European consortium aims for additive advances

The ‘Intelligent data-driven pipeline for the manufacturing of certified metal parts through Direct Energy Deposition’ (INTEGRADDE) project is led by AIMEN Centro Tecnológico in Spain, and involves 26 partners from 11 countries. The project aims to deliver a key objective of the European Commission, namely to advance Industry 4.0 by deploying additive technologies under real manufacturing conditions.

Manufacturing costs and the appearance of currently unpredictable defects in metal products and parts produced by additive manufacturing are limiting its widespread adoption. To address this, the consortium will develop a strategy of continuous and integral optimisation and control of the additive manufacturing processes, from product design to final verification. The project will also look to optimise current industrial pilot lines and processes using data science and artificial intelligence.

The project team estimate that it will increase the reliability of AM processes by 40 per cent, the production speed by 25 per cent, and provide a step-change in improving the quality of parts produced.