AM 4 AM, a new start-up that may revolutionise the industrial sector!

Published on 28/07/2021

Asia accounts for almost half of all industrial investment, with the United States and Europe accounting for only 26% and 17% respectively. But how can we breathe new life into our industrial fabric?

This is precisely why the European Union has launched and financed the KET4CleanProduction project – to enable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the industrial sector to benefit from a vast network of RTOs as well as the so-called Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) and therefore remain competitive, particularly by improving energy and material efficiency.

It is within the framework of this project that the Belgian research institute SIRRIS and LIST took an interest in the Luxembourg start-up AM 4 AM from a former LIST PhD student, Maxime Delmée, specialised in the processing of aluminium powders for 3D printing.

Why were you interested in metal 3D printing?

"During my PhD, I quickly realised the potential of metallic 3D printing for the industrial sector, particularly in aeronautics, aerospace and the automotive industry." explains Maxime.

It remained to be seen how to 3D print different materials with the same degree of precision.  

Taking the example of 7000 series aluminium alloys, they are often subject to hot cracking (when printing), which makes them extremely fragile and unfortunately incompatible with this type of use.

Maxime then had the idea of modifying the physical characteristics of classic aluminium powders by exposing them to a plasma discharge and grafting an additive to reduce or even eliminate these cracking phenomena.

The gamble has paid off – the young engineer eventually patented a new 3D printing process in spring 2019, able to develop one of the five most resistant materials in the world, and launched his start-up AM 4 AM a few months later, before joining forces with SIRRIS and LIST in 2020 as part of the European KET4CleanProduction project.

How was the collaboration with SIRRIS and LIST organised?

"After four years of research at LIST, particularly on superhydrophobic coatings as part of my thesis, working with the institute and benefiting from its infrastructure and expertise in the field seemed obvious.”

In addition to providing advice, LIST focused on materials’ characterisation before entrusting metal additive manufacturing to SIRRIS.

"The expertise of these two RTOs was undoubtedly one of the keys to our success. Not to mention the geographical proximity of the three entities, which gave us valuable flexibility and responsiveness in these times of health crisis."

What developments are you planning?

"We would like to create a centre of expertise in Luxembourg for the development of new metal alloys by the end of the year and eventually launch our first product on the additive manufacturing market.”

Although Maxime is currently working on various spacecraft manufacturing projects for renowned entities in the aerospace sector, his ambitions go further – the former LIST PhD student confides that he wants to diversify his offer. Indeed, the versatility of his process could well be used, in the future, to modify other metal powders (such as titanium, steel or nickel) intended for other types of 3D printers. 

To be continued!

 

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