Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 2

The global Additive Manufacturing market is increasing and on track to reach $41 billion USD by 2027. The design flexibility associated with additive manufacturing allows for industries to lower manufacturing costs, reduce GHG emissions and foster a net-zero emission economy. Exergy Solutions is an Alberta-based energy and climate technology solutions provider, and one of the pioneers in employing metal additive manufacturing as an advanced technique. They have discovered a currently unmet customer demand to employ additive manufacturing for much larger parts than what can be printed with existing equipment. To meet this demand, Exergy and SAIT are collaborating on an emerging additive manufacturing technology as a solution: wire fed directed energy deposition (DED). The use of wire DED to replace castings eliminates the high cost and associated lead time, and introduces the flexibility to rapidly design, print, test and improve. The knowledge and data acquired during this project will strengthen Canada's expertise in a key emerging manufacturing area of additive manufacturing of large complex functional parts using wire DED systems. The optimization methodology developed in this project can be used by sectors such as energy and aerospace and will accelerate novel additive manufacturing initiatives in Canada.