Champagne-Ardenne has a large metallurgy sector, and its companies must evolve to face global competition. This competition concerns the forging, foundry, stamping and plastics industries. The goal is to support these companies to broaden their range of skills in the field of materials and implementing processes, in particular in terms of the material-process-product triptych and their interactions. This increase in skills will encourage the penetration of new markets (aeronautics, medical, robotics, energy, etc.), the development of export markets and strengthen the status of companies through the development of their Research and Innovation activities. This Chair will be established in partnership with the regional UIMM (Union of Metallurgy Industries and Trades), other professional bodies and unions, the CRITT-MDTS (Regional Center for Innovation and Technology Transfer) and many small-, medium- and intermediate-sized enterprises with which there are already scientific collaborations with LISM (Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Systèmes Macromoléculaires- Macromolecular Systems Engineering Laboratory). More specifically, the chair will be focused on Additive Manufacturing to enable regional companies to take ownership of this technology, which represents a challenge and an opportunity to meet the new industrial needs of the 21st century. The research undertaken in this context will help overcome technological obstacles in the design of smart products and tools, characterise materials and optimise additive manufacturing processes. The chair will become part of the system currently under construction and made up of the regional "Additive Manufacturing" platform and the apprenticeship engineering programme run by UTT in agreement with URCA and taught at EiSINe (École d’ingénieurs en Sciences Industrielles et Numérique – Higher School in Industrial Engineering and Digital Technology).
This industrial chair will be a driver of innovation for the project's partner companies. The skills of researchers in the field of materials, and more specifically in additive manufacturing, reinforced by the recruitment of a prominent University professor, will make it possible to remove various technological obstacles inherent in the young age of this new manufacturing process and exploit all its possibilities in order to produce innovative, personalised products within short time frames. The research carried out for this chair will be transferred to the various industrial partners.
Companies in Champagne-Ardenne, partners of the chair, and in large part subcontractors in the field of forging, foundry and plastics, will have the opportunity to increase skills and upgrade products. These companies will revisit their strategy in order to integrate these new additive manufacturing possibilities, to roll them out in new innovative products, new services and to enter new markets (aeronautics, medical, energy, transport, etc.).
The main work will focus on the stages of the development cycle of new products through additive manufacturing technologies. A new design method combined with topological optimisation and new professional regulations will ensure that material is deposited at the right level to ensure minimum costs and respect for the environment. Other research will focus on mastering additive manufacturing technologies including multi-physics modelling of these processes to optimise the manufacturing of the new products designed. Finally, research will focus on product classification and the control of processes during manufacturing.
Additive manufacturing can replace conventional manufacturing processes (forging, foundry, machining, etc.) or be complementary to them for small-scale production runs. This substitution is economically viable provided that the products are redesigned given the high cost of powders and the significant investments made in machines. The manufacture of tools and means of control is impacted by additive manufacturing by getting the most out of this technology. These tools will consist of a low-grade steel substrate and the active parts of the tool will be reloaded with materials resistant to thermomechanical stress. The tool thermal regulation circuits will be put as close as possible to the cavity in line with the concept of conformal cooling, which greatly reduces manufacturing cycle times. The deposit of functionally graded materials will guarantee that tools have the best mechanical features and excellent method of control functions. Additive manufacturing also covers the replacement parts market by replacing parts or by manufacturing these parts, layer by layer, after a reverse engineering stage.
This industrial chair is part of a collaborative approach with industrial partners but also with academic players and technical centres. The research will be carried out on LISM-specific equipment and that of the regional additive manufacturing platform in Champagne-Ardenne.
Conducted in close partnership with UIMM Champagne-Ardenne, whose Fund for Innovation in Industry (F2i) is used for this project, MATUR aims to work as widely as possible with regional companies and beyond those already involved with all those who want to make progress in this chair's fields of research.
The research will be transferred to partner companies and capitalised on in the form of knowledge in a training module for degree, master's degree and engineering sections. These training modules will also be available as MOOCs, reinforcing EisinE's reputation in the field of additive manufacturing. In addition, this Chair, through the contribution of new lecturers & researchers, will make it possible to develop research at the EisinE site by increasing the number of theses (CIFRE in particular) that can be done there.
Keywords:
Additive Manufacturing, Topological Optimisation, Material-Process-Product Triptych, Smart Materials, Composite Materials
Industrial partnerships:
UIMM, Bourguignon-Barré (Forging), CEVA (Plastics), La Fonderie Ardennaise (Foundry), ARTI (Ironwork and Maintenance)
Scientific collaborations:
UTT (LASMIS), ENSAM, CRITT-MDTS