The present additive manufacturing (AM) market is transforming from prototyping to commercial mass production components, made mostly from standard alloys based on iron, nickel, titanium and aluminium. The next implementation phase of additive manufacturing of metallic parts will involve extensive R&D efforts towards development of new tailor-made materials for AM. Among the attractive compositions, modern silicon-based materials and silicides are promising candidates to be processed by AM technologies. Silicides are known for excellent corrosion resistance, high temperature oxidation resistance and high wear resistance. Such popular properties are unfavourably associated with characteristics such as high melting point and high hardness that pose challenges on the production value chain and true market potential of the material. Due to the complications in machining and casting of the materials, especially for complex geometries, new routes are required to get over the conventional processing barriers. Additive manufacturing has demonstrated the potential to provide solutions to these material-specific drawbacks.
In MADAM silicon-based materials will be manufactured by gas atomization and plasma atomization. The materials will be evaluated using different characterization techniques, including additive manufacturing techniques such as Directed Energy Deposition and Powder Bed Fusion.
Partners: Elkem Technology ASA, Arendal Fossekompani, NTNU, UiA, NCE Future Materials, IFE, SINTEF