Sustainable Material processing for Manufacturing (SUMMA)

Starting from an observed strong societal urge for more sustainable manufacturing on the one hand, and growing energy and resource intensities of manufacturing processes on the other, the consortium partners in the SUMMA proposal have taken up the challenge of studying environmental impact reducing strategies for laser manufacturing, one of the fastest growing manufacturing disciplines characterized by high energy and material resource intensity. In order to assure in-depth research, the scope of this domain has been limited to laser cutting, selective laser sintering (SLS) and selective laser melting (SLM), processes intensively covered in the involved research groups. While low hanging fruit, in terms of energy and material resource savings and reuse options, has already been investigated by several research groups (including consortium partners), strategies building on fundamental insight in the process-material interaction remain largely unexplored. These strategies require a multi-disciplinary approach clustering process (design) knowledge (PMA), material behavior expertise (MTM) and environmental assessment capabilities (CIB). In order to assure a realistic scope, the materials considered in this proposal are limited to steel, aluminium alloys, aluminium-alumina cermets and alumina ceramics.

Keywords:Environmental assessment, Sustainable manufacturing, Selective laser sintering (SLS), Laser cutting, Selective laser melting (SLM), Material behaviour, Manufacturing processes

Disciplines:Ceramic and glass materials, Materials science and engineering, Semiconductor materials, Other materials engineering, Electrical power engineering, Energy generation, conversion and storage engineering, Manufacturing engineering, Other mechanical and manufacturing engineering, Product development