WP10 – PIMMach

Faced with an increasingly competitive global market, companies have placed part of their efforts in the fast and effective development of new products to meet demands and remain competitive. The adoption of additive manufacturing processes and materials that are increasingly complex to process is an example of such adaptation.

In this area of ​​development, the creation of components with increasingly complex and optimized geometry is a window of opportunity for the development of materials suitable for processes that enable the construction of these same components, always maintaining high-quality and low-cost standards.

The process of creating a metallic component can be performed by conventional means, called subtractive processes, or by additive processes. In the case of the former, the processes involved imply the use of several steps and equipment, making the process time-consuming and incapable of making components of high geometric complexity.

Additive manufacturing processes, capable of processing metals, allow the construction of highly complex components; however, the manufacturing process implies a range of very specific properties on the part of each material and a high energy expenditure, as most processes used industrially involve lasers or energy deposition nozzles under a bed of powder.

In order to avoid energy expenditure and to accelerate the production process, extrusion processes capable of processing metallic materials have been studied using as a working basis some of the injection processes that use metallic materials with polymeric matrices.

Therefore, the aim is to meet existing needs regarding the production of highly complex metallic components (plastic molds and glass), using additive/hybrid manufacturing techniques, based on extrusion and machining processes. The aim is also to develop the necessary raw materials through processes based on PIMMach.

The entire system will be integrated into a work cell, which will use anthropomorphic robot systems to transport products between the various devices that make up the cell. The execution of this project will respond to specific needs of the industry, as well as create new market opportunities, both nationally and internationally. Some of the main challenges of this project are:

• Machining components in a green state
• Software integration of the various devices within the work cell
• Software development for the generation of deposition paths