The laser-based Additive Manufacturing (AM) of metal parts made a significant progress in the last two decades, especially in laser-based powder-bed technology (also called DMLS – Direct Metal Laser Sintering), broadening the range of materials available for them and also in developing the necessary data pre-processing tool. The AM technology has matured to reach a level where it can be considered as a viable alternative for producing net shape metal components for relatively small markets, predominantly for prototyping and small batch manufacture. This means only for low-scale applications where one material is used, the accuracy is not too high and surface integrity is achieved in one single AM processing step. Now it is necessary to improve productivity, cost and speed to bring this technology to a larger scale, towards mass market applications.
The 4 main objectives of the MAESTRO project will be, compared to the existing procedures in laser-based additive manufacturing:
To improve the productivity by 30% compared to the existing laser-based Additive Manufacturing procedures, owing to: (i) hybrid monitoring which will optimize the whole process by focusing DMLS only on complex parts that require high accuracy and precision; whereas the rest of the operation on rougher parts will be achieved using MIM, thereby saving time and speed of processing, (ii) an adaptive process control that will minimize the failure rate by providing in-line thermal and mechanical monitoring throughout the process chain
To reduce the cost by 30% compared to the existing procedures by developing: (i) adaptive process control that will limit the scrap rate, thereby increasing the production efficiency leading to savings in raw material consumption and hence the costs, (ii) a single pre-process software that reduces the time to market by merging all numerical pre-processing steps into a unique one
To produce high quality complex metallic objects with high accuracy (± 1.5 µm) and precision (≤ ± 0.1%) while maintaining the cost and productivity benefits, leading towards zero defect production by: (i) developing an adaptive process control that will minimize the fault rate and (ii) system level integration ensuring pre and post-processing enhancement and thus improving the design to piece reliability
To integrate all modules in a platform that will be hosted by IPC onsite associated with EOS and will validate the MAESTRO robustness and reproducibility in R&D development. With the help of five demonstrators (4 from consortium end-users, one from external company winning the MAESTRO contest), MAESTRO will reinforce the industrial leadership in the consortium, as well as companies that will benefit from the project’s results. As a leader in AM, EOS will benefit from MAESTRO’s results to develop afterwards the innovation towards the end users through product shipment.
