Additive manufacturing - new way building components

When performing additive manufacturing, completely new components are produced by melting metal wire using welding technology. Layer upon layer of melted wire is deposited until the desired shape is reached. When additive manufacturing is fully developed, it will be possible to build lighter components quicker and at lower cost. There will also be greater freedom in the design process. It will be possible to utilize new materials and construct objects not previously conceivable.

The Production Technology West research team has been conducting research on additive manufacturing since 2004. Projects with various funders have succeeded each other.

The current research is based on results from previous projects. Process development, off-line programming, micro structure and metallurgical properties, FE-modelling and simulation, and automatic on-line control of deposition have been investigated separately. The aim is to join these disciplines and develop a complete production system. The system will use a CAD drawing of the desired part and material data as input. Based on this, the production system will generate suitable robot code and process parameters automatically. During deposition, an on-line control system will ensure that the geometrical and metallurgical requirements are fulfilled.