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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CFAM (Large-scale Continuous-Fiber Additive Manufacturing for the Maritime and Infrastructure Sectors)

Teaser

Summary

Yachts, bridges, and skyscrapers have an element in common: they all have parts that consist of fiber-reinforced composite. This material is extremely versatile as it is strong, but at the same time very light. The production of carbon- and glass-fiber reinforced polymers is usually done via the so-called â€˜open-mold processâ€™, which often occurs in Asia due to cost considerations. Yet, for some customers this choice is not the most convenient one, especially when the parts to be produced are large and complex (large and complex molds are expensive) or when only a few units need to be manufactured, either for production or prototyping purposes (the cost of the mold is amortized over the few units produced). Additionally, manufacturing in Asia increases the lead time and complicates the supply chain.

What is currently missing on the market is a valid technical alternative that is also financially viable to run directly in Europe in order to combine the low costs of the Asian production with the low lead times (and possibly higher quality) of the European production.

Our CFAM (Continuous Fiber Additive Manufacturing) machine addresses exactly these market
needs. It is the largest (1.5 m Ã— 4 m Ã— 2 m) and fastest additive manufacturing machine worldwide that can produce objects directly with glass- and carbon-fiber reinforced composites.

The â€˜CFAMâ€™ project is aimed at bringing this technology to the market, therefore the project describes three main objectives:

Bringing the CFAM machine to TRL9
Upon the start of our project the maturity of the innovation was at TRL6: a small-scale prototype of the CFAM machine was already built and tested. Just after starting the project we were about to finish the first full scale prototype. This prototype would give new insights and improvement points to bring the technology past the prototyping phase into commercial readiness, TRL9.

The machine design is in fact finished and the first system, the second product, produced according to the new drawings and standards. Scaling up the production of the machine is now possible.

Realize the CFAM Experience Centre
The CFAM Experience Centre is a centre to showcase the technology and to speed up the market acceptance by hosting demonstrations. For this Centre an operational CFAM machine is needed to do the demonstrations apart from other infrastructure and personnel.

Currently the Experience Centre is operational and already the first Pilot Projects are being conducted together with customers.

Gain commercial traction within the Maritime and Infrastructure segments.
Commercial traction means involving customers with the technology, doing demonstrations for which the commercial value will be paid and most importantly the sale of the CFAM Machines.

In November 2018, the technology was launched with 120 companies and interested parties attending and we hosted more than 50 companies in Delft for demonstrations. Furthermore, we have entered into Pilot Projects with many companies.

Work performed

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A great deal of work has been done to achieve these objectives.

At the end of September 2018, the full scale prototype of the CFAM machine, the CFAM Prime was ready. During the production and assembly of the CFAM Prime, the prototype, a list of improvement points was compiled. These improvement points were combined in a list and were used as the basis for the redesigning of the CFAM Prime in such a way that the system would be ready for serial production, and to set up a reliable supply chain for the production of components and semi-finished parts.

To make the system perform according to standard with the different materials, the machine has undergone many different optimizations cycles. These optimizations and tests are very iterative nature, quickly making proof of concepts, which are tested on the machine. In the past year we did numerous tests on the machine. These tests can be divided into: testing out the materials whether these are processable, printing samples for showcasing and printing samples to find material specific properties such as the mechanical properties.

After finalizing the design for the CFAM Prime and finalizing the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT), preparations for the documentation and consequently certification have commenced. This is not the first time the team is involved in making user manuals, safety guidelines and other documentation regarding industrial equipment. Internal rules and regulations apply and a standard set-up can be used.

We have trademarked the technology name \"\"Continuous Fibre Additive Manufacturing\"\" or \"\"CFAM\"\" in short, as it is in line with our strategy to communicate CEAD as original inventors of many of the working principles used in large scale composite 3D printing.

After the great success of our launch event; the launch of the first machine, the next step was to find more ways to showcase our products and bring our technology even more to the attention of potential customers. The Experience Centreâ€™s main purpose is for SMEs, corporates, research institutes and educational institutes to experience the CFAM technology. What we initially meant by this was to showcase some printed materials so that they can physically touch the materials and to demonstrate an operational machine so that they can see parts being build-up before their own eyes.The idea of the Experience Centre, somewhere to see the technology, is all about physically proving the applications and doing not only demonstrations but also complete projects with the customers, these earlier mentioned Pilot projects. These projects are in collaboration between the customer, our business development team and our R&D team.

We have also visited numerous important fairs to gain more traction and to showcase our technology.
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Final results

The technology is commercially available and the possibility to test and develop applications in the Maritime and Infrastructure markets is set up. This allows further adoption of the technology, and will generate new production sites and new business models. A good example is a demonstration we are doing with a civil engineering firm that is looking at new business models as well: Where generative design generates the bridge design for specific locations and the CFAM Prime autonomously prints the specific bridge design. This allows local production and in turn makes for a cost efficient process reducing manual labour while utilizing knowledge and technical advancements not limited by the technological developments within this project. While the demonstrations will mainly take place in the last 12 months of the project, this is already a good indication on the results. We see similar projects for the future while these are aimed at different market segments. Given this insight and the projects we recently started we believe the coming 12 months will generate new business models and a new way of production across these sector for air ducts, facade cladding elements, train exterior parts and moulds.