Leading research in additive manufacturing with powder bed fusion

Live-filmed process where a demonstrator is test-built by researchers at the Production Technology Center.

The interest of industry and researchers in additive manufacturing has increased significantly over the past ten years. Manufacturing products with this layer-on-layer principle has many advantages and creates completely new opportunities for manufacturing industries in many sectors.

University West started the three-year research project SUMAN-Next in 2017 together with several industry partners and with the Knowledge Foundation as a funder. The overall goal has been to understand the connections between process, microstructure and mechanical properties in powder bed-based additive manufacturing in metal.

The researchers have mainly focused on the superalloy 718, which can withstand high temperatures and loads. Alloy 718 is a strategically important material because it makes up more than 50 percent of the materials used in, for example, aircraft engines. But the research results can also be applied to more material types and other industries such as offshore.

Take part in the researchers' and industry's reflections on the results from SUMAN-Next in the films and articles below. Research in the field of technology continues in the PODFAM project.

* SUMAN-Next stands for Sustainable Manufacturing through Next-Generation Additive Processes. A continuation of the previous project SUMAN, 2010-2016