Additive manufacturing takes off in Saint-Étienne.

To celebrate five years of collaboration between the LGF and LTDS laboratories on the Addifab platform in Saint-Étienne, a plate illustrating the topography of the city of Saint-Étienne was manufactured. This topography is represented as a 2 mm thick shell featuring the locations of various École des Mines and ENISE sites, overlooking a lattice structure—a truss-like structure inspired by nature forming a repeatable pattern. These lattices make it possible to reduce the weight of an object and thus decrease material consumption without sacrificing mechanical strength, one of the many advantages of additive manufacturing. This specific piece is a TA6V titanium plate measuring 140x140x60 mm, which took 12 hours to construct.

As a result of this fruitful collaboration, several joint projects have been launched, particularly regarding the development of metallic materials dedicated to metal additive manufacturing via laser powder bed fusion, in partnership with Thales (aluminum alloy) and Michelin (stainless steel).

P. Chanin-Lambert, H. Bonnet, J. Favre and C. Desrayaud.