MAMTool - Machinability of Additive Manufactured Parts for Tooling Industry
Additive Manufacturing (AM) is one of the pillars of Industry 4.0. It combines freedom of design with production of near net shape parts, reducing significantly waste and production time of unique and complex parts. This technology has attracted attention of the well-succeed Portuguese metalworking and specifically the tooling industry. Metallic AM technology has huge potential to increase competitiveness of tooling industry, in particular offering energy efficient moulding solutions for plastic parts injection. However this technology requires further post-processing, with machining assuming the leading position, in order to produce finer surface finishes and tolerances. Residual stresses, microstructural heterogeneities and resulting distortions are a challenge for the post-machining operations, not properly explored so far. The proposed research will be possible thanks to a multidisciplinary research framework, supported by the following major actions: i) microstructural evaluations of AM and machined material including residual stresses evaluations; ii) mechanical characterization using specimens produced directly with AM; iii) constitutive modelling aiming metal cutting simulation and numerical codes development; iv) machinability studies of metallic AM parts; v) process simulation and validation. This cross disciplinary research is only possible due to the unique research group from leading academic institutions (INEGI/UP, CFisUC and IDMEC/IST) with complementary expertise in materials characterization, high speed material testing and numerical simulation. This research team is already actively collaborating granting a smooth project implementation. Also the collaboration of industry with metallic AM technology is vital due to the very restricted implantation of this technology in Portugal. Besides tooling industry and general metalwork industry being firstly envisaged, the research has also the potential to engage AM machine producers interested in hybrid manufacturing and also cutting tools producers both looking for customized products and optimized processes.
Status: Running
Starting date: 2019-01-01
End date: 2021-12-31
Financing: Euros
Financing entity: FCT (FEDER and OE)
Project ID: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031895
Person*month: 0
Group person*month: 0
