Expertise

Additive manufacturing (AM) – Materials and material properties

SINTEF has experience in AM with the most common materials for such processes, and SINTEF is also establishing/developing new materials for AM. Furthermore, characterization and testing of materials and products made by AM has been a topic in many projects at SINTEF.

Contact person

Erik Andreassen

Senior Research Scientist

SINTEF has expertise and practical experience with many of the commercial "additive materials", for various additive manufacturing (AM) processes for metals and plastics/composites.

SINTEF is also updated on the development of such materials. The feedstock for AM machines ("3D printers") is one or more materials in the form of powder, filament/wire, liquid, paste etc. SINTEF has equipment for characterizing these feedstocks in terms of chemical and physical properties.

With regard to industrial AM, the material properties of the final part are important, and in several projects SINTEF has mapped and analyzed mechanical properties and repeatability. Process-induced microstructures and possible defects are part of this picture. The material properties are influenced by the AM process (and process parameters), and in some cases the mechanical properties have significant anisotropy.

SINTEF also performs advanced mechanical testing in order to develop, calibrate and verify material models for numerical simulations (structural analysis, topology optimization).

SINTEF is also working on establishing process parameters for AM with "new" materials (typically metals and plastics used in other processes, but not so far not in AM). Such materials can e.g. be special steel alloys and nickel alloys.

SINTEF also develops materials for functional applications. One example is ceramic materials for piezoelectric components. Another example is bioprinting materials where the goal is to create tissues and organs, initially only for research purposes.