Materialising the mummy

The Star (Bob Rae)

A HI-TECH South Yorkshire company has breathed new life into Egypt's best-known mummy. It all began when an exhibition of treasures from the tomb of the Egyptian boy king Tutankhamun started a word tour, scheduled to end in New York.

Organisers of the US leg of the tour were keen to add an exciting additional feature to the exhibition by displaying a replica of Tutankhamun's body in its funeral wrappings, which isn't allowed out of Egypt.

They approached Gary Staab, an expert in making models of natural history and prehistoric subjects, and that led to industry-leading prototyping and additive manufacturing specialist Materialise becoming involved.

Materialise often works with leading companies in the aerospace, automotive and medical technology industries, so it is used to fulfilling challenging contracts, but had never recreated a mummy before.

It began by importing CT scans of Tutankhamun's mummified body into advanced software running on computers at its UK operations, based at the Advanced Manufacturing Park, in Rotherham.