Although granulate-based direct extrusion – Fused Granular Fabrication (FGF) – is seen as a promising additive manufacturing process, there is further room for improvement regarding the process stability of this still relatively new production method. WEBER additive is collaborating with scientists at TU Braunschweig to take the technology to the next level of market maturity for the manufacturing industry.

To date, manufacturing processes that use thermoplastics in the form of thin material wires, known as filaments, have dominated additive manufacturing when it comes to melt extrusion processes.  However, when scaling up the process, users tend to find that they quickly reach the limits of economic viability because of the relatively high material costs and very long processing times.
With a view to solving this problem, especially for medium-sized users, WEBER additive is currently collaborating with scientists from the Technical University of Braunschweig on a funded project entitled "Extruder self-parameterisation". The aim is to improve the efficiency and reliability of fused granular fabrication (FGF), also known as direct extrusion based on granulate. 
One of the issues is that the discharge rates in the FGF process have not always been linear to the discharge speed, particularly when it comes to the screw speed. That is why, as part of the project, the developers at WEBER additive want to optimise the discharge volume using machine learning methods and control process parameters, aided by artificial intelligence. At the same time, the idea is to improve process stability through efficient monitoring and targeted parameter control.

Objective: reproducible, qualified components
This should lead not only to reproducible, qualified components, but also to more efficient use of resources such as raw materials and energy. Last but not least, lower error rates and faster production should contribute to these goals.
With their work, the initiators want to establish FGF as an economically and technically attractive alternative to producing large-volume and complex components. Direct extrusion already offers enormous advantages compared with the filament-based process in terms of material costs and availability.
Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), the "Extruder self-parameterisation" project is part of the Zentralen Innovationsprogrammes für den Mittelstand ("ZIM", the Central Innovation Programme for SMEs). The Institute for Machine Tools and Production Engineering at the TU Braunschweig and WEBER additives are the project partners.