Main milestones GREENFA 4.0

Second annuality completed – Main milestones GREENFA 4.0: Manufacturing and characterization of specimens & First prototype using the metal additive technology of Selective Laser Melting (SLM).

Leading this national project GSC has managed to know first-hand the state of mature of the additive manufacturing process of Selective Fusion of Powder by Laser (SLM) and Direct Deposition by Laser with metallic cable (LMD-w) in order to be able to analyse the possibility to introduce these technologies into the aeronautical sector with the  study and manufacturing of demonstration parts using Inconel 718 as material throughout the project.

During this second annuity GSC has manufactured three batches of 20 specimens in order to characterize SLM technology and the defects that appear during the manufacture. This has been very helpful to define the optimal conditions and all the processes parameters that have been set for the first prototype.

Figure 1: First batch of Inconel 718 specimens.

With all the background acquired a first prototype has been manufactured in order to compare the results of the parts manufactured by SLM with respect to similar components manufactured by conventional machining.

Figure 2: First prototype of Inconel 718 by SLM.

Successful results regarding mechanical properties have been achieved in this first prototype, GSC will continue the analysis on the post-process selection during the last annuality of the project and more prototypes will be manufactured to optimise the conditions.

GSC will share among the main stakeholders in the aeronautic sector the results achieved.