Metal additive manufacturing (AM) allows, by enabling use of advanced design, production of high added value components, at levels that cannot be reached with conventional manufacturing technique. Still, the AM-based manufacturing sequence implies large amounts of critical steps – design for AM, AM fabrication, post processing, etc. – compared to conventional production sequences. Presently, the key competencies related to these steps are either not fully implemented at industrial level (process quality monitoring) or dispersed geographically with poor connection between different steps. Relying on two major AM technologies (LPBF: Laser Powder Bed Fusion and EBM Electron Beam Melting), MANUELA aims at deploying an open-access pilot line facility, covering the whole production sequence, to show full potential of metal AM for industrial AM production. At first, careful instrumentation and adaptation of LPBF & EBM machines will allow increased process reliability and speed. Secondly, the pilot line – including the adapted processes – will be deployed. The hardware layer will integrate novel process quality control monitoring and automated post-AM handling and processing. The line will be fed by design/optimization and AM process simulation workshops. Those workshops will collect continuous feedback from the physical parts of the pilot lines, to increase process reliability and robustness. MANUELA relies on a consortium composed of industrial end user’s, suppliers, (material/powder, AM hardware, quality monitoring system, software, automation and post-AM treatment) as well as top research institutes in powder-bed metal-AM, covering full range of AM technology chain for pilot line deployment. The deployed pilot line will be validated for use cases, covering wide span of applications including automotive, aerospace, energy and medical. To insure sustainability of the deployed line and its open access at project end, a dedicated exploitation plan will be established.

Products which require complicated material systems and nanoscale structural organization, e.g. third-generation solar cells, are often difficult to develop. This is because electronic properties of bulk semiconductors are often masked or at least strongly superimposed by material interface properties. Additionally these interface properties are also complex and thus make product design difficult. This project aims at solving this problem by offering a nanoscale characterization platform for the European manufacturers of coatings, photovoltaic cells, and semi-conductor circuits. It is proposed to use a combination of scanning microwave microscopes, dielectric resonators, and simulation to measure the material and interface properties of complicated material systems and nano-structures. A metrological system of cross-checks between different instruments, models and simulations with associated error bars is indispensable for obtaining trustworthy results. Scanning microwave measurements will be directly used for three-dimensional characterization of electrical properties of nanostructured semiconductors used in organic and hybrid photovoltaic cells. The objective is to accelerate the development of high efficiency cells and to have measures to predict performances in early stages of prototype production. Where process monitoring of materials with nanostructures is necessary, a dielectric resonator is used to translate insights from scanning microwave microscope measurements to fabrication environments. Such dielectric resonators could be directly integrated in production lines for monitoring thin film deposition processes. An open innovation environment will make the uptake of the results easier for European industry. A database containing exemplary measurement datasets of scanning microwave microscopes will be available in calibrated and raw versions. Simulation results of tip-semiconductor interactions will be made available on the EMMC Modeling Market Place.

Sustainable storage of electrical energy is one of this century’s main challenges, and battery production is one of the future key industries with an estimated market potential of 250 Billion Euros by 2025 as stated by the European Commission. We contribute to this by establishing an RF-nanotechnology toolbox for Li-ion batteries and beyond Lithium batteries. The specific focus is on the nanoscale structure of the 10-50 nm thick SEI (solid electrolyte interphase) layer, which is of pivotal importance for battery performance and safety, but which is difficult to characterize and optimize with currently available techniques. The toolbox contains new nanoscale high-frequency GHz methods that are ultra-fast and capable of testing and quantifying the relevant electrical processes at the SEI, several orders of magnitude better than currently available techniques. Nanoscale imaging of the SEI electrical conductivity at high GHz frequencies will be done for the first time, and impedance changes are measured during electrochemical processes, supported by advanced modelling and simulation techniques. Several methods are tested in pilot-lines, including advanced electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and a newly developed self-discharge method that shortens the electrical formation process in battery production from 2 weeks to 10 min. Finally, the new methods will be used for high-throughput incoming quality control in the battery module production at our automotive end users, where 30.000 cells will be tested per day. In summary, we develop a solid basis of GHz-nanotech instrumentation to improve cell production and testing, resulting in major advantages for manufacturers and customers, for instance reduced waste and energy consumption, and longer lasting batteries that are safer with 90% improved thermal runaway. Project results will be disseminated to a large stakeholder group, with technical workshops (e.g. e-car rally) and conferences in nanotech and battery production.