The Industrialization and Digitization of Additive Manufacturing project (IDAM project) for automotive series processes has been successfully implemented. The project consortium, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and led by the BMW Group, started three years ago with small and medium-sized companies, large companies, and research institutions. All members had a common goal – to revolutionize metallic 3D printing in the field of automotive series production.
In 2020, as the IDAM project was at its halfway mark, one of the most notable advancements was the identification of a metal powder material by GKN PM that demonstrated excellent potential for industrialization in the automotive market. The material is DP 600, a dual-phase steel whose mechanical properties can be tuned using heat treatment methods. The gas atomized material, validated on the EOS M300-4 system, demonstrated an elongation rate of 13% (as-built) up to 22% (with heat treatment), and tensile strength of 950 MPA (as-built) up to 700 MPA (with heat treatment).
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