Six Bavarian and Austrian colleges and universities as well as associated company partners have entered into a cooperation for a research project in order to be able to better exploit the potential of additive manufacturing, colloquially known as 3D printing. They did this with the aim of creating a cross-border AF center of excellence.
The title of the project funded by the EU with a total of around 2.55 million euros over a period of three years is "Resource-efficient component innovations through additive manufacturing processes in the Bavarian and Austrian border area ReBi". At a project meeting on July 11th, 2023 at the Landshut University of Applied Sciences, representatives from the participating universities and Bavarian industry met to develop joint ideas for future product and process innovations.
An essential prerequisite for the sustainable use of resources in many areas are resource-efficient component innovations, such as in the mobility sector, in mechanical and plant engineering and in energy technology. Additive manufacturing processes offer an attractive option for designing highly complex and efficient lightweight structures. Based on a digital model, they only need a few manufacturing steps to produce components with a geometric complexity that has not been achieved before. In addition, additive manufacturing processes are tool-free, which means that products in small quantities in particular can be manufactured economically.
Mastering challenges together
In the industrial environment, the application of additive manufacturing is complex, the focus is not only on the layered structure of components, but on the entire process chain, from design to material and printing to post-processing. Small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in particular often lack the financial, technical or capacitive resources to better utilize the potential of additive manufacturing. The main goal of the project is therefore to support these companies in particular with the introduction or further development of existing additive manufacturing projects (process and product innovations).
The research project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund ERDF (Interreg VI-A Bavaria/Germany Austria), on the Bavarian side are the TH Rosenheim (lead partner), the Competence Center Lightweight Construction (LLK) and the Institute for Transfer and Cooperation ( ITZ) from the Landshut University of Applied Sciences and the University of Passau. The Austrian partners are: University of Innsbruck, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria and Paris Lodron University Salzburg (PLUS).
Bavarian-Austrian competence
"By setting up a joint competence center for component innovations in the border region of Bavaria and Austria and by bundling the specific competencies of the research partners as well as the processing of current research tasks, the companies should benefit from the technical-scientific synergy effects," explains Prof. Dr. Otto Huber (Landshut University).
This should enable new design methods and optimized additive manufacturing processes for resource-efficient products, especially in the field of metal 3D printing. Structures suitable for production and lightweight construction with robust, reproducible and quality-assured manufacturing processes are developed. Together with the associated companies, these should then be converted into product and process innovations in order to make a contribution to strengthening and securing the technical and economic development of SMEs in the funding region.
In addition to the scientific partners in Landshut, the meeting was attended by representatives of the companies DATAWIN (Ergolding), ARRI (Munich, Stephanskirchen), Flottweg (Vilsbiburg) and ODU Steckverbindungssysteme (Mühldorf), who, through the cooperation, have gained know-how in the field of metal 3D -Build up pressure and want to use the diverse competencies of colleges and universities.
