Finished external projects
External projects are focused on research contents initiated by public funding organizations or industrial companies, which are not DMRC industry partners. The list of finished external projects shows a selection of the projects carried out with DMRC participation.
The Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process of Ti6Al4V provides huge advantages for aircraft components like valve blocks and brackets. In this project, the gains, when substituting conventionally manufactured parts by additively manufactured parts will be examined and quantified.
This project is funded by the DBU – “Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt” and runs in cooperation with Eisenhuth and the associated Volkswagen AG as an end user. The research question in this project is, if the FDM process is suitable for the production of tool inserts (negative molds), which enables the production of finely textured metallic bipolar plates (BPP). Therefore the Volkswagen AG transmitted some different flow field designs to Eisenhuth which are manufactured and tested at the DMRC during the project duration.
The motivation of the project is to attain a comprehensive understanding of the process-microstructure-mechanical property relationships of Ni-based superalloys processed by selective laser melting (SLM). Based on these results a robust processing routine for components made from Inconel 718 will be developed, showing high geometric complexity and optimized microstructure for high-temperature loading. In order to reveal the potential of parts manufactured by SLM, the results will be compared to similar parts obtained by traditional manufacturing techniques such as casting or forging.
As part of the technology network “intelligent technical systems” OstWestfalenLippe (it’s OWL) funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) the project “Prevention of Product Piracy” (it’s OWL 3P) focuses on raising the awareness that legal measures are just one way to protect innovations and products against product piracy. Innovative protection measures using the potentials of Additive Manufacturing will be developed and applied to demonstration products.
In the project NewStructure the impact of AM-technologies on actual aerospace parts will be investigated, using the example of actual telecommunication satellites. The gains, when trading off conventionally fabricated parts by additively manufactured metallic parts, will be examined and quantified.
The requirements are to reduce the materials costs, the components’ weight and/or the manufacturing time in comparison to the traditional fabrication method. As the manufacturing strategy of AM is fundamentally different from that of conventional techniques (e.g. turning or milling) a complete redevelopment of the fabrication process and of the part design will be conducted.
The electromagnetic interpretation of encoderless controlled permanentmagnetic synchronous DC motors (PMSM) needs a selective influence of the rotor properties. Often the needed metal sheets are not producible with conventional processes easily. In this project the usability of additive manufacturing for the production of rotors is under examination.
Two soft-magnetic materials, a ferro-silicon alloy and a ferro-cobalt alloy, were processed with selective laser melting (SLM). Both alloys are used in the electrical industry for different applications due to their increased specific resistance, in particular regarding the FeSi alloys. The conventional production methods of electrical steel sheets have been extensively researched and optimized in terms of cost-effectiveness. Therefore, new production techniques have to be taken into account to increase the efficiency of motor components, e.g., rotors.
Additive Manufacturing should make the repair and overhaul process of aircrafts in the future more efficient. The degree of automation can be increased and the overall costs as well as the lead time for the repair of complex parts decreased. A lower share of waste and light weight design can be facilitated.