BAE experts’ 3D trophy

The Queen Elizabeth Prize celebrates engineering which has an impact on improving the lives of people across the world.

BAE Systems is a major donor to the prize and as part of its support, its manufacturing team at Samlesbury creates the trophy.

This week the trophy was handed to Dr Robert Langer, the ground-breaking chemical engineer whose engineering revolutions has held improve the lives of more than two billion people, by The Queen in a ceremony held at Buckingham Palace.

It was produced using 3D printing and ‘grown’ at a state-of-the-art advanced manufacturing centre.

As a major donor to the QE Prize, the advanced manufacturing team at our Military Air and Information business have grown the trophy using additive manufacturing.

The ‘Golden Crown’ trophy was created through a design competition and would have been virtually impossible to make using conventional manufacturing techniques.

Greg Flanagan, who heads the additive manufacturing team, explained: “What we did was look at the design of the trophy and make small adjustments to enable it to be built using these techniques, while ensuring it remained true to its original design.

“It took a number of iterations to get this right, we produced a number of prototypes before we produced the final version, but the use of additive manufacturing techniques allows this to be done rapidly and cost effectively.”

Experts used a combination of different techniques to produce the trophy before it was coated in copper and nickel.