Additive manufacturing (AM) extends the design flexibility of established conventional tool-based or subtractive manufacturing processes. The combination of different materials within a component to realize material transitions without the need for an additional joining process represents a great potential. This opens up new possibilities with regard to the integration of material-specific functions such as electrical or mechanical properties. In the redesign of existing products, these expanded possibilities open up a great opportunity for reducing weight and installation space requirements, as well as potential for increasing performance and extending functionality in the development of new products.
The possibility of combining different thermoplastics by means of material extrusion (MEX) within a component in an additively manufactured multi-material construction (MMC) requires compatibility and required mechanical properties of the compound as well as the lowest possible thermally induced stresses. The process-specific layer-by-layer material application of additive manufacturing results in freedom for the design of the material compound, so that the realization form-fit structures, parameter variations or ”in situ“ pretreatment measures are possible. This allows a targeted design of the material compound depending on the material combination and the external stress.
The aim of this project is to develop test specimens and characterization methods for evaluating the bond adhesion depending on the type of load and material combination. Furthermore, essential process-specific and design parameters for manufacturing are to be determined in order to clarify the relationships between material, process and geometry specifications. These investigations are the base for the subsequent derivation of design principles.
After a structured processing of the determined dependencies in the compound design, the utilization and provision in the form of a targeted support in the component design carried out by a systematic consideration of the material compound design for improving the utilization of the potential of the integration of material-specific functions.
