FACMO 2: High-performance additive manufacturing technologies and high-productivity solutions to produce multifunctional composite pieces for aerospace applications

PROJECT COST:

3 677 963 $

PRIMA CONTRIBUTION:

1 487 963 $

PROJECT DETAILS:

Project Details:

Additive manufacturing (AM) of composites is a highly promising technology, but it currently suffers from low quality, limited mechanical performance, and low productivity. Advancing composite AM requires a better understanding of the interactions between processing parameters, the transformed material, and interlayer bonding, to identify how to improve both productivity and the quality of the manufactured parts.

The project will be structured based on four main objectives:

The material-process relationship: to understand the link between material properties (i.e., semi-crystalline and/or amorphous thermoplastics) and manufacturing parameters, to optimize part properties, material integrity (porosity reduction), and improve productivity.
Numerical approach: by taking into consideration the interfacial performance in the prediction of the mechanical behavior of structures produced by additive manufacturing.
The development of the Direct Ink Writing process for printing thermoset composites, with the objective of producing innovative acoustic structures for aerospace applications.
The recycling of pieces produced by AM and the evaluation of the technology’s full environmental impact.

These efforts will be carried out in close collaboration between Dyze Design and Safran SA, who will be able to leverage the acquired results (see previous section). The Safran group includes several companies in Quebec (e.g., Safran Cabin, Safran Landing Systems) that are likely to apply the findings. Moreover, this project will strengthen the scientific and technical excellence of Polytechnique Montréal in the field of additive manufacturing of composites. The project will support the training of 8 doctoral students, 5 master’s students, 3 postdoctoral associates, and 12 interns.