ADVANCES OF THE METAL ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING IN THE FIELD OF PARTICLE ACCELERATORS

This paper presents the main results of the comprehenisve research which has been carried out in the framework of I.FAST project, in particular the output results of a community survey "Additive Manufacturing – survey of applications and potential developments" are discussed. An indicative inventory of the additive manufacturing (AM) applications in particle accelerators is provided, without ambition to cover all its entireness. The main needs for the accelerator community and perspective developments aimed at increasing confidence and awareness about opportunities and limitations offered by the AM technology are discussed. It is concluded that the particle-accelerator community apparently feels the lack of knowledge about specific topics which represent the next challenges to be faced in a near future. These include: materials, with their strict requirements on purity, lack of defects and well known properties; size, geometrical accuracy and surface roughness of the printed parts; other peculiar part properties such as vacuum tightness, outgassing rate, electrical conductivity, high-voltage holding. Furthermore paper includes an summary of the opportunities of AM for accelerators in particle physics and the expected technology transfer to other industrial fields of societal importance. Finally, perspective developments are discussed, highlighting the expected innovations which will become available in the near future on the market, with the hope of stimulating a shift of AM components for accelerators from the prototyping to the production stage.