TUM-Oerlikon Advanced Manufacturing Institute

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Swiss technology group Oerlikon want to jointly accelerate advanced manufacturing (AM) technologies. For this purpose, TUM and Oerlikon have founded the jointly operated Advanced Manufacturing Institute as a central AM initiative to master technical challenges on the way to industrialization.

The AM institute is located on the TUM campus in Garching, where TUM researchers  TUM and the Oerlikon Additive Manufacturing team will jointly cooperate. The strategic objectives of the AM Institute are to conduct research representing a significant added value for industry and academia, train the next generation of AM specialists in order to provide an additional sustainable benefit for academia and industry, transform the entire engineering process towards future design and manufacturing methods, and coordinate academia, industry and state actors in order to achieve joint objectives and leverage synergies.

TUM President Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann says: "Together with Oerlikon, we want to make the Munich location a globally visible center for additive manufacturing technologies. The cooperation ideally complements our “Industry on Campus” strategy in order to more closely interlink science and application in practice and to make decisive contributions to the industrialization of additive manufacturing technologies.”

Dr. Sven Hicken, Head of the Oerlikon Business Unit AM, emphasizes: "In order to leverage synergies in the cooperation between the university and ourselves, we have decided to relocate the headquarters of our business unit together with our own research department from Feldkirchen to Garching. In this way, both partners benefit: the doctoral candidates can use our hardware, such as our 3D printers and our laboratories, and we are close to the research activities of the excellence university.”

Prof. Dr. Nikolaus A. Adams, Head of the Chair of Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at TUM, which is responsible for the institute, explains the main focus of the projects: "Our research focuses primarily on technical hurdles which, once overcome, will enable the development of the metal speed up 3D printing. For example, we are already working together on new, highly stable, aluminum-based lightweight construction alloys that are in high demand in the industry, on sophisticated new simulation methods for predicting the melting and solidification process in metal powders, and on the development of a digital process for the certification of products manufactured with the help of Advanced Manufacturing components for the aerospace industry.”

Equipped with an initial annual budget of 3 million euros, up to 30 individual projects of young doctoral researchers, focussing on technical issues along the entire value chain, will be conducted within the next 5 years. This includes, for example, the development of tailor-made new materials as well as investigations into the printing process, the process-material interaction, and the entire additive production process.

Projects

Projects at TUM OE

Microstructure formation during additive manufacturing processes

Process simulation of laser-beam melting

Thermal  spray coating process optimization

Steering Committee

Steering Committee at TUM OE

Prof. Dr. Nikolaus A. Adams (Speaker, Director MEP)

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Kramer (Vice President Research and Innovation)

Prof. Dr. Peter Mayr (Chair of Materials Technology for Additive Manufacturing)

Dr. Markus Tacke (CEO Oerlikon Surface Solutions)

Dr. Sven Hicken (CTO Oerlikon Surface Solutions)

Dr. Marcus Giglmaier (Lead Innovation and Technologies, Oerlikon Surface Solutions)