The Eurecat technology centre is coordinating the European NewAIMS project which is to develop strategies and technologies to obtain cost-effective high-performance steel through metal 3D printing with a process which will integrate additive manufacturing with a custom-designed steel alloy.
“NewAIMS seeks to combine a well-tailored steel chemical composition and a non-conventional time-temperature process for 3D printing,” says Eduard Garcia, the project’s coordinator and a researcher in Eurecat’s Metallic and Ceramic Materials Unit. “The idea is to get advanced microstructures with better performance than those currently achieved with conventional additive manufacturing and to optimise the performance of the material and the final printed parts.”
Furthermore, “the NewAIMS consortium proposes two high-performance steel grades and a demonstration of printing solutions based on Powder Bed Fusion (PBF), a rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing technique, while linking processes and microstructures to their final performance,” adds Montse Vilaseca, director of Eurecat’s Metallic and Ceramic Materials Unit.
The project, funded by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) and with a budget standing at €2.6 million, will roll out these solutions in a use case based on tool steels, an essential family of steels used in virtually all manufacturing processes and where the characteristics of additive manufacturing bring immediate advantages and cross-cutting implementation.
The NewAIMS consortium, coordinated by the Eurecat technology centre, has specific knowledge and expertise in a range of fields and a solid background in R&D. The other partners are CENIM-CSIC, AMAZEMET, Mid Sweden University and INNOMAQ21.
