4.0 technologies, how new information solutions can support the verification of the feasibility of tailoring an order to the needs of the customer, and, finally, how to model a knowledge base for a cyber-physical system containing a formal record of the knowledge acquired regarding customer preferences. Therefore, in this paper, we developed a new algorithm that will enable, on one hand, the collection and recording of customer preferences, and, on the other hand, the integration of those data and information that are available within the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The main contribution of this work is the use of specialist knowledge and data from ERP regarding production capabilities implemented in a manufacturing enterprise in order to model the scenario of generating possible orders for a client, and finally applying the new solution for the operation of manufacturing according to mass-customisation strategy in a real company that manufactures mattresses. Full article

In Slovenia, the existing organised housing infrastructure for people over 65 years of age is insufficient and lacks diversification. Older people are often homeowners, many of whom dwell in large, underused single-family houses that require adaptations. Some have the potential to be transformed into small co-housing communities of 3–6 older people. The houses in question are mostly pattern-book houses of various types, built in the first decades after WWII. To approach the problem of converting this mass resource while providing enough flexibility for individual customisation, a shape grammar was proposed, with the intension of expanding the range of design variations for the transformation of single-family houses and presenting them to both users and architects for further assessment. The shape grammar was inferred based on a corpus of case studies developed by architecture students across two weeklong workshops. Three general strategies emerged—splitting the house vertically (according to sleeping/private and living/communal functions), horizontally, or with the maximum number of sleeping/private spaces. Essential spaces were catalogued to determine the conditions and requirements for assigning every transformation rule. The result was a simple, yet versatile composition generator. Through the development of a user-friendly interface, this resource could be used to empower potential inhabitants in the transformation design process. Full article

A challenge faced by some companies in the residential building sector is to cope with the complexity introduced to respond to the increasing diversity of customer demands in a profitable and sustainable way. Mass customisation (MC) has been described as a strategy to deliver customised products at costs and delivery times similar to mass production. The implementation of this strategy can be supported by several information and communication technologies emerging in the Industry 4.0 paradigm, which has been named Construction 4.0 in the construction industry. The aim of this research work is to identify the synergistic potential between Construction 4.0 technologies and the implementation of MC practices in the construction sector. A decision matrix associating a set of MC practices and C4.0 technologies has been devised based on a literature review. Specialists assessed the relationships between items, and the Jaccard similarity index was calculated to understand which Construction 4.0 technologies should be jointly implemented to support MC strategies. As a secondary contribution, this study has also proposed a method to guide companies in the identification of technologies that can support the implementation of MC in specific contexts. Full article

Single-point incremental forming (SPIF) is a flexible technology that can form a wide range of sheet metal products without the need for using punch and die sets. As a relatively cheap and die-less process, this technology is preferable for small and medium customised production. However, the SPIF technology has drawbacks, such as the geometrical inaccuracy and the thickness uniformity of the shaped part. This research aims to optimise the formed part geometric accuracy and reduce the processing time of a two-stage forming strategy of SPIF. Finite element analysis (FEA) was initially used and validated using experimental literature data. Furthermore, the design of experiments (DoE) statistical approach was used to optimise the proposed two-stage SPIF technique. The mass scaling technique was applied during the finite element analysis to minimise the computational time. The results showed that the step size during forming stage two significantly affected the geometrical accuracy of the part, whereas the forming depth during stage one was insignificant to the part quality. It was also revealed that the geometrical improvement had taken place along the base and the wall regions. However, the areas near the clamp system showed minor improvements. The optimised two-stage strategy successfully decreased both the geometrical inaccuracy and processing time. After optimisation, the average values of the geometrical deviation and forming time were reduced by 25% and 55.56%, respectively. Full article

This study led to the development of a parametric design method for mass-customised head/face products. A systematic review of different approaches for mass customization was conducted, identifying advantages and limitations for their application to new product development. A parametric modelling algorithm of a 3D human face was developed using selected scanned 3D head models. The algorithm was developed from a set of measurable and adjustable parameter points related to the facial geometry. These parameters were defined using planimetry. Using the assigned parameter values as input, the parametric model generated 3D models of a human face that served as a reference for the design of customized eyewear. The current challenges and opportunities of mass customized head/face products are described, along with the possibilities for new parametric product design approaches to enable rapid manufacturing and mass customization. This study also explored whether a new parametric design framework for mass customization could be effectively implemented as an early-stage new product development strategy for head/face products. Full article

This article describes the potential that co-design and marketing strategies have on increasing the consumption of energy-efficient dwellings. It explains how Japanese housebuilders are using ‘mass customisation’—a phenomenon that mirrors the production and marketing of the automobile sector—in order to produce zero-energy houses and how this applies to the UK. The research consisted of a comparative analysis of Japanese and UK housebuilding. It identifies how mass customisation strategies are used to drive the sales of zero-energy houses in Japan and infers how to apply these in the UK context. This research found that some housebuilders in the UK are already using production strategies that resemble Japanese practices; however, the sustainable benefits observed in the Japanese context are not present in the UK because housebuilders’ mass customisation strategies are limited to construction and not used as part of the marketing, co-design, and selling processes. Production and consumption of sustainable houses would increase in the UK if housebuilders implemented full mass customisation, meaning selecting existing robust production processes, defining an appropriate space solution, and using informative navigation tools. Full article