ALABAMA

Adaptive laser beam for additive manufacturing.

The ALABAMA project develops and matures adaptive laser technologies for laser metal deposition (LMD) processes with either powder or wire as feedstock material.

The objective is to decrease the porosity and to tailor the microstructure of the deposited material by shaping the laser beam, both temporally and spatially, during the additive manufacturing (AM) process.

The key innovation in the project is to develop multiscale physics-based models to enable optimization of the AM process. These process parameters are 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 are performed using multi spectral imaging and thermography to control the melt pool behaviour coupled with wire-current and high-speed imaging to control the process.

The matured technology is 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 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 contributes 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 enables first time-right manufacturing thanks to simulation, process monitoring and adaptive control.

Eurecat takes part in the ALABAMA project through its Metallic and Ceramic Materials Unit, in charge of both the microstructural and micromechanical characterization as well as the fatigue properties to ensure the quality of the manufacturing of metal parts by additive manufacturing.

The ALABAMA consortium is coordinated by SINTEF Manufacturing and is made up of 12 partners from six European countries.