Metal Powder Bed 3D Printing

This project allows UW–Madison to acquire an EOS M290 metal powder bed additive manufacturing system.  The 3D printer provides new capability for fabricating metal components and evaluation of theories regarding physical properties and manufacturing processes. No current technology exists on campus for metal powder bed 3D printing. The EOS M290 is one of the leading production units of this type of technology, and the 3D metal printing technique is highly innovative and provides new capability to a wide range of research from engineering and materials science to medical sciences. From an application perspective, advantages of 3D printing, which is part of a larger field known as additive manufacturing, include the ability to generate small quantities of precision components using only the 3D printer, as well as near-net or almost-final components, while at the same time, save money and reduce waste, energy, and worker exposure to hazards.

The equipment will be housed at the Grainger Institute for Engineering’s manufacturing showcase facility where it will be accessible and well maintained. The acquisition holds promise for collaborations with local industry and national labs and will place UW–Madison as a leader in a budding manufacturing capability and for a future stand-alone advanced manufacturing center meeting the need for new manufacturing solutions that provide an economic advantage to the state.

Principal Investigator

• Dan Thoma
  Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
  

Co-Investigators

• Krishnan Suresh
  Professor of Mechanical Engineering
• William Aquite
  Grainger Institute for Engineering
  

Collaborators

• Matt Allen
  Associate Professor of Engineering Physics
• Jason Bleedorn
  Assistant Professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine
• Kevin Eliceiri
  Director of the Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation
• Jonathan Engle
  Assistant Professor of Medical Physics
• Mark Markel
  Professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine
• Greg Nellis
  Professor of Mechanical Engineering
• Frank Pfefferkorn
  Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
• Heidi Ploeg
  Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
• Pavana Prabhakar
  Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Xiaoping Qian
  Professor of Mechanical Engineering
• Roberto Rengel
  Professor in the School of Human Ecology
• Natalie Rudolph
  Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
• Jason Soukup
  Assistant Professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine