New project idea: Call for companies to join the user group of the ICON proposal DESIMA

New project idea on sustainable and high energy density batteries for the automotive and aviation industry

DESIMA: “Novel Design, Simulation and Additive Manufacturing tools for multi-functional polymer lattice structures

Will you participate?

SIM received a new project idea “Novel Design, Simulation and Additive Manufacturing tools for multi-functional polymer lattice structures”.

The goal of the project is to unlock the full potential of polymer AM lattice structures to be used as multi-functional and light-weight plastic end-use parts for structural applications, by e.g., improving stiffness, strength, impact resistance, ductility, etc.

The basis of the academic research is set on the creation of a generic methodology for using polymer AM lattices to enhance and tailor final part performance, including but not limited to:

  • Material research: Explore polymer AM processes including FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication) and SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) and the use of novel (composite) materials including fibre reinforced polymers.
  • Design and simulation research: Studying novel unit cell designs tailored for specific load cases, whilst modelling the printed material as well as the non-linear printed lattice behaviour.
  • AM process research: Studying the printability of the novel materials and identifying the related process window with respect to energy absorbance and resolution; Altering current FFF & SLS machine concepts to cope with composite materials and to enable inter- and intra-layer enhancement.
  • AM software research: explore, implement, and study new scanning strategies and required processing parameter adjustments for producing dense FFF & SLS parts from composite materials.
  • Part analysis: researching new simulation strategies to evaluate mechanical performance of the AM parts under static and dynamic loadings.
  • Final application analysis: researching new simulation strategies and experimental means to assess the performance and applicability of the AM part as a component in the assembly.

Request for partners

  • Industrial partners
  • Advisory board of the SBO-part of the project
    Possibility for companies to join the advisory board, in which case the consortium has already indicated that they also want to discuss relevant use cases from the companies in the project.

If you want more information on this project idea or you are interested in joining the project consortium as part of the user group, please contact Ann Witvrouw: ann.witvrouw@kuleuven.be

The contact person at SIM is Griet Van Cauwenberghe: griet.vancauwenberghe@sim-flanders.be