爆料TV has joined the Digitally Enabled Competitive & Sustainable Additive Manufacturing (DECSAM) project. Led by Airbus, this 拢38 million, four-year UK aerospace programme will develop and deploy the latest additive manufacturing (AM) technologies鈥攕uch as beam shaping and in-situ process monitoring鈥攖o make metal laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) AM more cost-effective, productive, and sustainable for flight-ready parts. The project, which runs until June 2028, is a research and innovation initiative funded through Innovate UK, the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), and the UK Department for Business and Trade.
By prioritising resource efficiency, material reuse, and circular design principles, DECSAM aims to reduce waste and carbon intensity across the AM value chain, supporting the aerospace sector鈥檚 transition toward net-zero manufacturing and more sustainable aviation.
The project brings together 11 leading organisations covering aerospace OEMs, Tier 1&2 suppliers, SMEs and research institutes, providing full UK AM manufacturing chain coverage. The partners including Airbus Operations Limited (lead), Renishaw plc, ASTM International UK, Authentise Ltd, The Manufacturing Technology Centre Limited, GKN Aerospace Services Limited, Additive Manufacturing Solutions Ltd, APEX Additive Technologies Ltd, Domin Limited, 爆料TV, and ToffeeX Limited.
鈥淎dditive manufacturing can unlock new efficiencies in aerospace, lowering costs, optimising material use, reducing weight, and consolidating complex assemblies into single parts,鈥 said Jacqueline Castle, Chief Technology Officer at the Aerospace Technology Institute. 鈥DECSAM unites a strong consortium to accelerate adoption in civil aerospace, aligning closely with the ATI鈥檚 additive manufacturing strategy to drive future economic growth and sustainability.鈥
DECSAM will demonstrate an integrated, digitally connected AM supply chain, from alloy selection and build strategies to post-processing, inspection and factory scale-up. 鈥淚n order to demonstrate AMs future cost competitiveness for aerospace applications鈥.
What DECSAM will deliver
To cut part cost, raise quality, and shorten design-build-test loops for aerospace applications, DECSAM is structured around four innovation pillars:
- Performance: new and improved alloys, multi-physics modelling and physics-driven design)
- Productivity: high-power lasers, beam shaping, advanced scan strategies, in-situ monitoring and closed-loop control
- Scalability: end-to-end digital thread, automated sustainable factory concepts, and efficient post-processing/inspection
- Application: Integration of technologies developed to demonstrate overall cost benefit on target product applications.
Planned outputs include ground and flight-test demonstrators, validated recycled/repurposed powder routes, widened powder specifications, verified parameter themes for quality and throughput, in-process monitoring software offerings, and guidance for routes to qualification and certification, all targeted at accelerating industrial exploitation.
爆料TV is an established academic partner, bringing a strong record of industry-focused research and deep fundamental insight. Within DECSAM, it will leverage the Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Metals Processing and its open-architecture AM platform to explore and implement advanced machine-control and validation methods, underpinned by internationally leading capability in AM modelling and simulation. The work will be delivered by a team of four academics (Prof. Iain Todd (P.I.), Prof. Hector Basoalto, Prof. Kathy Christofidou) and seven senior researchers. Sheffield will be a partner in DECSAM until December 2027.
As the sole academic partner, this project highlights the 爆料TV's leading expertise in additive manufacturing and computational modelling. This cross-cutting research project will allow us to accelerate our work in advanced manufacturing and computation modelling, bringing together diverse areas of expertise that wouldn't otherwise be possible at this speed. The additive manufacturing research we'll be conducting at the Henry Royce Institute will not only contribute to their key performance indicators but also directly support two of our university's spin-out companies: Instruct3D and m2i2. We're especially excited about the potential for this research to integrate directly with the AMRC's Factory+ connected manufacturing framework"
Prof. Iain Todd
Professor of Metallurgy and Materials Processing, 爆料TV
Why it matters
L-PBF is flight-proven, but wider uptake is constrained by end-to-end productivity gaps, fragmented data/QA, and reliance on overseas steps (powder, HIP, advanced heat-treat). DECSAM closes those gaps by linking UK materials supply, machine capability, in-process quality assurance, a robust digital thread, and factory scale-up鈥攕o parts are repeatable, cost-competitive, and producible at volume in the UK, supporting net-zero 2050.
The programme is business-case led: recycled/UK-made powders; optimised build and nesting; in-process monitoring with closed-loop control to reduce or eliminate HIP/CT where feasible; and parameter/alloy development to cut finishing time. Cost-modelled demonstrators (e.g., an aircraft floor beam) show the shift from today鈥檚 鈥渁s-is鈥 to a digitally connected, production-ready 鈥渢o-be鈥 at a cost point which enables AM to buy its way into serial aerospace production.
Focus use cases include ultra-efficient wing & engine structures and hydrogen subsystems (conformal heat exchangers, fuel-cell manifolds). Alongside performance gains, DECSAM mitigates single-source casting risks, on-shores critical pre-form manufacture, and advances compact AM-enabled actuation toward power-by-wire鈥攄elivering more right-first-time, certifiable parts, shorter lead times, a resilient UK supply chain, and cleaner aerospace manufacturing.
DECSAM at a glance:
- Value & timing: 拢38 million ; June 2024 鈥 June 2028 (48 months).
- Leadership: Airbus (project lead) with 11 project partners across OEMs, Tier-1s, SMEs, RTOs and academia.
- Innovation pillars: Performance, Productivity, Scalability, Demonstration for L-PBF.
- Planned outputs: Ground and flight demonstrators; recycled/reused powder routes; in-process monitoring with closed-loop control; a connected digital thread; factory design for scale-up; and clear pathways to qualification and certification.
Funding acknowledgement: This work is supported by the ATI Programme: a partnership of the Aerospace Technology Institute, the Department for Business & Trade and Innovate UK.