Finnish Additive Manufacturing Aims for the Most Demanding Components
The DREAMS research project aims to push the Finnish 3D printing to the international top level. The EUR 6 Million project, led by DIMECC and funded by the participating companies and Business Finland, will create an open material database containing information collected from thousands of 3D printed metallic test pieces.
Additive manufacturing (AM) is used more and more in Finland every year, but its utilization can still be significantly increased. The young sector suffers from lack of standardization and material-technical differences when compared to traditional manufacturing methods. To remedy this, the FAME ecosystem (Finnish Additive Manufacturing Ecosystem) has launched the DREAMS (Database for Radically Enhancing Additive Manufacturing and Standardization) project. In the project, led by DIMECC Ltd., companies and research institutes aim to raise the Finnish 3D printing expertise to the top international level by year 2024.
The DREAMS project will create a comprehensive and open material database by researching about 10 000 metal test rods that will be manufactured from different metals with different 3D printers and using different methods. The data bank will compensate for the lack of industry standards and facilitate the utilization of 3D printing of metals in the most demanding applications, which will also be studied in the project.
“Wärtsilä has a strong belief in the FAME ecosystem and the sharing of knowledge and expertise. DREAMS enables all of this and ensures that we can share problems and solutions, creating a common knowledge base that will help all parties accelerate AM growth. For Wärtsilä, AM is one of the enablers of more challenging design to support our decarbonisation plan and to secure a more flexible and reconfigurable production line,” says Giuseppe Saragò, Director of Manufacturing Excellence at Wärtsilä.
“The open database is unique. It enables Finnish companies to grow by creating a network of excellence that can also accelerate Wärtsilä’s growth through new high-competence supply chain opportunities.”
Becoming part of the accelerating growth of 3D printing
The global market for 3D printing is projected to grow from € 10 billion to over € 100 billion by 2030. Finland has still the opportunity to become one of the major 3D printing countries, before the projected growth materializes.
DREAMS is the first major RDI project of the FAME ecosystem (Finnish Additive Manufacturing Ecosystem) established in 2020.
“Our first project is an excellent demonstration of cooperation between different actors, and I believe, that the project brings to Finnish companies significant benefits through the industrialization of 3D printing,” says Tero Hämeenaho, Chairman of FAME and leader of AMO department of Etteplan.
“With the help of extensive implementations of DREAMS, we will raise Finnish know-how to international awareness. For Finland, the development of domestic 3D printing is important so that the industry can be more export-oriented in the future,” says Markus Korpela, Director of FAME Ecosystem at DIMECC Oy.
3D printing also concretely implements the digital green transition in the manufacturing industry by enabling more energy-efficient technical solutions.
Benefits the entire Finnish industry
The DREAMS project is implemented using DIMECC’s co-creation model as a joint project between companies and universities, and therefore its results and benefits can be shared among the entire Finnish industry.
“An extensive material data bank, created in direct collaboration with the industrial network, is a globally unique opportunity to create new researched data on the material properties of 3D printed parts, their optimization and management,” says Research Director Antti Järvenpää from the University of Oulu’s research group of Future Manufacturing Technologies.
The DREAMS consortium includes Citec, Elomatic, Etteplan, Lillbacka Powerco, Patria, Raute, Vilpe, Wärtsilä, the University of Oulu, LUT University and the University of Turku. The 6 Million EUR project is funded by Business Finland and the participating companies.
More information
Markus Korpela, FAME, Ecosystem Lead, markus.korpela@dimecc.com, +358 40 840 5660
Harri Kulmala, DIMECC Oy, CEO, harri.kulmala@dimecc.com, +358 40 840 6380
Tero Hämeenaho, FAME, Chairman, tero.hameenaho@etteplan.com, +358 10 307 2757
