| Project Detail |
While additive manufacturing (AM) is deemed the future of industrial production for its exceptional freedom in design, several technical limits hinder its full exploitation. Surprisingly, the most diffused AM techniques (e.g. LPBF) are associated with almost 4 times higher energy consumption compared to conventional manufacturing processes, while being also more limited in build rate, build size, material selection and surface quality. We need to re-invent AM to tackle these challenges and expand its market to uncharted areas. In MadeCold we will achieve a real breakthrough in this direction by merging solid state and electrostatic physics, control and monitoring, and mechanical design with material science to develop a disruptive solid state deposition process. The revolutionary principle of MadeCold is to charge and accelerate metal powders to supersonic velocities in a customized electric field and take benefit from the kinetic energy to induce bonding upon impact with a substrate; this has not been done before. Relying on our preliminary results, we will implement multiscale computational models and advanced experiments to develop a single launcher to prove bonding efficiency. Then via a new control system, we will pair multiple launchers to exhibit the capacity of MadeCold for covering simultaneously a theoretically unlimited surface, compared to the point-wise print of the current AM. We will demonstrate that it outperforms the existing technologies regarding the accuracy, deposition rate, flexibility and scalability and paves the way to depositing functional multi-material structures with unprecedented properties. We intend to prove this in 3 key sectors: aerospace, energy and hybrid manufacturing with specific proofs of concept. We are confident to achieve the overall objectives via a sophisticated multi-disciplinary approach based on scientific investigations, and the exploitation of discoveries to establish Europe as a leader in advanced manufacturing. |
