High-added-value components and equipment
| Powder Metallurgy, Plastics Processing and Assembly Platform
The Powder Metallurgy, Plastics Processing, and Assembly Platform develops and manufactures high-added-value components from metal, ceramic, semiconducting, magnetic, and thermoplastic powders, as well as solid metal and ceramic parts.
The platform prepares the powders and uses additive manufacturing,
HIP (hot isostatic pressing), and
brazing to obtain parts with
complex geometries with near net shape results, reducing the need for extra surface finishing steps. It is also home to characterization equipment and digital design, modeling, and simulation tools.
Plastics processing techniques like extrusion and injection molding, additive manufacturing techniques like UV-curing, extrusion, and binder jet printing), hot isostatic pressing, and brazing are all used at the platform. These near net shape techniques reduce the amount of raw material used and limit the need for additional finishing steps, potentially lowering costs. Before manufacturing, the
raw materials are prepared to optimize the finished part's properties. When metal, ceramic, magnetic, plastic, and other
powders are used, properties can be fine tuned in a way that is impossible with the
material in its solid state. Tiny parts with complex shapes, lightweight hollow structures, dielectric components with high thermal conductivity, energy recovery devices, and high-performance magnets can all be manufactured in this way. Last, but not least, different processes can be combined to produce complex multi-material components.
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