MicroAM Villum

With MicroAM, we will introduce microstructural engineering into the field of additive manufacturing (AM) of metals. This will (i) set the stage for optimizing metals microstructures in-situ during the AM process, as well as ex-situ during post-AM treatments, and (ii) enable predictions of the microstructural evolution, and thus the changes in properties, while AM components are in use. AM is at present revolutionizing metal manufacturing, but the huge potential of microstructural engineering, used for decades in conventional manufacturing, has not been systematically explored for AM. Voids are hard to avoid, and local stresses are always present. An additional main task of MicroAM is thus to incorporate the individual and combined effects of voids and local stress into microstructural engineering—this represents a major fundamental challenge and has never been done before, but opens new design opportunities.