Productive industries of transport sector, such as aerospace, have realized that some geometrical deficiencies and high manufacturing costs could be overcome if critical components were manufactured by Additive Manufacturing (AM) methods. Aerospace sector pursues the cost-effective manufacturing of mission critical components, which are machined from previously wrought or forged preforms, scrapping high amounts of expensive materials such as superalloys, which are not still allowed to be re-used/recycled for the same structural applications. The buy-to-fly ratio for a part machined from forged billet is typically 10-20 and can potentially drop nearly to 1 with AM methods for the most favorable cases.
Laser based direct energy deposition processes offer the possibility of sorting out the geometrical, cost and process related issues. Depositing near-net-shape geometries, heat treating and machining them yield more efficient productive results than traditional processes in specific materials and markets. The main challenge to attain with AM technologies is to ensure structural integrity of fatigue loads through robust processes where simulation has a vital role.
Structural components of specific sectors have been inherently linked to the concept of catastrophic failure because of the dynamic loads (fatigue) acting on them. Failure has enormous repercussions on aspects such as personal safety, environment, or economic cost. ASSALA project will develop, test and integrate the necessary simulation technologies to limit and control defect generation in laser metal deposited components.
Since the material internal structure is being generated in the melting process, pores, crack, residual stresses, strains, and component distortions are also inherent to additive manufacturing processes. The lack of predictive tools is overcome with acquired process experience and time-consuming trial-error setup processes. However, the use of thermo-mechanical simulation tools fed with statistical failure probability models can lead to notorious time and cost reductions in laser-based AM process set-up and subsequent optimization and certification processes.
Summarizing, ASSALA project is focused on the development and introduction of a new manufacturing process on a highly standardized sector such as aerospace because clear advantages over traditional manufacturing processes have been envisaged. To this end, ASSALA has developed a set of digital simulation tools, both for the process and for the productive means, thus, enabling the achievement of more robust and reliable laser wire deposition (LWD) process because there is a real and growing demand from the aerospace sector.
This project belongs to the Clean Sky 2 Programme
