Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MAESTRO (Modular laser based additive manufacturing platform for large scale industrial applications)

Teaser

The laser-based Additive Manufacturing (AM) of metal parts made a significant progress in the last two decades, especially in laser-based powder-bed technology (also called DMLS – Direct Metal Laser Sintering), broadening the range of materials available for them and also in...

Summary

The laser-based Additive Manufacturing (AM) of metal parts made a significant progress in the last two decades, especially in laser-based powder-bed technology (also called DMLS – Direct Metal Laser Sintering), broadening the range of materials available for them and also in developing the necessary data pre-processing tool. The AM technology has matured to reach a level where it can be considered as a viable alternative for producing net shape metal components for relatively small markets, predominantly for prototyping and small batch manufacture. This means only for low-scale applications where one material is used, the accuracy is not too high and surface integrity is achieved in one single AM processing step. Now it is necessary to improve productivity, cost and speed to bring this technology to a larger scale, towards mass market applications.
The 4 main objectives of the MAESTRO project will be, compared to the existing procedures in laser-based additive manufacturing:
To improve the productivity by 30% compared to the existing laser-based Additive Manufacturing procedures, owing to: (i) hybrid monitoring which will optimize the whole process by focusing DMLS only on complex parts that require high accuracy and precision; whereas the rest of the operation on rougher parts will be achieved using MIM, thereby saving time and speed of processing, (ii) an adaptive process control that will minimize the failure rate by providing in-line thermal and mechanical monitoring throughout the process chain
To reduce the cost by 30% compared to the existing procedures by developing: (i) adaptive process control that will limit the scrap rate, thereby increasing the production efficiency leading to savings in raw material consumption and hence the costs, (ii) a single pre-process software that reduces the time to market by merging all numerical pre-processing steps into a unique one
To produce high quality complex metallic objects with high accuracy (± 1.5 µm) and precision (≤ ± 0.1%) while maintaining the cost and productivity benefits, leading towards zero defect production by: (i) developing an adaptive process control that will minimize the fault rate and (ii) system level integration ensuring pre and post-processing enhancement and thus improving the design to piece reliability
To integrate all modules in a platform that will be hosted by IPC onsite associated with EOS and will validate the MAESTRO robustness and reproducibility in R&D development. With the help of five demonstrators (4 from consortium end-users, one from external company winning the MAESTRO contest), MAESTRO will reinforce the industrial leadership in the consortium, as well as companies that will benefit from the project’s results. As a leader in AM, EOS will benefit from MAESTRO’s results to develop afterwards the innovation towards the end users through product shipment.

Work performed

During the current reporting period (10.1.2016 up to 3.31.2018) of the MAESTRO project a number of major achievements have been realized:
WP1: Technical specifications of the demonstrators:
Each end-user has identified a specific demonstrator that can clearly show the potential of the MAESTRO modular AM platform and at the same time can push the industrialization of the process
Each demonstrator technical specifications have been defined using current production requirements as a baseline (Deliverable D1.1)
A definition of the technological blocks related to each demonstrator have been defined in order to prepare the numerical chain and the different manufacturing routes (Deliverable D1.2)
The characterization test procedures have been defined for each demonstrator to be able to validate the initial demonstrator specifications during the WP5 (Deliverable D1.3)
Initial designs have been adapted to AM possibilities thanks to specific topology optimization using specific features impossible to realize without AM such as lattice structures (Deliverable D1.4)

WP2: Pre-processing software and material characterization:
Development of an all-in-one AM pre-processing software including: CAD import, geometry conversion to STL, building orientation optimization, automatic support design, files export to EOS machines (Deliverable D2.1)
Milestone 2 regarding AM pre-process software availability achieved
Characterization of different metal powders feedstock that will be used in AM and MIM processes: virgin and used powders for aluminium and stainless steel (Deliverable D2.2)
MIM and DMLS samples manufacturing and characterization using different feedstock to define the best properties in accordance with the demonstrators’ requirements (Deliverable D2.3)
First hybrid manufacturing tests between MIM and DMLS part to validate the material compatibility and manufacturing abilities (Deliverable D2.4)
Milestone 1 regarding MIM and DMLS material compatibility achieved
Definition of optimized laser exposure parameters for DMLS parts using Tagushi experimental array (Deliverable D2.5)

WP3: MAESTRO platform integration:
Development of modular system level tool to install in EOS M290 for hybrid manufacturing: calibration of the system allowing sufficient alignment between preform and AM part (Deliverable D4.4)
Experimental plan for hybrid manufacturing characterization for Aluminium and stainless steel hybrid demonstrators has been defined

Final results

The five main additive manufacturing value chain improvement are:
Single pre-process software: The numerical chain will be merged into a unique compatible software combining all mandatory steps and configurations that are currently split into three different applications to prepare the Additive Manufacturing operations
Hybrid MIM/DMLS Manufacturing: A preform manufacturing will be done using Metal Injection Moulding (MIM) that will allow dedicating the DMLS specifically for complex parts that require higher precision and use less time-consuming resources for the more generic parts of the assembly
Adaptive process control: In-line thermal and mechanical monitoring will identify the process problems that may occur during the fabrication, thereby will avoid scrap production. This would guarantee the quality of the built products, or in case of failure during production, the monitoring system will detect the problem without any visual observation
A system-level integration of the modular platform: To ensure the good integration of all modules in a platform, these prerequisites will make the link with the existing post-processing procedures, prepare high-resolution data preparation tools and improve the thermal and mechanical properties of the final product. The modular DMLS additive manufacturing platform will be tested with characterization samples (tensile, compression, bending, density, hardness, roughness …) to validate the built part’s quality. The monitoring systems will have to be able to detect the faults
An open demonstration platform to reinforce the EU leadership in metal additive manufacturing: in the project, the platform will host the four end-product demonstrators brought by the industrial partners together with additional one selected from external companies (through a contest event). The platform will be open to outside companies willing to integrate the project innovation in their future products. A satellite group is already set up for this proposal to gather potential end users at the end of the project.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.maestro-project.eu/.