This then lowers hurdles and accelerates technology transfer.” Demonstrator part We help companies develop a framework to evaluate implementation options and investment required.

Companies who have an idea for a use case can come to us, and we will draw from our members, their technologies and expertise to figure out if this use case can be a business case. This is what the DLR Innovation Lab EmpowerAX is about. “It is helpful to find all relevant information and expertise bundled in one place. “Implementing a new technology poses various challenges for companies,” he notes. Titze explains that EmpowerAX works in cooperation with technology users and suppliers to develop and prepare the necessary expertise along the entire process chain for additive extrusion - spanning design and analysis, materials, printing equipment and services, testing and more. This is one of the reasons why we established EmpowerAX - to strengthen the accessibility of additive extrusion technologies for industry.” “However, it is not yet as widely established.

“Additive extrusion with short and continuous fiber reinforcement can be described as an extension of conventional 3D printing,” explains Maik Titze, responsible for additive manufacturing at the DLR Institute of Lightweight Systems (Braunschweig, Germany). As explained in the 2021 article, “ DLR launches EmpowerAX to industrialize continuous fiber 3D printing”, additive extrusion combines low-cost pelletized thermoplastic compounds - often with chopped fibers -and continuous fiber reinforcement to create multifunctional composite structures that avoid high tooling costs, improve production efficiency and enable new lightweight and load-optimized designs. Photo Credit: CW compilation of EmpowerAX images.ĮmpowerAX is an international and industry-diversified technology platform that seeks to improve industry’s accessibility to additive extrusion technologies and expertise. It has been developed and is being fabricated by 10 EmpowerAX members, led by DLR, and showcases the expertise and solutions available throughout the additive extrusion process chain. The EmpowerAX demonstrator part for additive functionalization will be exhibited at JEC 2023 is a double-curved carbon fiber/epoxy shell functionalized with 3D-printed PEI and PEEK ribs using chopped and continuous carbon fiber reinforcement.

Spaceclaim workbench