HIGHTLIGHT - High-strength steel in a lightweight design with welding-based additive manufacturing

The additive process (AM) is based on a metal wire being fed by a power source which then melts the metal wire onto a base plate. This is done along a defined robot path and the result is an object consisting of layers upon layers of applied molten wire. Smart design for the weight reduction of constructions is advantageously carried out through topology optimization which means that materials are concentrated to the most critical parts of the object. This is done with the primary intention of minimizing material usage as well as reducing weight without affecting the strength of the object. Topology-optimized objects normally result in complicated geometries, which traditional manufacturing methods have difficulty in producing. This results in that manufacturing methods with higher geometrical flexibility, such as WAAM, are better suited.