SAMOA

Additive Manufacturing (AM), gained a growing importance in industry during the recent years. AM is a technology based on the rapid melting of the metallic powder or wire feedstock and its solidification, layer by layer, into the desired forms. Heat sources used in AM processes can be e.g. electron beams, arcs or laser beams. Parts that cannot be produced with conventional methods, e.g. with complex shapes or lattice structures, are possible to be manufactured by AM. The SAMOA project, supported by EIT Raw Materials, aims to upscale the process chain of raw aluminium alloys from material efficient powder production, energy efficient laser and arc wire additive manufacturing to material recycling in order to reduce material need of up to 50%. New high strength aluminium alloys with reduced Si content, increased material strength and processable are developed. The performance and sustainability are shown in a demonstrative processing chain. End user partners who put their main interest on the automotive market and the medical tools and rail vehicle market have the opportunity to develop demonstrator parts with the help of the proposed innovation for the implementation into the production chain of the addressed products.

Our role

High end industrial sectors exploit laser-based AM processes to produce high value parts with very complex designs, not manufacturable by conventional technologies. However, the low production throughput and high costs prevent the implementation in highly cost-driven sectors. Direct Energy Deposition (DED) technologies, compared to powder bed processes, can also be exploited in a hybrid approach in combination with lower cost manufacturing technologies. In particular, it can be used to deposit materials on a substrate only where needed adopting a new design paradigm based on adding-value functional feature (AVFF). AVFFs are small-scale 3D geometric features, such as the one in figure aside, which can be added to a preexisting substrate to improve or add functionalities, such as static and dynamic stiffening, heat dissipation, vibration dumping, energy absorption guidance, etc. The concept of AVFF on components and safety systems allows tailoring the properties of components and systems that are currently quasi-homogeneous and opens new design possibilities for many parts of the vehicle. The AVFF approach is particularly suited for structural parts where the “right material in the right place” is the best way to minimize costs and oversizing.

Within SAMOA, Gemmate Technologies has a pivotal role in the demonstrative chain contributing to develop design concept for hybrid manufacturing, conceiving lightweight components for automotive application.

Learn more about SAMOA and the results acheived by the following video