T-UP Programme
The Technology for Enterprise Capability Upgrading (T-UP) programme was launched by A*STAR in 2003 to support promising local companies in enhancing their business competitiveness through technology upgrading. Since our launch, we have been working closely with our SME members to support them in accelerating technology deployment in the manufacturing domain.
How does the T.UP programme works?
Our ARTC senior scientist or researcher will be sent on a secondment to our member’s company for up to 2 years to play the role of a technical advisor. The technical advisor serves as a guide to advise our members on their technology upgrading strategy and to impart knowledge in technical areas supporting them in their development of new products, process, and IP development through the transfer of technical know-how and skills.
The T-UP programme is conducted through:
- Members defining their problem statement and project goals
- Through the T-UP program, ARTC will assist to measure the problem, analyse the cause, solve the root cause and verify improvements through a secondment
- Maintain the benefits reaped and continue to pursue perfection through improvements
CASE STUDY
A T-UP learning experience at Omni Mold
In February 2021, Omni Mold started their T-UP program with ARTC. Founded in 1989, Omni Mold, A Sunningdale Tech Company is a premium plastic injection mold making company in Singapore, specialising in ultra-precision, high complexity, and high cavitation molds. Since 2019, Omni Mold have invested in Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology and have been developing their own AM capabilities. Although initial guidance have been received from the machine suppliers while developing AM techniques that is specific to their needs, Omni Mold hopes that the T-Up program will be able to help their company to develop AM capabilities in a more scientific and cost-effective approach.
Our development engineer from the additive manufacturing industrialisation team in ARTC, Benedict Goh was arranged to be posted to Omni Mold for the secondment to assist them in improving their current AM processes. He was able to share some of the best practices in ARTC that is helpful to Omni Mold and has worked on establishing the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for new material qualification from material characterisation, laser parameter development, to post processing. With the established SOP in place, it will help Omni Mold to have more flexibility in terms of material selection to cater for customer’s requirements from various industry. In exchange, this T-UP have given Benedict a good industrial exposure with the opportunity to experience issues encountered in the molding industry.
ARTC has been very supportive in this T-UP program. With the support that was provided, we managed to flatten the learning curve for capability development within the Additive Manufacturing (AM) team. This has boosted our confidence in pushing the boundaries of AM and exploiting every possibility that AM can bring.
Mr Simon Tan, Senior Vice President, Omni Mold
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