Fraunhofer Competence Field Additive Manufacturing

The Fraunhofer Competence Field Additive Manufacturing integrates 19 Fraunhofer institutes across Germany and represents the entire process chain of additive manufacturing. It includes five major research areas: engineering (application development), materials (polymers, metal, ceramics), technology (powder-bed-based, extrusion-based, print-based), quality (reproducibility, reliability, quality management) as well as software and simulation. Aim of the competence field is to advance applied developments and start trends in additive manufacturing. Many years of experience from national and international industrial assignments as well as research projects form the basis for us to develop customized concepts and to handle complex tasks. The Fraunhofer Competence Field Additive Manufacturing was founded back in 1998 and aims at industrial sectors such as automotive and aviation, but also biotechnology, medical and microsystems technology as well as mechanical and plant engineering. 

Regarding the research area engineering, the 3D printing of small metallic satellite components, realized by the Fraunhofer EMI in Freiburg, is worth mentioning. The launch of Fraunhofer’s first nanosatellite ERNST is scheduled for next year. ERNST will be the first nanosatellite of this size in orbit to include an additively manufactured metallic structure. Another example is the functionally integrated implant – MUGETO® from Fraunhofer IWU, which is a prototype of a hip stem endoprosthesis, showing the potential of additive manufacturing for medical applications, demonstrating the potential of AM for functional integration.

Our member institutes have a broad range of materials being processed, such as hard metals like tungsten or copper, special metallic alloys like WC-Co or platinum-rhodium and finally diverse multi materials as well as ceramics and polymers. Fraunhofer’s AM projects apply and develop specific AM technologies such as powder bed fusion processes, material extrusion as well as binder jetting or laser metal deposition, to list only a few.

Strain rate dependent material behaviour for dynamic loads in car crash and sensor integration are further topics within our AM projects, belonging to the research area quality.
Optimization of shape distortions during additive manufacturing of graded and multi-material parts, simulation of residual stresses and warpage or topology optimization are typical questions for projects in our research area software and simulation. Lightweight design and resource efficiency, i.e. by applying lattice structures, are recurring issues.

Finally, some of our member institutes also offer different online and on-site trainings on a variety of AM-related topics. Every year, the competence field presents its AM activities on at least two major trade fairs (Rapid.Tech and formnext) and organizes the bi-annual Fraunhofer Direct Digital Manufacturing Conference DDMC. The next Fraunhofer DDMC will take place in Berlin on March 15-16, 2023.