University of Turku installs multi-material PBF-LB recoater for fusion applications
The University of Turku, Finland, has expanded its advanced manufacturing infrastructure with the installation of a multi-material recoater in its existing metal Additive Manufacturing machine. The university’s AM4Plasma project is investigating multi-material components for advanced plasma-generator technology.
The new multi-material capability is enabled by a Schaeffler Aerosint SPD2.1-B5 recoater integrated into the university’s Aconity MIDI+ machine. It extends the machine’s research possibilities from single-material processing to selective placement of multiple powders within individual layers.
In conventional single-material Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB), a recoater spreads one type of metal powder across the build area. A laser then selectively melts the powder according to a digital design, building a component layer by layer.
The multi-material recoater has three separate powder-delivery drums, allowing different powders to be deposited in selected regions of the same layer before laser processing. Repeating this approach across successive layers provides a route to investigating complex components with different materials in different locations.
“Multi-material manufacturing allows us to ask which material is needed in each region of a component and how those materials can work together. This infrastructure gives us a platform to investigate those questions, develop our expertise, and explore new applications with industrial partners,” says Associate Professor Ashish Ganvir, the principal investigator of the AM4Plasma research project.
