Materials to Products

Research focuses on developing Additive Manufacturing materials processing technologies and new applications for industry and for medical use. Comprehensive range of AM-technologies and processes from metal printing with in-process quality systems to novel composites, multimaterials and ceramics are covered.

Research on medical applications consist of several subjects, from pre-surgical planning models to patient-specific tools and surgical implants. In research on medical field, also design workflow, tools and methodology is studied.

Work on computational modeling, optimization and simulation in product development together with pioneering Design for Additive Manufacturing practices support the education and industry with leading knowledge.

In operations management and business, Additive Manufacturing technologies and other new methods of digital production offer new solutions in supply chain and logistics which are studied in cross-school co-operation.

For sustainability and circular economy, new bio-based material processing as well as novel processes to reuse current materials in additive manufacturing is in focus. Multidisciplinary research advance materials processing of e.g. natural polymers.

See details on ADDLab web page

Key personnel

• Professor Jouni Partanen

Research focuses on harnessing digitalization, forming process optimization and environmentally sound production methods. Digital manufacturing approaches enable rapid development with increased component performance. Research on additive manufacturing of moulds, patterns and tooling combined with traditional methods merges under the theme of ‘hybrid manufacturing’. Integrated foundry digitalization for quality control, component identification and tracking, IoT are key components in ‘smart foundry’ research.

Research on cast materials focuses on novel properties and use cases, particularly for cast irons and aluminium alloys. Integrated co-simulation of casting processes with component use-case simulation, including stress, thermal and electromagnetic performance enables breakthrough cast component optimization capability. 

Environmental research supports progress towards zero-waste foundries. Focus is on circular economy of foundry raw materials and mould aggregates. Utilization of new binder systems and mould production techniques diminish side product streams and furthers the knowledge of safe and industrially viable re-use and disposal methods.

Key personnel

• Professor Juhani Orkas

Digital image correlation is one of the fields of excellence in the research group. The technique is based on computer vision techniques for full-field displacement measurement in mechanical testing.

We develop mathematical inverse methods integrated with digital image correlation (DIC) algorithms and experimental procedures that push the state of the art in DIC, especially with regard to localised deformations and computational methods that have a physical interpretation. We have unique expertise in designing patterns to optimise the performance of DIC methods, providing an unparalleled combination of displacement resolution and spatial resolution of the displacement field measured by DIC. This technology is also applied outside of the mechanical testing laboratories, enabling innovative solutions for condition monitoring and wide-area strain sensors. 

In combination with inverse methods and computational modelling of measurements, full-field displacement measurement methods like DIC yield exceptionally rich data sets for characterising the mechanical behaviour of materials and determining the parameters in the material models used to describe it.

Key personnel

• Professor Sven Bossuyt

Modelling and optimisation of production systems enable the improvement of a production system’s operations on an industrial scale. Developments in ICT and modelling software are rapid. The modelling methods are mainly mathematical programming (optimisation) as well as modelling and optimising queueing networks. The expected development of industrial internet is likely to considerably increase the potential scope and impact of this line of work in the future.

Material removal and forming processes, especially cutting processes, have traditionally played a major role in the research and teaching of the group. The current research of cutting processes mainly involves the application of the finite element method.

Key personnel

• Professor Esko Niemi

Hydrogen effects on metals is one of the fields of excellence in the Engineering Materials research group. These are studied using thermal desorption spectroscopy, electrochemical and plasma charging and mechanical in-situ testing.

The rapidly growing market for advanced high-strength steels for automotive production significantly increases the risks and costs associated with hydrogen-related failures of vehicle components. At the same time, the development of hydrogen-based transportation and corresponding infrastructure introduce new challenges for engineering materials, especially with regard to their resistance to hydrogen embrittlement. This is also an area of interest in ensuring the safe disposal of spent nuclear fuel, where it is also important to understand the effects of hydrogen on the mechanical and creep properties of copper and cast iron as well as the effect hydrogen has on the mechanism of stress corrosion cracking in these materials.
 

New concepts and equipment for thermal desorption analysis of hydrogen in materials will be commercially explored for the high-sensitivity measurement of hydrogen concentration in materials and analysis of hydrogen uptake and trapping behavior with high accuracy, especially in advanced high strength steels. The steel infrastructure needed for hydrogen economy (hydrogen production, storage, distribution) is vast. In addition to the measurement equipment, the team will offer customers services for data interpretation, analysis and statistics. 

Key personnel

• Professor Sven Bossuyt
• Professor Pedro Vilaça
• Professor Junhe Lian
• Professor Emeritus Hannu Hänninen
• Adjunct Professor Iikka Virkkunen

Shaping a sustainable future!

If you think steel is such an ancient and conventional material that no further research is needed, you could be most likely right decades ago, but certainly not any longer today. Over the past years, the research and development of advanced steels have boomed this ancient material to be one of the most exciting and challenging topics in the field of material science and engineering. Its strength and toughness have been pushed to again and again the boundaries of engineering materials. The most top-notch engineering technologies that have been developed on this planet including atom level observation of the microstructure and super-power computation have been applied to boost this achievement. At Aalto, relying on the advanced microstructure characterization and in-situ testing methods from nano to macro level, my team aims to reveal the insightful deformation and damage mechanisms of advanced steels. With these findings, we develop models and tools to build the process-structure-property-performance relationship, which is used as design guideline for next-generation advanced steel development and full exploration of the applications of the superior advanced steels in practice.

