Engineers have turned up the volume on additive manufacturing (AM) to help a high-tech audio company develop parts for some of its products.

A team from the Design and Prototyping Group (DPG) at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) (www.amrc.co.uk) was asked by local firm Wilson Benesch to help with a number of components.

These included a titanium tone-arm mount for a ‘state of the art’ record player, fluted cups to go between the shelves and carbon fibre bars of a Hi-Fi rack, and load-bearing steel spheres that sit on the four corners of each section of the rack to isolate the shelves.

Wilson Benesch specialises in the manufacture and design of high-end audio loudspeakers, turntables and Hi-Fi furniture, built from advanced materials such as carbon fibre composites.

The company tasked the DPG with helping to improve the functionality of the three product parts.

The net result has been the development of highly functional but also aesthetically striking components that give Wilson Benesch the edge over its competitors.

The DPG team was given a clay model of how the tone-arm mount could look and was able to reverse-engineer this by using a CT scanner, then interpret the image to create a new CAD part geometry, with the mount’s part count reduced from 15 to just two.

This project showcases the AMRC’s capabilities — working collaboratively from conceptual design through to creating prototype parts.

Craig Milnes, design director of Wilson Benesch (www.wilson-benesch.com), said: “The DPG team has been invaluable in this project, allowing us to push through design concepts into finished prototype components that have all the virtues of the Wilson Benesch brand.”