New powder feedstocks for laser-based additive manufacturing – DFG Priority Program 2122

Lasers in production are becoming increasingly powerful and brilliant; however, the mate-rials currently available often fall far short of meeting modern manufacturing demands. In additive manufacturing (AM), metal powders originally developed over 60 years ago for thermal spraying—a fundamentally different process—are still widely used. When applied in today’s laser-based AM processes, these powders lead to process instabilities, porosity, and defects in the final parts. For polymer powders, the lack of a broad material and per-formance portfolio further limits technological advancement. To fully leverage laser-based additive manufacturing—which will remain essential in the future due to its high throughput and precision—a paradigm shift in feedstock design is required. This calls for a fundamental research approach that begins at the very start of the process chain: the powder material itself. Driven by the need for deeper mechanistic in-sight and novel material concepts for laser-based additive manufacturing, leading re-searchers across Germany established the Priority Programme SPP 2122 “MATframe”, supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Since 2018, more than 25 re-search groups and international Mercator Fellows have been collaborating in interdiscipli-nary tandem projects, linking material development with laser processing research. The programme addresses cross-material scientific questions focused on photon-driven, pow-der-based AM and has executed the first large-scale interlaboratory study (ILS) on pow-der bed fusion with integrated research data management. This article introduces the inter-disciplinary research approach and selected outcomes of MATframe, addressing the im-portance of systematic material development for the future of AM.