Developing digital solution for future material design!

While digitalization and automation are becoming impossible to avoid in our daily life as well as engineering innovation. Surprisingly, one of the most fundamental research areas, new material discovery or design, is still dominated by the trial-and-error method in various labs under the guidance of empirical and qualitative scientific sense. It is, therefore, the inevitable call for future sustainable development to digitalize the materials on various scales with the footprints from the production to service history. Our team has obtained significant experience in recent years in establishing such a digitalization toolkit to computationally guide the design of tailored mechanical properties by optimizing the microstructure and the corresponding processes for a specific alloy system. The new design concept relies on hierarchical numerical simulations to describe the material reactions on different scales, and on the application of machine learning algorithms to digitalize the interaction and efficiently reveal the most promising design options for better mechanical performance. We are aiming to develop the system for various metallic materials, e.g. steels and aluminum alloys, as well as towards more complicated engineering aggregates, e.g. lithium-ion batteries.

Key personnel

• Professor Junhe Lian

Risk and safety research is focused on developing concepts, methods, tests and frameworks for creating safe technological and socio-technological systems and for managing associated risks. These advances in risk analysis and safety science are applied to specific problems in maritime and materials engineering. This serves society by increasing our understanding of how maritime and materials safety is created and maintained and how safety risks can be managed effectively.

The fatigue and fracture of materials make up an aspect of risk and safety. For safety-critical systems like nuclear power plants and airplanes, periodic inspections combined with reliable models of crack growth enable operators to detect flaws before they reach a dangerous state. Risk and safety research addresses the non-destructive testing and the characterisation and modelling of cracks, while also including effects such as hydrogen embrittlement and thermal fatigue.

Key personnel

• Professor Pedro Vilaça
• Professor Sven Bossuyt
• Adjunct Professor Iikka Virkkunen

In product development research, we study the practices and methods through which research, development and innovation can be successfully conducted. Development of tangible engineering products and related services is a truly interdisciplinary activity that extends across engineering, design, and business, with our research connecting design, innovation and engineering education knowledge.

Research in product development spans from individual and project level practices to organizations and interorganizational consortia. Current spearhead foci include strategies for advancing novel development practices in technology organizations, such as design thinking and sustainable design processes, as well as educational practices for fostering radical creativity particularly in project-based courses.

We have excellent collaboration with Finnish manufacturing industries and engineering companies which search for growth with innovations in the global market. The geographical location of Finland, combined with high-cost level means that achieving a competitive edge requires a boldness to pursue new avenues in product and process development which distinguishes us from global competitors. Accordingly, our development collaboration is diverse and spans across educators, researchers, innovators, and leaders of product developers.

Key personnel

• Assistant professor Tua Björklund
• Professor Kalevi Ekman
• Postdoctoral researcher Vikki Eriksson
• Postdoctoral researcher Teo Keipi
• Professor of Practice Pekka Pokela

Welding technology plays a critical role in many industry sectors, and therefore it is critical to the world's ability to cope with the need of a continuous development with sustainable solutions. Whether joining the smallest bio-implants, or welding the world's biggest ship carriers, over thousands of soldering joints in any electronic component, and many hundreds of joints in any car or truck vehicle, welding makes significant contributions to the global quality and sustainability of life. Welding technologies, whether conventional, or advanced techniques, and welding specialists are thus vital elements to improved quality of life for all. Welding is an extremely important component of many industries in Finland, and worldwide. The welding research at Aalto contributes with top know-how, experimental testing, and modelling on fusion, brazing and solid-state welding techniques.

Friction-based processing of materials is one of the fields of world excellence at the AM2 research group. This topic includes established techniques, such as Friction Stir Welding (FSW), applied to similar and dissimilar materials, and Friction Surfacing (FS), a solution for thick coating and additive manufacturing. The viscoplasticity processing domain of materials has been used as an innovation platform for new advanced solutions, patented by Aalto University, for high value applications, such as Hybrid Channeling (HC) for simultaneous channeling and welding of optimised multi-material components; Friction Flash to Tube (F2T), enabling the production of seamless tubes, in open die condition, extracted from the flash continuously produced during the plunging of a consumable rod against a non-consumable rigid anvil; and Through-Hole Extruded Welding (THEW), for lightweight components made of metal and polymer-based materials.

Research and weldability analysis is supported by digital testing systems with integrated condition monitoring. Analytical and numerical modelling (e.g. with Abaqus and Sysweld) validated by monitoring of parameters and thermal fields. These research conditions and methods assist in the development of optimized tooling, based on mass and heat flow, as well as joining mechanisms. Microstructural analysis, mechanical testing with DIC and residual stress measurements are engineering methods applied to the investigation of the materials processed by conventional and new friction-based solutions.

Key personnel

• Professor Pedro Vilaça