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AMCOCS

Additive Manufactured Component Certification Services

Application industry: Production
Technology area: Additive manufacturing

The AMCOCS project is developing a digital platform that shortens testing and approval procedures in additive component manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, and thereby massively reduces costs. Although the platform will initially be tested in the aviation industry, it is expected that future cross-industry use will be possible.

The baseline
In additive manufacturing, components are built up layer by layer based on digital 3D design data, hence the term 3D printing. Because this process, unlike conventional manufacturing processes, is still young, there are currently not enough empirical values to predict the quality of additively manufactured components. This why the certification process takes a relatively long time, especially in the strictly regulated aviation industry: Today, it takes an average of eighteen months before such a component is approved, and around 600 samples must be submitted for approval.

The project goal
AMCOCS aims to develop a platform for digital testing and certification processes in additive manufacturing and to test this in the aviation industry. This platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) to make predictions about the quality of a component or the entire manufacturing process. For this purpose, all data of the manufacturing process is brought together on a digital platform – from design, construction, and printing to quality control. This data is then compared with historical data from materials research and with new data that is constantly being added. With the help of AI-based analysis algorithms, conspicuous features and deviations from the standard can be detected even before the component is manufactured. This allows defects to be avoided at an early stage. AMCOCS learns with every test, which makes the procedure increasingly accurate.

Application and practical benefit
In an ideal case, AMCOCS reduces the duration of testing and certification of an additive-manufactured component by two thirds, which can cut costs by half. The platform can thus make an important contribution towards anchoring additive manufacturing more broadly in industrial production. As a manufacturer-independent platform, the solution is not only suitable for the aviation industry, but also across all industries, especially for medical technology or automotive engineering.

Term: 1 January 2019 to 31 October 2022

Consortium: Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH (lead member), Software AG, IMA, Fraunhofer IVI, TU Dresden

Contact:
Dipl.-Ing. Alexander Knorr
Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH

E-Mail:
Alexander.Knorr@efw.aero 

Website:
www.amcocs.ivi.fraunhofer.de