Rapid manufacturing of ceramic and metal components through additive manufacturing.

The engineering company, based in Italy, was founded in 2017 in order to create a center specialized in additive manufacturing, applied overall to aeronautics and power generation sector. In few time, they become a certified supplier of top player companies in the market. The company has developed strong skills in both the additive and conventional technologies sector, with regard to the design, process development and material development phases. Starting from a very serious problem in the industrial sector, the production of components in advanced materials, the company has developed a process based on additive technologies and customized materials to obtain components that are difficult to work using standard techniques and therefore require long and expensive processing cycles. The company can realize: - Ceramic components with a mix of customizable powders and components in heterogeneous ceramic layers; achievable accuracy 0.1 mm and maximum component size 300x300x300 mm. The company has applied its process to the realization of ceramic cores for investment casting sector, but it's possible to realize any kind of ceramic component such as silicon carbide (SiC) disc brakes for the automotive sector, or hydroxyapatite prostheses for the medical sector. - Metal components in 316L steel, Inconel 718, Inconel 725, titanium. It is also possible to obtain mixtures of metal powders and components in heterogeneous metal layers in order to improve mechanical characteristics, such as strength and lightness. The maximum size achievable is 1200x1200x2000 mm. The company can provide: - design service and topological optimization of components; - mechanical machining of milling, turning and electrical discharge machining (EDM) for the finishing of components; - dimensional checks thanks to coordinate-measuring machine and 3D scanners; - mechanical and chemical tests on components. The company manufactures customized parts, on customer's specifications; the realization of these parts with additive techniques rather than with standard techniques allows the customer to save on production time and costs. The innovativeness of the process developed with respect to the state of the art lies in the extremely high dimensional accuracy and in the materials suitable for aeronautical processes, developed internally by the company. In fact, compared to the solutions proposed by competitors, the company allows a high configurability of materials, many of which are difficult to work with standard techniques, in many cases overcoming several technological limits due to the presence of internal cracks. To widen their international market, the company is looking for • partners interested in the integration of additive manufacturing technologies into their organization, signing a manufacturing agreement. The company can contribute to the collaboration transferring the necessary know-how, organizing dedicated training sessions. • a research cooperation agreement with universities and research centres that need the technology of the additive manufacturing. The company can contribute to carry out project feasibility studies about both additive manufacturing and advanced materials and that are able to carry out the design, topological optimization, prototyping and testing phases. In a nutshell the company can offer their expertise, know-how and machines to contribute to the development of research projects.