DRDO-Industry-Academia Centre of Excellence at IIT Hyderabad demonstrates Large Area Additive Manufacturing System

A groundbreaking breakthrough has been achieved in DRDO-Industry-Academia Centre of Excellence (DIA-CoE) at IIT Hyderabad in the area of Large Area Additive Manufacturing (LAAM) System. The collaborative efforts between IIT Hyderabad, DRDO’s Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad and industry partners have significantly contributed to the achievement for overall growth of additive manufacturing in the country. The application demonstration of the LAAM System is based on Powder based Directed Energy Deposition technology for Fabrication of Rocket Components.

The indigenously designed machine has a build volume of 1m x 1m x 3m, which makes it one of the largest metal additive manufacturing machines in India. The process is based on Laser and Blown-Powder based Direct Energy Deposition technology and employs dual heads for thermal balancing and speed.

Recently, a significant milestone has been achieved in the fabrication of a component that is one meter in height, bringing it into the large size league in the process of creating large-sized components using additive manufacturing.

Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO Dr Samir V Kamat congratulated DIA-CoE, IIT Hyderabad for the design and development and demonstration of LAAM System. This will open up new possibilities for large-scale production of metal parts, paving the way for growth and innovation in the area of additive manufacturing in the country, he said.