Additive Manufacturing Options Ltd (AMS) has introduced its function in new Innovate UK-funded challenge to discover the feasibility and sensible prospects of utilizing recycled metallic supplies in additive manufacturing (AM).
Recycling and Reuse of Aerospace Supplies for Additive Manufacturing (R2AM2) will examine the potential to recycle elements into feedstock for metallic AM and the processability and closing half efficiency of recycled AM manufacturing. AMS believes the challenge has the potential to affect an ‘environmental step change’ in the usage of supplies for AM.
The corporate says worldwide demand for titanium – which appears to be like set to make up a 3rd of the 1 billion USD metallic AM powder market in 2023, in line with 6K Additive – alongside provide chain restrictions, and an important want to have a look at extra sustainable supplies sources, makes it ‘extra necessary than ever’ to faucet into the approximate 600 tonnes of recycled plane elements to offer a ‘decrease price, top quality product.’ AMS is asking this excessive worth scrap mining and says it may provide a viable various to conventional mining for the UK.
CEO and founding father of AMS, Robert Higham, mentioned: “The UK was as soon as a pacesetter in AM expertise, and we’ve got since seen a stagnation interval, with our work alongside the output of this challenge we aspire to allow a vibrant and extremely worthwhile UK supply of feedstock and catalyst for materials producing elements for our defence, house, aerospace, and automotive industries.
“Having Innovate UK help our analysis and improvement on this area is a major and essential step in our plans as AMS. If we’re to proceed with our bold plans to advertise and improve on shore manufacturing it’s essential we allow a safe and sustainable provide chain of product. This challenge is step one in offering helpful information as to the true prospects of excessive worth round financial system improvement. We’re honoured to be awarded the funding to permit us to take this concept to an industrial feasibility state.”
AMS will recycle scrap aerospace elements into powder which can then be examined and used to fabricate new elements. Information from printed elements will then be used to validate the method as an efficient supply of recycled top quality feedstock for the UK additive manufacturing market. The challenge will wrap up in November 2023.
