Public Funding for Waam3D Limited

Landing-Gear Industrial Breakthroughs "I-Break" will develop and manufacture major components with innovative techniques such as powder hot isostatic pressing, additive manufacture and composites. The Landing-Gear major components; main fitting, sliding piston and actuation are drivers of the aircraft key competitiveness factors; * Development time and cost (NRC), * Recurring cost (RC) * Industrial environmental impact Manufacture has changed little over time, relying on large forgings with no UK footprint. I-Break will develop solutions to be applied on the Next-Generation and Zero Emissions aircraft ready for exploitation. Innovative industrial means are essential to secure breakthrough improvements in the key competitiveness factors.

Landing-Gear Industrial Breakthroughs "I-Break" will develop and manufacture major components with innovative techniques such as powder hot isostatic pressing, additive manufacture and composites. The Landing-Gear major components; main fitting, sliding piston and actuation are drivers of the aircraft key competitiveness factors; * Development time and cost (NRC), * Recurring cost (RC) * Industrial environmental impact Manufacture has changed little over time, relying on large forgings with no UK footprint. I-Break will develop solutions to be applied on the Next-Generation and Zero Emissions aircraft ready for exploitation. Innovative industrial means are essential to secure breakthrough improvements in the key competitiveness factors.

no public description

Additive Manufacturing (AM) also known as 3D printing is a process where objects are produced by adding and depositing material in layers. AM offers significant advantages over traditional manufacturing namely design freedom,lead time reduction and lightweighting resulting to increased performance, cost reduction and new business models-digital inventories. Most AM systems comprise of a motion system, heat source and feedstock(raw material). Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) is the combining of a robotic manipulator, using an electric arc as the heat source and wire as the feedstock. WAAM also offers the distinct advantage of being able to produce near-net shape designs in a large scale \\\>1m long. Currently WAAM is focused on high value parts weighing a few tens of kg made out materials such as titanium for the aerospace sector. Current build rates for WAAM are quite low at 2-3 kg/hr. Other industry sectors such as mining, energy and construction use lower value materials e.g. steels and are showing interest in WAAM application. In these industries the production processes are casting, forging combined with machining and/or fabrication reliant on manual operations. Parts often weigh several hundred kgs or even tons, with lengthy production time frames. To make a viable business case for WAAM in these industries, the deposition rate needs to increase dramatically to \\\>15kg/hr for steel, whilst maintaining precision and low recurring costs. In this project a new High Productivity Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing Process (HPWAAM) will be developed to manufacture large scale parts and structures used in engineering and construction industries with high quality and deposition rate of up to 15 kg/hr. To help achieve this new high-quality shaped filler wires (Wintwire-SME) and overall heat control using cryogenic cooling (BOC) will also be developed. **Aim** Demonstrate a new High Productivity Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing process for manufacturing large components and structures for mining, oil&gas and construction industries. **Objectives** Industrialise the HPWAAM process for large-scale engineering components,featuring full thermal control and variable resolution (CU, WAAM3D-SME). Upgrade existing planning and control software to commercial grade enabling implementation of HPWAAM in an industrial environment. Demonstrate the capabilities of HPWAAM for production of \\\>100kg steel components for mining and construction applications. Led by Weir Group this challenging project consists of a consortium covering all aspects necessary for industrial implementation of HPWAAM; process technology development (CU, BOC), supply chain (WAAM3D, Wintwire), end users (Weir, Fosters+Partners) and steel fabrication supplier (Steelo-SME).

3D printing or additive manufacture (AM) of metals has the potential to revolutionise someareas of industry such as aerospace and energy. This particularly applies if it can be used for theproduction of large parts at low cost and with high quality for critical engineering applications.It has been demonstrated on a laboratory scale that 3D printing based on conventional weldingmethods using an electric arc and wire feed to deposit weld beads in a layer wise fashion hasthe potential for this. However there are currently no commercial systems available to enablethis to be exploited on an industrial scale. The objective of the RoboWAAM project is to developa 3D metal printing system based on large scale flexible robotics and welding technology.The developed system will be adaptable so that other process such as inspection can beincorporated during the printing of the part. This will ensure that the printed parts have therequired high quality. The system will be suitable for subsequent commercialisation. Adoptionof the system by industrial users will lead to significant cost savings in a range of industrialsectors including aerospace, construction and energy.The project is a collaboration between KUKA, Airbus Defence and Space, FMCTechnologies, Cranfield University and the University of Strathclyde (including theAdvanced Forming Research Centre, which is one of the High Value Manufacturing Catapults).