New 3D printing scheme in Romania

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, is a relatively new process but it has already proven itself for engineering space technologies. But the procedures and practices for how to best implement, use and standardise 3D printing techniques are not yet in place everywhere.

One of the goals of the General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) is to support and improve European industry, to make sure it is competitive and able to produce critical technologies when necessary. Part of this currently means encouraging and supporting the take up of additive manufacturing across all of the 24 Participating States. Once set up, using 3D printing to process metals allows the space industry to mature in areas where it is currently less developed. This has already been demonstrated the Fraunhofer IWS Dresden, Germany, when they paired with several SMEs to accelerate the development of their respective and very different products using 3D printing.

One recently closed activity by the GSTP was intended to quickly increase the 3D printing process maturity of COMOTI, in Romania. Working with ESA meant that COMOTI could quickly and efficiently set up their 3D printing machine, optimise its parameters and establish a process that met the requirements of the space industry.

The technical objective of this activity was to integrate COMOTI’s capabilities to develop an additive manufacturing process route to produce high-density materials using their new 3D printer, specifically the Lasertec 30SLM. To achieve this, not only did proper process parameters have to be established but material testing also had to be performed.

Learning these vital parameters and static characteristics for the material being used, from where a sample is placed to how much force you can apply before it breaks are all basic information necessary to start designing a part.  

By the end of the activity, those working on the machine had a far better understanding of the difficulties of the process and in just nine months, faster than average, they had built a database of the characteristics of both the material and the machine.

A process traceability system was also implemented to meet space industry requirements so that in future the company can develop more complex shape parts manufacturing and testing.

The success of the activity has led to four proposals with other industry members in Romania to develop their ability to design, manufacture and test complex metallic parts using additive manufacturing technology.