Speaker
Description
The availability and service life of industrial equipment increasingly depend on the ability to respond rapidly to component damage, spare-part shortages, and obsolescence. Metal additive manufacturing offers a compelling alternative to conventional supply chains: damaged high-value components can be restored by directed energy deposition, while replacement parts can be manufactured on demand by laser powder bed fusion. Nevertheless, producing a geometrically acceptable part is only one element of the challenge. Industrial implementation also requires reliable process planning, robust production outside ideal factory conditions, qualified personnel, secure access to manufacturing data, and evidence that the resulting component is fit for service.
This talk discusses the transition from isolated additive manufacturing systems towards connected and trusted workflows for repair, remanufacturing, and distributed spare-part production. The proposed perspective covers the complete chain from identifying a maintenance need and selecting a suitable component to digitisation, geometry reconstruction, process simulation, manufacturing, monitoring, and final quality assessment. Particular attention is given to the complementary roles of DED-LB for restoring worn or damaged components and PBF-LB for producing complex or obsolete spare parts.
Digital twins, in-situ sensing, machine-learning-assisted data interpretation, and secure digital threads are presented as key enablers of this transition. Together, these technologies can support process optimisation, remote expert assistance, traceability, and the progressive replacement of extensive end-of-process inspection with evidence generated during manufacturing. Their integration may ultimately provide a pathway towards risk-based digital qualification and certification.
Drawing on lessons from collaborative European research in deployable additive manufacturing, laser-process digitalisation, and digital certification, the talk examines both technological progress and the remaining challenges. These include the transferability of process knowledge between machines, interoperability of manufacturing data, protection of intellectual property, acceptance of monitoring-based quality assurance, and harmonisation with existing standards. The central argument is that the future value of metal additive manufacturing will not lie solely in printing parts, but in creating trusted, adaptable, and certifiable digital production systems capable of delivering the right component where and when it is needed.