Skip to main content
Additive Manufacturing
Annual report 2016

Sirris facilitates the design of additive-manufacturing materials.

To manufacture a metal item using additive manufacturing, a plate needs to be in place where the layers of material will be fitted and then cast. Very specific materials are needed, so as to keep in place the part being manufactured and enable the evacuation of the resulting heat. The design of these materials, which have a decisive effect on the cost price and the quality of the component, used to sometimes prove very complex. But now this is all ancient history thanks to the new methodology developed by Sirris.
  • Additive manufacturing of metal parts requires very specific materials that differ from one part to another.
  • Quality is a key factor for these materials in terms of the cost price, feasibility, and final quality of the product.
  • Sirris has developed a series of best practices to facilitate the design of optimal materials for metal additive manufacturing.

 

The optimization of frame supports in additive manufacturing (OSAM) project is a collaborative initiative bringing together HELMo Gramme (the technical department of Liège university college HELMo) and Sirris. This is a 'FIRST Haute Ecole' project being conducted at Sirris by a trainee engineer from HELMo.

The new database is both a training tool for future engineers who are university college graduates and a design tool for industry.

Specific materials 

The OSAM project involved studying all the parameters to add to and simplify the existing database, and putting forward a methodology of best practices. The new tool incorporates all the basic parameters for obtaining the best possible result: the material used, the construction technology, the geometry of the part to be manufactured, and so on.

An optimized database

The OSAM project involved studying all the parameters to add to and simplify the existing database, and putting forward a methodology of best practices. The new tool incorporates all the basic parameters for obtaining the best possible result: the material used, the construction technology, the geometry of the part to be manufactured, and so on.

A new methodology 

With this optimized database, the manufacturers now have a practical methodology that facilitates the design of the materials, starting with the design phase for the metal parts that need to be produced using additive manufacturing, so providing a vital tool that will benefit both trainee engineers studying at the university college and SMEs that are getting their first taste of the action in the area of metal additive manufacturing.