Joint SAMPE-MaP Technical Conference
The 9th Technical Conference of the Swiss SAMPE Chapter on 'AM of Lightweight Composites' was jointly organised by the Swiss Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE), the NTN Carbon Composites Schweiz and MaP.
Additive Manufacturing of Lightweight Composites
The one-day technical conference on 16 January 2019 at ETH Zürich, provided an extensive overview covering all relevant topics in additive manufacturing (AM) of lightweight composites from fundamentals of materials, design and series production to start-ups and applications (Download program flyer (PDF, 933 KB)). AM of composite materials offers unique possibilities to combine the production technologies of high-performance materials with automation and design freedom for industrial production.
In his welcome note, in-coming SAMPE Switzerland President Hans-Jürg Gysin shared his enthusiasm for his new role and excitement of the new format of the joint conference, that brought together vast competences of academia and industry. The event marked a record attendance of 85 industrialists and researchers from all over Europe as well as being far reaching within Switzerland.
The day was kicked off by providing great insight into today’s approaches for printed and flying aircraft parts. The current process chain and the effort of bridging between design, simulation, processing and validation of the 100’000 printed parts that are in service today were fantastically demonstrated. Insights into new bio-inspired liquid crystal materials and efforts in optimization and design for manufacturing of AM composites were presented thereafter.
The afternoon session focused on treatment of precision using optical techniques, series production and large-scale structures with stress line printing in architectural applications. During the final session three young companies presented new emerging technologies that are pushing the boundaries of zero waste composite AM, ranging from preimpregnated patch placement, to tailored dry-fibre placement in series production, and composite materials fused deposition modelling.
The symposium also served as a platform to announce the newly launched customised continuing education programme ETH Sabbatical │ CAS AMaP as well as the upcoming MaP Distinguished Lecture Series on AM.
The three organisers – external page SAMPE, external page NTN Carbon Composites Schweiz and MaP – have been pleased by the high quality of presentations and the stimulating discussions within the sessions and breaks. The evening concluded with a networking reception and excellent discussions of the day.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank all the participants for their contribution to this event and look forward to seeing further development of AM composites in the future!
