VITAL — sustainable granulate-based foam additive manufacturing.

VITAL brought together bio-based thermoplastics, granulate-fed additive manufacturing, foaming technologies and digital process development within a European research programme focused on more sustainable polymer value chains.

The work addressed not only material formulation, but how those materials could be processed repeatably in manufacturing routes that reduce material use and support new lightweight structures.

AM Technologies by Brinter contributed granulate-based additive manufacturing and system integration for the project's 3D foam-printing value chain.

The development connected pellet and granulate feeding, gas-assisted foaming, extrusion behaviour, machine integration and process data so material and equipment development could be evaluated as one manufacturing system.

The project linked physical process development with CFD modelling and data-driven approaches to better understand foam extrusion behaviour and support more controlled parameter selection.

VITAL is an important bridge in Brinter's industrial technology history from early granulate processing toward digitally supported, resource-efficient additive manufacturing.