Towards a regional innovation hub in the field of smart manufacturing of advanced materials

MAT4.0-CM is a Programme funded by the Regional Government of Madrid for the period January 2019 to December 2022 and constitutes an interdisciplinary and intersectorial collaborative framework, aiming to perform basic research on additive manufacturing of components of advanced metallic alloys and polymer based composite materials, with zero defects and high mechanical performance.

The consortium is formed by 8 research groups: 4 groups from public research centres (IMDEA Materials, FIDAMC, CENIM-CSIC and, IDIPAZ), 4 groups of two universities from Madrid (UPM and UC3M) and 5 laboratories (2 at IMDEA Materials, 1 at FIDAMC and 2 at CENIM-CSIC), involving more than 49 PhDs.

The final idea is to develop knowledge tools and transfer them to the regional industry, aiming to advance in the implementation of the “Industry 4.0” strategy in the field of advanced manufacturing. This transfer will count on the participation of associated companies, leaders in their respective fields such as: energy (Repsol), automotive (Grupo Antolin), aeronautics (ITP Aero, Airbus, Aciturri), manufacturing (ArcelorMittal, Acerinox, Renishaw) and health (Breca Health Care, Regemat 3D). In addition, other R&D platforms like Ciber BBN, Materplat, ICT-Nanoimbiosis and the Institut of Biomechanics of Valencia, have shown interest in the MAT4.0-CM results.

3D printing of metamaterials for structural applications

Additive manufacturing, or 3D metal printing, allows to build ultralight and resistant structures with geometries that are impossible to achieve using conventional machining and processing techniques, including complex structures named “lattice”, which are the subject...