Case Study · Funding & Grants

SonicSMR: Funding Zero-Defect 3D Printing for the UK's Small Modular Reactor Supply Chain

How we helped a five-partner UK consortium win nuclear innovation funding for ultrasonic-assisted, AI-monitored additive manufacturing of reactor components, within the stakeholder ecosystem of Rolls-Royce's UK SMR programme.

5 partners
Laser Additive Solutions (lead), Taraz Metrology, IVY-TECH, Brunel Innovation Centre and Nuclear AMRC
12 months
From specifications to an integrated zero-defect AM demonstrator
£188bn
Potential UK economic benefit of the SMR programme (7GWe domestic plus 9GWe export)
£8.51bn
Worldwide additive manufacturing market in 2021, up from £1.5bn in 2012

At a glance

ProjectSonicSMR: Ultrasonic-assisted, AI-monitored laser additive manufacturing for zero-distortion, zero-defect nuclear components, targeting Small Modular Reactor (SMR) parts
ProgrammeUK nuclear innovation funding competition, aligned with the wider Nuclear Innovation Programme
Stakeholder ecosystemRolls-Royce leads the UK's SMR programme: consortium lead Laser Additive Solutions is part of the Rolls-Royce supplier network for laser-based manufacturing, and Nuclear AMRC is a supply chain partner in Rolls-Royce's SMR development
Atlantis Innovation roleConcept development, proposal writing and funding support

The challenge

Metal additive manufacturing is a natural fit for the nuclear sector: it cuts scrap rates and lead times for complex components compared with subtractive manufacturing, and advanced AM has been identified as a key requirement for Small Modular Reactor development, where repeatability and reproducibility are everything. Yet adoption in the nuclear supply chain has been held back by process-induced distortion and cracking, and by defects such as lack of interlayer fusion and micro and macro-scale porosity that undermine component quality.

To keep quality high in production, defects need to be caught as early as possible in the build, not discovered in post-process inspection when the component, and the build time, are already lost.

The solution

SonicSMR couples laser-based metal AM (DMLS and EBM) with power ultrasonics applied during the build, in-process optical monitoring, process design optimisation and an AI-based automated defect recognition and decision support tool, aiming at zero-distortion, zero-defect manufacturing of nuclear components.

Three technologies, one zero-defect build

Power ultrasonicsApplied during the laser AM build to suppress distortion and improve microstructure (Brunel, TRL6 base)
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In-process optical monitoringTaraz Metrology's vision systems watch the build layer by layer
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AI defect recognitionAutomated detection and decision support acts before defects become scrap
Integrated and demonstrated on nuclear component geometries at Nuclear AMRC's facilities, part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult.

What we did

1. Anchoring the bid in a national programme

The proposal positioned SonicSMR squarely inside the UK's SMR push: a programme led by Rolls-Royce, with a projected £188 billion benefit to the UK economy from 7GWe of domestic deployment and 9GWe of exports. Consortium lead LAS already serves Rolls-Royce within its supplier network, and Nuclear AMRC is a supply chain partner for the Rolls-Royce SMR development project, giving assessors a direct, credible route from research to reactor.

2. A value-chain consortium with named TRLs

Each partner's contribution was stated with its starting technology readiness level: Brunel's power ultrasonics validated at TRL6 and AI analytics at TRL5, LAS's 30 years of laser-based manufacturing, Taraz's metrology systems, IVY-TECH's Industry 4.0 process optimisation and Nuclear AMRC's additive manufacturing and test facilities.

3. A tight, deliverable-led plan

Twelve months, six work packages: specifications within 3 months, the ultrasonic system designed by month 8 in parallel with the optical inspection system, converging on a finalised integrated demonstrator, with management, dissemination and exploitation led by LAS.

The result

Funded. SonicSMR was selected for UK nuclear innovation funding, taking its five-partner consortium from proposal to an integrated zero-defect additive manufacturing demonstrator for SMR components.

Beyond nuclear, the combination of ultrasonic assistance, in-process monitoring and AI defect recognition is cross-cutting technology for the wider metal AM industry, a market that grew from £1.5 billion to £8.51 billion in under a decade.

Why this matters for your organisation

Bids that align with a national industrial programme, and can show a named route into its supply chain, score differently. SonicSMR shows how we build that alignment into the proposal itself.

If you are preparing an Innovate UK, nuclear innovation or Horizon Europe application, we can support concept development, consortium building, proposal writing, evaluator-style review and full submission. And if a project is not competitive, we will tell you before you spend money on it.