Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AMITIE (Additive Manufacturing Initiative for Transnational Innovation in Europe)
Reporting period: 2019-03-01 to 2022-12-31
3D Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and overall numerical fabrication methods have been recognized by stakeholders as the next industrial revolution bringing customers’ needs and suppliers’ offers closer. It cannot be dissociated to the present trends in increased virtualization, cloud approaches and collaborative developments (i.e.sharing of resources). AM is likely to be one good option paving the way to Europe re-industrialization and increased competitiveness. AMITIE will reinforce European capacities in the AM field applied to ceramic-based products. Through its extensive programme of transnational and intersectoral secondments, AMITIE will promote fast technology transfer and enable as well training of AM experts from upstream research down to more technical issues. This will provide Europe with specialists of generic skills having a great potential of knowledge-based careers considering present growing needs for AM industry development. To do that, AMITIE brings together leading academic and industrial European players in the fields of materials science and processes, materials characterizations, AM technologies and associated numerical simulations, applied to the fabrication of functional and/or structural ceramic-based materials for energy/transport, and ICTs applications, as well as biomaterials.
The AMITIE project was focused on leveraging additive manufacturing (AM) technologies for the fabrication of ceramic-based materials. The work focused more specifically on the following points corresponding to the scientific and technical WPs:
- WP2, Specifications and needs of customers (end-users) : Two questionnaires were distributed to the industrial partners of AMITIE and the results were merged to deliver a consolidated list of the necessary specifications for each industrial field under concern in AMITIE. We were able to draw a global overview of the potential markets and the current issues to overcome to boost these markets using AM in the future. In addition, multiple 3D models were exchanged among partners during AMITIE and many demonstrators were produced.
- WP3, Feedstocks development: The main objective of this WP was to develop the feedstocks necessary to implement the various ceramic AM methods targeted in AMITIE. The feedstocks included specialty powders and precursors, aerosols, pastes, inks and ceramic slurries. Significant achievements were made with an emphasis in slurry pastes for robotic assisted deposition (robocasting and direct ink writing), as well as for digital light processing (DLP).
- WP4, AM technologies: The main objective here was to demonstrate the capabilities of AM technologies in terms of complex part fabrication and also their hybridization to produce multi-material parts.
- WP5, Finishing strategies: To obey the specifications (WP2), it was necessary to apply post-treatments after shaping by AM to give to the parts their mechanical integrity, right dimension and surface state. Sintering was the first concern. Other treatments were CNC machining, robotic milling/polishing and laser ablation. Subtractive treatments were tested on raw parts before sintering.
- WP6, New or enhanced properties and design: The aim was to establish the relationship between the microstructure of sintered materials initially shaped using various AM methods and the mechanical and/or functional properties. More specifically, the idea behind was to compare the properties with those obtained using conventional shaping methods. The relationship was made upon the use of advanced analyses including high resolution electron microscopy, X-ray tomography, as well as modelling and numerical simulations.
- WP2, Specifications and needs of customers (end-users) : Two questionnaires were distributed to the industrial partners of AMITIE and the results were merged to deliver a consolidated list of the necessary specifications for each industrial field under concern in AMITIE. We were able to draw a global overview of the potential markets and the current issues to overcome to boost these markets using AM in the future. In addition, multiple 3D models were exchanged among partners during AMITIE and many demonstrators were produced.
- WP3, Feedstocks development: The main objective of this WP was to develop the feedstocks necessary to implement the various ceramic AM methods targeted in AMITIE. The feedstocks included specialty powders and precursors, aerosols, pastes, inks and ceramic slurries. Significant achievements were made with an emphasis in slurry pastes for robotic assisted deposition (robocasting and direct ink writing), as well as for digital light processing (DLP).
- WP4, AM technologies: The main objective here was to demonstrate the capabilities of AM technologies in terms of complex part fabrication and also their hybridization to produce multi-material parts.
- WP5, Finishing strategies: To obey the specifications (WP2), it was necessary to apply post-treatments after shaping by AM to give to the parts their mechanical integrity, right dimension and surface state. Sintering was the first concern. Other treatments were CNC machining, robotic milling/polishing and laser ablation. Subtractive treatments were tested on raw parts before sintering.
- WP6, New or enhanced properties and design: The aim was to establish the relationship between the microstructure of sintered materials initially shaped using various AM methods and the mechanical and/or functional properties. More specifically, the idea behind was to compare the properties with those obtained using conventional shaping methods. The relationship was made upon the use of advanced analyses including high resolution electron microscopy, X-ray tomography, as well as modelling and numerical simulations.
The progresses beyond the state of the art are listed below with respect to the main scientific and technical WPs of the project:
- WP2, Specifications and needs of customers (end-users) : The most impressive demonstrators were probably the ones corresponding to very large parts fabricated by DESAMANERA as illustrated by the image attached to the summary.
- WP3, Feedstocks development: Breakthroughs were realized in formulation of reversible thermally-responsive feedstocks, as well as in the fabrication of metamaterials, the latter being today a major concern in materials science.
- WP4, AM technologies: Since prototypes were produced during this WP, the impact was significant for the industrials. Notably a boost of the binder jetting technology was observed for DESAMANERA and ST-GOBAIN and new hybridized technologies were made available for KYOCERA GmbH. These developments are still in progress in these companies to consolidate their position on the market.
- WP5, Finishing strategies: The combination of additive and subtractive technologies was promoted by AMITIE and showed great promise as for the increase of accessible shape complexity of parts, as well as of the tailoring of their properties. It is now extensively studied in the ceramic community but that was not the case at the beginning of AMITIE.
- WP6, New or enhanced properties and design: The interest of X-Ray microtomography, as a tool to characterize the structures and their defects and to predict the mechanical behaviour, was demonstrated. Great contributions were also done to the understanding of the structure-properties relationship. Finally, significant progresses were made with respect to the state-of-the art in materials reliability (Weibull plots and related results on materials fabricated by AM were shown in some specific cases to be very comparable to those of materials fabricated using conventional shaping techniques).
- WP2, Specifications and needs of customers (end-users) : The most impressive demonstrators were probably the ones corresponding to very large parts fabricated by DESAMANERA as illustrated by the image attached to the summary.
- WP3, Feedstocks development: Breakthroughs were realized in formulation of reversible thermally-responsive feedstocks, as well as in the fabrication of metamaterials, the latter being today a major concern in materials science.
- WP4, AM technologies: Since prototypes were produced during this WP, the impact was significant for the industrials. Notably a boost of the binder jetting technology was observed for DESAMANERA and ST-GOBAIN and new hybridized technologies were made available for KYOCERA GmbH. These developments are still in progress in these companies to consolidate their position on the market.
- WP5, Finishing strategies: The combination of additive and subtractive technologies was promoted by AMITIE and showed great promise as for the increase of accessible shape complexity of parts, as well as of the tailoring of their properties. It is now extensively studied in the ceramic community but that was not the case at the beginning of AMITIE.
- WP6, New or enhanced properties and design: The interest of X-Ray microtomography, as a tool to characterize the structures and their defects and to predict the mechanical behaviour, was demonstrated. Great contributions were also done to the understanding of the structure-properties relationship. Finally, significant progresses were made with respect to the state-of-the art in materials reliability (Weibull plots and related results on materials fabricated by AM were shown in some specific cases to be very comparable to those of materials fabricated using conventional shaping techniques).