CHAMPP - Casting Hybrid Additive Manufacturing Parts Production
Lead Participant:
ALLOYED LIMITED
Abstract
**Vision for the project**
According to MarketsAndMarkets.com, in 2019 global sales of Electric Vehicles (EVs) reached ~3.3million units (a ~£123billion market value - Allied Market Research). This is projected to reach ~27m units/annum by 2030\. The automotive industry must therefore adapt to the challenges associated with heavy batteries and the move towards modularity that is required for new business models such as ride-shares and temporary ownership.
Additive Manufacturing (AM) has the potential to offer designers and manufacturers solutions, but is currently limited by speed, max part size and a relatively high cost-per-part (over twice the cost of casting).
**Innovation**
The Casting-Hybrid-Additive-Manufacturing-Parts-Production (CHAMPP) programme will address these challenges to develop an innovative new hybridisation process. CHAMPP will enable access to the benefits of AM (design flexibility) by combining it with the low cost-per-part of casting. Automotive manufacturers will be able to cast the main components across multiple models/OEMs, then use AM to customise those parts for specific variants at the volumes required, with parts that can only be 3D printed. Introducing AM will also support rapid and more cost-effective prototyping and design iteration.
The state-of-art in this domain is entirely research-based and has mostly focussed on steel. However, steel's low cost and the complex supply chains and/or expensive new machines envisaged have blocked large-scale hybridisation reaching the mainstream. Research on hybridisation using aluminium has been limited by traditional cast/wrought alloys which, when used in in AM, give poor mechanical performance. Similarly, current aluminium alloy AM powders are not suited for automotive applications as they have poorer mechanical properties with many defects.
It is this problem this Smart project will address, building on the consortium's prior alloy and hybridisation research to develop and test new aluminium alloy(s) better suited to future automotive AM and hybridisation needs.
**The consortium**
The CHAMPP consortium creates a critical mass of technical and market expertise:
* Alloyed: Alloy-design and AM specialists.
* Brunel University London's BCAST: Metal casting and processing experts.
* Autotech: An R&D arm of Gestamp, a world-class global manufacturer and tier\#1 supplier of automotive parts.
According to MarketsAndMarkets.com, in 2019 global sales of Electric Vehicles (EVs) reached ~3.3million units (a ~£123billion market value - Allied Market Research). This is projected to reach ~27m units/annum by 2030\. The automotive industry must therefore adapt to the challenges associated with heavy batteries and the move towards modularity that is required for new business models such as ride-shares and temporary ownership.
Additive Manufacturing (AM) has the potential to offer designers and manufacturers solutions, but is currently limited by speed, max part size and a relatively high cost-per-part (over twice the cost of casting).
**Innovation**
The Casting-Hybrid-Additive-Manufacturing-Parts-Production (CHAMPP) programme will address these challenges to develop an innovative new hybridisation process. CHAMPP will enable access to the benefits of AM (design flexibility) by combining it with the low cost-per-part of casting. Automotive manufacturers will be able to cast the main components across multiple models/OEMs, then use AM to customise those parts for specific variants at the volumes required, with parts that can only be 3D printed. Introducing AM will also support rapid and more cost-effective prototyping and design iteration.
The state-of-art in this domain is entirely research-based and has mostly focussed on steel. However, steel's low cost and the complex supply chains and/or expensive new machines envisaged have blocked large-scale hybridisation reaching the mainstream. Research on hybridisation using aluminium has been limited by traditional cast/wrought alloys which, when used in in AM, give poor mechanical performance. Similarly, current aluminium alloy AM powders are not suited for automotive applications as they have poorer mechanical properties with many defects.
It is this problem this Smart project will address, building on the consortium's prior alloy and hybridisation research to develop and test new aluminium alloy(s) better suited to future automotive AM and hybridisation needs.
**The consortium**
The CHAMPP consortium creates a critical mass of technical and market expertise:
* Alloyed: Alloy-design and AM specialists.
* Brunel University London's BCAST: Metal casting and processing experts.
* Autotech: An R&D arm of Gestamp, a world-class global manufacturer and tier\#1 supplier of automotive parts.
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
|---|---|---|
| ALLOYED LIMITED | £249,922 | £ 174,945 |
Participant |
||
| BRUNEL UNIVERSITY LONDON | £149,527 | £ 149,527 |
| AUTOTECH ENGINEERING R&D UK LIMITED | £100,304 | £ 50,152 |
| INNOVATE UK |
People |
ORCID iD |
| Sajjad Amirkhanlou (Project Manager) |