DIgital LAser PROduction: Digital Twins of Laser Processing for Multi-Capability Manufacturing of Complex Components and Certification

Project Information

DILAPRO

Grant agreement ID: 101138859

DOI

10.3030/101138859

EC signature date 5 December 2023

Start date 1 January 2024

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 5 815 700,07

Coordinated by

TEKNOLOGISK INSTITUT
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DILAPRO (DIgital LAser PROduction: Digital Twins of Laser Processing for Multi-Capability Manufacturing of Complex Components and Certification)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

To help Europe become the world's first climate-neutral and sustainable digital economy, big changes are needed in manufacturing. Factories must use less energy and materials, improve certification workflows, and help workers learn new skills for the future. The DILAPRO project is supporting this by creating two new software tools for laser-based manufacturing that will transform how complex products are designed, produced, and certified – enabling the first ever digital certification pathway for additive manufacturing.

DILAFACT ("Digital Laser Factory") represents a significant leap forward in manufacturing planning technology. This software creates digital models of laser-material interactions, allowing manufacturers to simulate and optimize production before any physical work begins – and monitor it while it is producing. By using Digital Twinning technology focused specifically on how lasers interact with materials like specialized metals, DILAFACT enables companies to accurately plan parts based on their available equipment, material properties, economic conditions, and environmental factors. Utilisation of multi-sensor systems to monitor the quality of the parts under production will also enable real-time feedback control: Changing parameters on-the-fly to optimise part quality and avoid defects. This approach helps manufacturers combine quality assurance with sustainability, reducing raw material consumption and waste.

DILACERT ("Digital Laser Certification") addresses one of the most challenging barriers in advanced manufacturing: the time-consuming certification process. Current certification methods require extensive data processing and evaluation phases that slow down production and increase labor costs, especially for complex parts made with advanced laser manufacturing techniques. DILACERT streamlines this process by enabling manufacturers to quickly process and format their production data, either from DILAFACT simulations or from in-line monitoring systems on the production floor. The software simplifies compliance documentation and quality verification, dramatically reducing the time needed to certify. Looking ahead, DILACERT is laying groundwork for a major shift in manufacturing quality control - remote, semi-automated "digital certification" of produced parts that could fundamentally change how complex components are approved for use in critical applications.

Both software tools are being developed with sustainability and longevity as core principles. The DILAPRO team is testing them with specific materials (316L, IN718, and IN625) and laser technologies (Powder Bed Fusion Laser beam (PBF-LB), Directed Energy Deposition Laser beam (DED-LB) and Laser Surface Processing (LSP)) across six production facilities operated by project partners. This practical foundation ensures the software delivers accurate, reliable results in real-world settings. After initial development, both DILAFACT and DILACERT will be available under a combination of commercial and Open Access licenses, allowing other developers and end-users to contribute to their ongoing improvement. The project includes plans to build active communities around these tools, ensuring they continue to evolve and serve European manufacturing's needs for cleaner, smarter, and more competitive production industry for years to come.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In the first half of the project, the work has focused on investigating the laser-material interaction and building models that describe this interaction, which will be integrated into the Digital Twins of the DILAFACT software.

10 component use cases from certification-demanding industries have been established to ensure consistency and act as a guideline for the software development. Sensors of different varieties (including Eddy Current sensors, which show immense potential for certification purposes) have been installed on the pilot lines to achieve hyperspectral sensing, and the results from these have been built into Machine Learning models predicting the quality of the parts produced by PBF-LB, DED-LB and LSP. Live feedback control of the process was established based on these models, allowing the machine to make parameter corrections to a running process based on monitoring and predictions of quality. The models are now being built into the DILAFACT software, to create a Digital Twin of the parts being built. LCAs have been conducted on several use cases to gather information about the laser manufacturing processes and where the biggest potential for optimisation lies. Alongside this, the first ever Digital Certification scheme for Additive Manufacturing has been established, and audits have been performed across all pilot lines to highlight gaps and potentials for digital substitution and prepare project partners for digital certification.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

In the first half of the project, the results of the DILAPRO project that goes beyond state-of-the-art lies mainly in the models and algorithms developed to mimic and optimise the laser manufacturing methods. The predictive tools for process window identification for AM will allow both the scientific community and the industry to optimise processes and save energy, materials and money. The ML algorithms for quality prediction are key in DILAFACT and DILACERT development, but also allows the scientific community to understand the processes better. Furthermore, the feedback control systems developed for correcting the process parameters during print has enormous potential and interest from the AM community. Allowing for quality correction during the printing process will directly decrease scrap rates, impacting both materials and energy usage. In some cases, the feedback control will also allow prints in materials not currently possible, especially for industries with very narrow tolerances, and drastically speed up over-all manufacturing time by avoiding iterative cycles to correct the quality.

Of other note-worthy results is the development of the first ever Eddy Current sensor for AM spanning the entire build plate. This is a crucial step of the way to gather enough data during the printing process to do in-situ digital certification. Lastly, the Digital Certification scheme has been developed, outlining the way for DILACERT to create maximum impact. Together, these results will impact especially demanding industries such as aerospace and the energy sector, by decreasing cost and operation time for part certification.