ALABAMA | Adaptive Laser Beam for additive manufacturing

Summary

The ALABAMA project aims to develop and mature adaptive laser technologies for AM. The objective is to lower decrease the porosity and to tailor the microstructure of the deposited material by shaping the laser beam, both temporally and spatially, during the AM process. The key innovations in the project are to develop multiscale physics-based models to enable optimization of the AM process. These process parameters will be tested and matured for multi-beam control, laser beam shaping optics and high-speed scanning. To ensure the quality of the process, advanced online process monitoring and closed loop control will be performed using multi spectral imaging and thermography to control the melt pool behavior coupled with wire-current and high-speed imaging to control the process. To verify that the built material fulfills the requirements, advanced characterization will be conducted on coupons and on use-cases.

The matured technology will be tested on three use-cases; aviation, maritime and automotive. These three industrial sectors span a broad part of the manufacturing volumes: from low numbers with high added value, to high numbers with relatively low cost. However, all these sectors struggle with distortions, stresses and material quality. The ALABAMA use-case demonstrators will improve the compensation for distortions during the AM process, reduce the build failures due to residual stresses, reduce porosity and improve tailoring of the microstructure. Overall, this will contribute to up to 100% increase in process productivity, 50% less defects, 33% cost reduction due to increased productivity and energy savings, a reduction of 15% in greenhouse gases and enable first time-right manufacturing thanks to simulation, process monitoring and adaptive control.

The end users will insert the technologies while the sub-technologies developed in the work packages will be commercialized. This will increase the autonomy for a resilient European industry.

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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101138842
Start date: 01-01-2024
End date: 31-12-2027
Total budget - Public funding: - 6 000 000,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

The ALABAMA project aims to develop and mature adaptive laser technologies for AM. The objective is to lower decrease the porosity and to tailor the microstructure of the deposited material by shaping the laser beam, both temporally and spatially, during the AM process. The key innovations in the project are to develop multiscale physics-based models to enable optimization of the AM process. These process parameters will be tested and matured for multi-beam control, laser beam shaping optics and high-speed scanning. To ensure the quality of the process, advanced online process monitoring and closed loop control will be performed using multi spectral imaging and thermography to control the melt pool behavior coupled with wire-current and high-speed imaging to control the process. To verify that the built material fulfills the requirements, advanced characterization will be conducted on coupons and on use-cases.

The matured technology will be tested on three use-cases; aviation, maritime and automotive. These three industrial sectors span a broad part of the manufacturing volumes: from low numbers with high added value, to high numbers with relatively low cost. However, all these sectors struggle with distortions, stresses and material quality. The ALABAMA use-case demonstrators will improve the compensation for distortions during the AM process, reduce the build failures due to residual stresses, reduce porosity and improve tailoring of the microstructure. Overall, this will contribute to up to 100% increase in process productivity, 50% less defects, 33% cost reduction due to increased productivity and energy savings, a reduction of 15% in greenhouse gases and enable first time-right manufacturing thanks to simulation, process monitoring and adaptive control.

The end users will insert the technologies while the sub-technologies developed in the work packages will be commercialized. This will increase the autonomy for a resilient European industry.

Status

SIGNED

Call topic

HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-02

Update Date

29-01-2024
Geographical location(s)
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Factories of the Future Partnership - Made in Europe Partnership

Made in Europe (MiE)
HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01
HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-02: High-precision OR complex product manufacturing – potentially including the use of photonics (Made in Europe and Photonics Partnerships) (IA)
Innovation Action (IA)
MiE_25-27_RP02: Excellent productive and flexible Manufacturing automation for open strategic autonomy
MiE_25-27_RP03: Recovering and preserving the European leadership in strategic and high value added products
MiE_25-27_RP03_PastCallTopics(main)
HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-02: High-precision OR complex product manufacturing – potentially including the use of photonics (Made in Europe and Photonics Partnerships) (IA)
Specific Objective 1: Excellent, responsive and smart factories & supply chains
R&I Objective 1.3: Zero-defect and zero-downtime high-precision manufacturing, including predictive quality and non-destructive inspection methods
HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-02: High-precision OR complex product manufacturing – potentially including the use of photonics (Made in Europe and Photonics Partnerships) (IA)
R&I Objective 1.5: Advanced Manufacturing processes for smart and complex products
HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-02: High-precision OR complex product manufacturing – potentially including the use of photonics (Made in Europe and Photonics Partnerships) (IA)
R&I Objective 1.6: Manufacturing for miniaturisation and functional Integration
HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-02: High-precision OR complex product manufacturing – potentially including the use of photonics (Made in Europe and Photonics Partnerships) (IA)
Horizon Europe
HORIZON.2 Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
HORIZON.2.4 Digital, Industry and Space
HORIZON.2.4.0 Cross-cutting call topics
HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01
HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-02: High-precision OR complex product manufacturing – potentially including the use of photonics (Made in Europe and Photonics Partnerships) (IA)
HORIZON.2.4.1 Manufacturing Technologies
HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01
HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-02: High-precision OR complex product manufacturing – potentially including the use of photonics (Made in Europe and Photonics Partnerships) (IA)