Development Of Ceramics 3D-Printing, Additive Manufacturing

Project Information

DOC-3D-PRINTING

Grant agreement ID: 764935

DOI

10.3030/764935

Project closed

EC signature date 2 March 2018

Start date 1 May 2018

End date 31 January 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 3 556 878,48

EU contribution

€ 3 556 878,48

Coordinated by

INSTITUT NATIONAL POLYTECHNIQUE DE TOULOUSE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DOC-3D-PRINTING (Development Of Ceramics 3D-Printing, Additive Manufacturing)

Reporting period: 2020-05-01 to 2023-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

DOC-3D-PRINTING is an innovative training network that consists of 6 academic, 1 non-profit association and 7 industry (Large companies and SME) participants focused on CERAMICS 3D PRINTING or Ceramics Additive manufacturing applied on medical and aerospace fields. The penetration of 3D-printing processes in the ceramics industry remains low. Technology achievements remain to be done, but research activities remain low. Indeed the additive manufacturing community addresses mostly metallic or polymeric materials, and the ceramics industry lacks skilled researchers likely to exploit academic proofs of concepts to innovations.

Thus training is a key challenge to support innovation in the ceramics industry and for the European competitiveness. That is why a European Training Network is the most relevant to the challenge. The training programme created for this project will be sustained after the project by associative networking. Certification and qualification evaluation of early stage researcher on this topic will be created by the consortium with the methodologies developed by NPO partner. The research methodology will be based on multi-disciplinary and inter-sectorial collaborations among the project participants.

The work packages will solve each VALUE CHAIN needs: (i) Feedstock, (ii) Printer, (iii) Product, (iv) Standardisation. The expected innovations are: (i) Multi-structured and tailored materials feedstocks (ii) Printer specially designed for ceramics (iii) innovative-design ceramics products (iv) standardisation actions. From the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) point of view DOC-3D-PRINTING will bridge “the Valley of death” (TRL 3 to 7) from science TRL to commercial TRL.

The expected successful outcomes require a joint effort from academic and industry facilitated by the synergetic work plan proposed.

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

During the first years of the project, we worked on the entire value chain of additive manufacturing (AM) of ceramics for medical and aeronautical applications. Among the ceramics studied, we selected alumina, stabilized zirconia, silicon carbide and calcium phosphate.
Thus, we were able to develop and optimize innovative raw materials including powders and resins for the respective additive manufacturing technologies: Powder bed fusion (SLS/M) and VAT photopolarization (SLA)
With the help of the numerous industrial partners of the project, we have chosen to develop new 3D printers, after having identified the limitations and potential improvements to existing equipment for the SLS/M and SLA AM processes.
In addition to single-material samples, multi-material samples (metal / ceramic and ceramic/ceramic ) are studied from the point of view of their interfaces, manufacturing condition and their design & process constraints. (including samples obtained by SLA and SLS/M)
Regarding the development of tests, characterizations and standards, there are many works in progress where the members of the consortium are strongly involved (ISO and ASTM committees) in order to fill the absence of references and / or documents.
The modeling of different phenomena and other digital tools are also studied in this project despite their great complexities. Calculation codes are progressively optimized.
The creation of the network on additive manufacturing of ceramics is progressing and we hope to perpetuate beyond the project of public events like summer schools on the additive manufacturing of ceramics with the support of European science society

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)

The general objectives and potential impacts from the DOC-3D-Printing project are listed below :

- Develop and implement Ceramics 3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing systems to boost the acquisition of research knowledge and industrial applications according to labour market expectations.

- Train PhD fellows to be experts in the field of Ceramics 3D printing & Additive manufacturing (C3D-P&AM) and obtain excellent profiles for different careers at EU and international levels.

- Improve collaboration in multi-disciplinary and inter-sectorial environment of currently fragmented C3D-P&AM research in Europe. We will improve the competitive position of European C3D-P&AM research through the creation of novel and effective products for targeted applications

Logo DOC-3D-PRINTING