TUM and Oerlikon venture to aid the industrialisation of Additive Manufacturing
February 23, 2022
The Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Oerlikon, Pfäffikon, Switzerland, have jointly founded the TUM-Oerlikon Advanced Manufacturing Institute to advance Additive Manufacturing technologies and contribute to the goal of industrialisation. The institute is based on the TUM campus in Garching, Germany, and will be funded with an annual budget of €3 million during the first five years.
“Together with Oerlikon, we wish to transform Munich to become recognised globally as a centre of Additive Manufacturing technologies,” stated Professor Thomas F Hofmann, TUM president. “This collaboration perfectly complements our Industry on Campus strategy of bringing science and practical applications closer together and making substantive contributions to the industrialisation of Additive Manufacturing technologies.”
The researchers at TUM and the scientific team from Oerlikon’s AM business unit will work together at the institute over the next five years to supervise up to thirty dissertations focusing on technical research along the entire value chain These include the development of new, tailor-made materials, studies on the building process and the reciprocal interactions between processes and materials, as well as the entire AM process.
Dr Sven Hicken, CTO, Oerlikon Surface Solutions Division, commented, “To further the collaborative synergies between the university and ourselves, we have decided to relocate our business activities together with our in-house research department from Feldkirchen to Garching. Both partners benefit from such a partnership: doctoral students can use our hardware, including our 3D printers and our laboratories, and we are close to the research activities of a truly excellent university.”
Dr Nikolaus A Adams, Director of the Chair Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at TUM, who is responsible for the institute, explained, “Our research efforts focus primarily on technical challenges which, once we have surmounted them, will speed up the development of 3D metal printing. For example, we are already working together on the new ultra-strong, light aluminium-based alloys that are in high demand in the industry, on demanding new simulation techniques to predict the melting and solidification process for metal powders and on the development of a digital certification process using components produced for the aerospace industry with the help of advanced manufacturing.”
