FMI actively promotes engagement between the manufacturing sector and the network of government-funded Advanced Manufacturing centres. These centres provide resources spanning fundamental academic research, applied technology development, to commercial deployment. Integral to the mission of the research centres is meeting the skills and training needs of industry in new and emerging digital technologies. The four key centres under the FMI structure are as follows:
I-Form
I-Form, is an SFI Research Centre with a focus on early-mid-stage Materials Processing academic research. I-Form is actively engaged across a range of different materials processing technologies, with a particular focus on Additive Manufacturing (3D printing). I-Form brings together a nationwide pool of academic expertise in materials science, engineering, data analytics and cognitive computing which support materials processing in manufacturing. For contacts see I-Form.
CONFIRM
CONFIRM is the SFI Research Centre with a focus on early-mid-stage Smart Manufacturing academic research. The research carried out at CONFIRM involves fusing intelligence to production processes to improve manufacturing performance via automation and data analytics. CONFIRM has research expertise across Industry 4.0 Smart Manufacturing in virtual industrialisation, cyber physical systems, and sensor driven manufacturing systems. For contacts see CONFIRM.
Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR)
Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) is an EI/IDA Ireland Technology Centre with a focus RD&I in Industry 4.0 activities. IMR engages in mid-late-stage industry representative collaborative research across 4 key themes; Digitization, Automation and Advanced Control, Design for Manufacturing, and Sustainable Manufacturing. IMR is focused on supporting companies utilize Industry 4.0 technologies within their businesses. The services offered include placing industrially embedded researchers into organisations, prototyping and test bed development. To contact IMR see Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR).
Advanced Manufacturing Centre (AMC)
Advanced Manufacturing Centre (AMC) is a strategic initiative supported by IDA Ireland. This centre focusses on late-stage industry representative end-to-end manufacturing and supports the digital transformation and sustainability agenda of our national manufacturing sector. A particular focus of the centre will be a collaborative approach to achieving this, whereby leading technology companies may enter partnerships or wider consortia to develop and deploy next generation manufacturing solutions. This new dedicated facility in Limerick will also provide training and skills development. To contact the AMC see Advanced Manufacturing Centre (AMC).
The combined offering of the four FMI partner centres provides technical resources spanning from early-stage concept and technology research and development to applied development of manufacturing platform technologies to commercial deployment of end-to-end manufacturing systems. This is further enhanced by connection to a range of additional centres of technical expertise across a range of complementary physical and digital technology domains.