The aim of this CSIC Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform is to create the necessary collaboration between scientists, companies and society for the effective implementation of Additive Manufacturing technologies in Industry 4.0.

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The aim of this CSIC Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform is to create the necessary collaboration between scientists, companies and society for the effective implementation of Additive Manufacturing technologies in Industry 4.0.

The aim of this CSIC Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform is to create the necessary collaboration between scientists, companies and society for the effective implementation of Additive Manufacturing technologies in Industry 4.0.

3 themes

proposals…

…of successful projects and contracts with the experience and capacity of CSIC: Design and manufacture of materials for 3D / Post-processing / quality control…

reinforce…

…the CSIC’s scientific, technical and human resources infrastructures: 3D printers for metals, experts in materials design, etc.

develop…

…additive manufacturing technologies according to the principles of the Social Responsibility of Science and Technology and the Sustainable Development Goals.

CSIC Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform for the Development of Additive Manufacturing (FAB3D)

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The aim of this CSIC Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform is to create the necessary collaboration between scientists, companies and society for the effective implementation of Additive Manufacturing technologies in Industry 4.0.

Despite its rapid development worldwide, additive manufacturing has significant challenges for each specific industrial application: the quality of the manufactured parts, the lack of printing materials, thermal and surface post-processing and productivity improvement. These challenges could be overcome with the coordinated and interdisciplinary help of different CSIC groups. The aim of this Platform is to be the scientific and technological reference for Spanish industry in its leap from traditional manufacturing to the new additive manufacturing needed for the so-called fourth industrial revolution.

The industrial revolution that is starting now, the so-called fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 as a specific way of talking about neo-industry. The ultimate goal is to maintain competitive factories, capable of developing high value-added products and adapting to market needs. Current mass production is still a paradigm that will be maintained, but the high costs of machinery for rigid or labour-intensive products do not allow production to adapt to changes in technology or consumption at the speed of the changing world we live in.

Internet-based production or automatically generated, user-personalised demand is a further step towards personalised assembly line production in order to provide what the customer needs in a changing world. The aim is to be able to respond quickly to customer demand, in a highly specialised way. The type of products to appear will also change, smart and connected devices, the strong implementation of embedded systems and the development of communication methodologies in what we call the “internet of things” will change the way we interact with products, but also the way we manufacture them.

This framework, therefore, has flexible manufacturing and customisation of production as a key component. This new way of manufacturing is based on additive manufacturing or 3D manufacturing. 3D printing coupled with robotisation has a key role to play in this process as an evolution of numerical manufacturing systems capable of converting design information into the desired product without the need for manufacturing and testing of tools and tooling, and reducing post-processing and excess material.

Additive manufacturing has numerous advantages that have led to its significant penetration into the healthcare, automotive, aerospace and other industries, as it does not have the restrictions associated with traditional subtractive manufacturing, forming and casting methods. It is a new disruptive technology in metallurgy and in polymer and ceramic manufacturing in general.

For polymers, additive manufacturing technology is simpler and more mature in practical applications. However, there is a need to expand the range of materials available for printing, especially high-strength plastics and particle- or fibre-reinforced plastics. In the case of metallic materials, the technology is more costly since, on the one hand, laser-based technologies are needed to reach the sintering or melting temperatures of the metals of industrial interest and, on the other hand, micrometre-sized metallic powders with very precise characteristics (chemical composition, sphericity, etc.) must be used as starting material. The manufacture of structural and/or functional metal parts in steel, stainless steel, titanium alloys, aluminium alloys, etc. is neither simple nor straightforward. The starting powder alloy has to be specifically formulated so that during laser interaction and subsequent thermal post-processing it results in an alloy with the desired mechanical properties. In the case of manufacturing with ceramic materials, the technology requires even more effort because the temperature, thermal gradients and mechanical stresses are higher than with metals.

In any case, the groups participating in this ITP are already working through collaborations with groups from other PRIs, universities or companies. But they are doing so in isolation and with the CSIC’s lack of infrastructure for additive manufacturing. This makes it very difficult to coordinate CSIC competences to cover all aspects of additive manufacturing. For example, in the case of additive manufacturing of metals, the CSIC has a unique powder atomiser for its characteristics and processing capacity, but it does not have laser sintering equipment with a powder bed to be able to manufacture test pieces or parts with the powders that can be designed and manufactured with this atomiser.

Additive manufacturing requires in-depth knowledge (whatever the material to be printed) of several very different aspects of the process and only when they are coordinated with each other can a satisfactory result be achieved for a particular application. On the one hand, the appropriate design and manufacture of the starting material (be it metal alloy powder, polymeric filaments with particle reinforcements or graphene inks, for example) is essential. Secondly, it is necessary to know the interaction of this material with the energy source and the parameters of the 3D printing process (e.g. laser, extruder nozzle or thermal melting nozzle). In order to obtain a part with the appropriate mechanical properties, thermal post-processing is then required to transform the initial microstructure of the part as printed into the appropriate microstructure while eliminating possible defects, inhomogeneities or residual stresses. In many cases, surface post-processing is also necessary to improve the roughness, surface condition or corrosion resistance of the parts. Finally, the collaboration of experts in various fields (mechanical properties, fatigue, etc.) is necessary to analyse the results and provide feedback for the design of materials, processing parameters and post-treatments.

This justifies the need for an interdisciplinary collaborative framework involving and coordinating research groups in different aspects of the additive manufacturing process, different technologies and different materials.