Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, is rapidly being developed as a disruptive manufacturing technology capable of unprecedented mass customization. The ability to start from a digital rendering of an object and to 'print' an arbitrarily complex geometric part from a wide variety of materials is driving rapid innovation in a number of industries. In the case of structural components, additive manufacturing is allowing for fewer processing steps, more complex geometry and lighter weight for crucial applications ranging from the medical to the aerospace industries. The capabilities of this technique are, however, limited at present by the complexity of the processes involved. This proposal is being made within the framework of the 'Joint Canada-Germany 2 +2 call on Advanced Manufacturing-Industry 4.0' in collaboration with a Canadian company with speciality in process simulation (Convergent Manufacturing Technologies), a German company with specialization in the manufacture of advanced turbochargers (G+L Innotech) and the German aerospace centre, DLR. The aims of the project are to develop technologies for process optimization via in-situ monitoring of advanced intermetallic materials with coupled physics-based process simulation and to use this knowledge for the construction of additively manufactured turbochargers by means of both laser and electron beam-based AM technologies.