What it is about
High-temperature applications include the development and manufacturing of components that come into contact with the hot gas jet in highly efficient gas turbines, which reach temperatures well over 1000 degrees Celsius. To ensure their function and lifespan, innovative concepts are implemented through additive manufacturing, which cannot be realized with conventional production methods.

PROJECT GOALS

Development of new additive manufacturing processes and components for high-temperature parts in large gas turbines with consideration of sustainable product creation.

MOTIVATION

The focus of phase 2 is the extension of the “Design-for-Additive-Manufacturing method” with additional processes (wire-based generation of large components DED-Arc, selective laser melting with high-temperature preheating, and selective electron beam melting PBF-EB/M in powder bed) and the aspect of lifecycle analysis (LCA). Process and material development for the DED-Arc and PBF-EB/M processes will lead to higher maturity.

Furthermore, the topic of post-processing of additively manufactured components will be more closely examined to enable automated and small-batch suitable processing. Additionally, the recycling of metal powder and support structures will be addressed, aiming for higher resource efficiency and thus contributing to the economic representation of AM components.

OUR CONTRIBUTION

Additively manufactured components must be post-processed depending on the manufacturing method and intended use. To fulfill the promise of flexible additive manufacturing, subsequent work steps should also be automated. Developed, tested, and evaluated by Gestalt Robotics through a combination of robotics, image processing, and AI training, strategies and methods regarding learning force control using force-torque sensors and machine learning algorithms are pursued.