About us
Research in the areas of SLS, SLM & DMD Technology transfer for innovation in the Swiss MEM industry.
inspire icams, St. Gallen is a research group of inspire AG in the field of additive manufacturing (“Additive Manufacturing (AM)”). The overarching issue is quality assurance for additive manufacturing or the qualification of corresponding components and in the foreground. In order to be able to work on this complex of topics, inspire-icams addresses the entire process chain, starting with powder materials through to the properties of the built-up components. The focus is therefore on the topics:
• AM processes (primarily SLM, SLS, DMD)
• AM materials (powder analysis)
• AM system concepts and machine components
• AM applications
The focus is on the process development and improvement of known materials as well as the new process development of new, partly self-developed materials and alloys.
Moreover, the further optimization and new development of machines and of machine components, with the aim of increasing the process capability of such technologies (SLS, SLM, DMD).
In addition to material and process research, another focus at inspire icams is work on powder understanding: This includes the quantification of requirement criteria for suitable powders for SLM and SLS (e.g. particle size distribution, powder flowability, fluidizability,...), which massively influence the AM process can.
Basic relationships are being researched in various ongoing projects (CTI, EU projects, SNF, etc.). inspire icams has specific analytics, e.g.
• AM manufacturing technology, including corresponding research machines with open control
• Surface analysis (GelSight) for precise characterization of (rough) AM surfaces
• Powder flowability & powder layer analysis
• Particle analysis (distribution, shape etc)
• DSC, MFI • Material analysis (micrographs, etching, microstructure...)
• Microscopy • Heat treatments
• Static / dynamic material and component testing
• Best access to SEM, EDX, as well as EBSD, TEM etc
In addition to numerous scientific publications by inspire icams authors, a specialist book on the subject of SLS was published by the renowned Hanser-Verlag (plastics technology area) ("Selective Laser Sintering with Plastics", ISBN 978-3-446-44562-8).
inspire ipdz in Zurich is a research group of inspire AG in the field of additive manufacturing ("Additive Manufacturing (AM)"), which focuses on the topic "Design for Additive Manufacturing" and conducts lecture series, information events, workshops and courses.
Technologies: SLS, SLM, FDM