en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Italian ToZero project has completed its final review, confirming that aluminum scrap from automotive body-in-white (BiW) can be used in the Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) process. The full name of the project is "Towards Zero Waste in Aluminum BiW Manufacturing," funded by Italy's "Innovation Agreement" program, with participants including Valland, Politecnico di Torino, Politecnico di Bari, and the Fontana Group.

Valland was responsible for the additive manufacturing segment, developing LB-PBF process parameters for recycled AA5083 powder and printing a structural connection node for an automotive body, named "Voletto," as a validation part.

The recycled alloy exhibited no hot cracking during the printing process, and its mechanical properties and ductility met the project's preset targets. Topology optimization aimed to reduce the validation part's mass from 1.68 kg to a target of 0.8 kg. A life cycle analysis conducted in accordance with ISO 14040/44 standards found that process optimization reduced the carbon footprint of this component by approximately 73%.

The project also found that the printing speed of recycled AA5083 was significantly lower than that of commercial AlSi10Mg. In the project summary, Valland publicly highlighted this gap, stating that the balance between material quality and productivity is a practical issue that must be addressed before industrial deployment.