The Grade2XL project organizes an open Additive Manufacturing Challenge for students, researchers and engineers. The winner(s) will be announced at the Meeting Materials confernce 2022 organized by M2i on 13 December 2022.

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) is the next big thing! Large engineering structures like turbines, bridges or industrial machinery are still manufactured by traditional processes such as forging, casting or by machining from solid blocks. These processes do not allow local control of material properties to achieve a specific function like anti-corrosion or hardness. To meet the functional specifications, engineers must operate within a limited range of design options, with high “buy-to-fly” ratios and long lead times. The WAAM technology overcomes those barriers to produce fully dense metallic structures with no porosity. WAAM is also unbeatable in terms of production times, making it uniquely suited for large and functionally demanding engineering structures. Next to that, using WAAM leads to a CO2 reduction up to 35% during production, reduces material use and improves the product life cycle.

THE CHALLENGE

• Are you a student, an engineer or a researcher in the field of Aerospace, Architecture, Design, Maritime, Materials, Mechanical, a.o. ?
• Are you passionate about technology and want to see your ideas take shape?

Then, this challenge is for you!

Your mission: to design a 3D printed component that can be printed with the WAAM technology. Your idea can be based on an existing or a novel product / tooling.

HOW TO APPLY ?
The contest is closed and the winner will be announced during the Meeting Materials on 13 December 2022.
The call for applications opened on 1 September 2022. The application deadline was 1 November 2022.
You can participate to the challenge as an individual or as a team (max. 3 participants).

THE PRIZE

• The winner(s) will be invited to pitch their design idea at the M2i conference Meeting Materials held in Noordwijkerhout (NL) on 13 December 2022. This event is a great opportunity to attend key notes and parallel sessions on a broad range of technology-related topics and to network with relevant stakeholders from the big materials community within the Netherlands.

• The winner(s) will also have their part manufactured* at RAMLAB in Rotterdam and will take a private tour of the RAMLAB facilities and have the opportunity to discuss with RAMLAB experts.

Travelling costs for this 2-day trip to Noordwijkerhout and Rotterdam will be reimbursed and a free overnight stay.

*If the designed part is heavier than 20 kg, a representative component of up to 20 kg will be printed. Alternatively, the designed part could be printed at Naval Group, France.

SELECTION PROCESS
 
The applications will be evaluated via a blind procedure by a jury consisting of five experts working in the field of WAAM, in academic and industrial organizations which are at the forefront of WAAM.
 
The winner will be officially announced during the M2i “Meeting Materials” Conference on 13 December 2022.

SCORING CRITERIA

Applications will be scored from 0 to 10 based on the following criteria:
Nr. Criterion Score
1
​Novelty
Justify the AM process(es) used considering scalability and the novelty of your design and approach. And to which extent the proposed design is a new geometry impossible to manufacture with conventional processes
 0-3
2
​Functionality
The extent to which the proposed gains (material or financial savings) when using WAAM and if a multi-material approach is used, i.e. different properties at different locations.
0-3
3
Purpose/Application
The extent to which the design is suitable for an existing engineering application.
 0-3
4
Bonus point/Impact
Potential to impact the industry i.e. transferability of the approach towards other applications and sectors
 1

TIMELINE

Application opening 1 September 2022
Application deadline 1 November 2022 (23:59 CET)
Evaluation process 2-8 November 2022
Final decision 9 November 2022
Notification of results 10 November 2022
Official announcement of results

at M2i Conference meeting Materials

 13 December 2022,

Noordwijkerhout (NL)

13 December 2022, 10:30
Announcement of the Winner
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The Grade2XL Project

The Additive Manufacturing Challenge is part of the Horizon 2020 project Grade2XL. This project will demonstrate the potential of multi-material wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) for large structures. Grade2XL will deliver multi-material products of superior quality and performance, cut lead times by up to 96% and enable massive savings for the maritime, energy and industrial machinery sectors. The Grade2XL consortium is led by and gathers 21 partners from eight European countries, top innovators in the field of wire arc additive manufacturing.

If you have any question please contact us at: designcontest[at]m2i.nl.