A new project aims to further develop metal 3D printing and the ability to print several materials at the same time. Named MULTI-FUN, the project’s goal is very clear: address a single issue raised by most metal AM processes which can only process single materials, and a small range of standard alloys.
This issue is also raised by another start-up of this industry: aerosint, a Belgian company that develops a technology which would produce with multiple materials at the same time.
Even though the full list of partners has not been disclosed yet, we already know they are all based in Europe, and are coming from eight countries: Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, Poland, Portugal and Belgium. With expertise in the industry and in R&D from universities, they are now involved in this three-year development program.
Two different approaches to achieve this goal
The partners will first improve performance and efficiency in metal AM by integrating multi-functionalities taking into account novel active materials. They will focus on the development of new structural materials for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM), including high strength aluminium alloys and low alloyed steel grades.
In the second phase, they will enable multi-material design in geometrically complex 3D parts without being hindered by size.
It should be noted that WAAM will not be the only technology that will be analyzed as part of this project. Indeed, several combinations of different materials will be applied and combined with various metal AM technologies in order to determine the most important advantages. In this vein, Wire, powder based directed energy deposition (DED) and material jetting will be evaluated with tailored software.
As far as materials are concerned, nano-materials have been included to allow for the integration of novel and breakthrough features, such as heat sink materials with the highest thermal conductivity, a high degree of integral design that makes it possible to embed electrical conductors in complex shaped metal structures, and the addition of sensing and data transfer capabilities to the equipment and software development. No to mention that integrating tailored optical fibres will further facilitate the integration of sensing capabilities in manufactured parts which will result in Structural Health Monitoring (SHM).
The project has a total of four science and technology objectives:
- The development of five new materials tailor-made for additive manufacturing, with a minimum of three of them using nanotechnology.
- The second objective tackles new processes and it entails the development of Additive Manufacturing equipment and software to produce the requested material compositions during the layer build-up. In total, at least 10 new material combinations applying 5 new materials will be shown by the 7 demonstrators for different applications. The expected result is an innovative additive manufacturing equipment that integrates several additive manufacturing technologies working in parallel.
- The third goal is to manufacture and evaluate 7 physical demonstrators with multi-material design and integrated multi-functionalities, for 3 use cases (structural parts, molds, test equipment), addressing 4 different markets (automotive, aviation, space and production industry). The expected end result is related to new methods and it will contribute to the development of new knowledge on increased efficiency of parts & molds due to integrated, multi-material-based functions.
- And the last one is linked to the constant assessment and improvement through a feedback loop of the reduction of environmental and economic impact, by evaluating additive manufacturing materials, hardware, process strategy and demonstrator design.
It goes without saying that, with this objective, we might expect new standards to be established and and further knowledge & support in regulatory bodies adapting to multi-material additive manufacturing.
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