The DIAMETER Consortium Gathers in Aachen: A Snapshot of Year One and the Road Ahead
The DIAMETER Consortium Gathers in Aachen: A Snapshot of Year One and the Road Ahead -
Aachen, Germany · 25–26 February 2026
In the heart of a city long associated with engineering excellence and European cooperation, the DIAMETER consortium recently met in Aachen for its second General Assembly. The meeting was hosted by ModuleWorks — the Aachen-based CAD/CAM software company and consortium partner — and brought together representatives from all 16 partner organisations for two days of technical reviews, hands-on demonstrations, and forward-looking discussions.
A Project in Full Stride
DIAMETER is now in the second year of its 48-month lifecycle. Funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe programme (Grant Agreement 101177422), the project unites academia, research institutes, and industrial partners from across Europe and Australia with a shared ambition: to demonstrate that additive manufacturing technologies can anchor a truly circular approach to metal production, from material input to Digital Product Passport (DPP) integration.
The Aachen assembly provided the ideal moment to take stock of Year One — a period defined, above all, by building the foundations: establishing experimental protocols, setting up digital infrastructure, and defining the data standards that will underpin everything to come.
Work Package 1: Manufacturing Campaigns Taking Shape
The most tangible technical progress on display came from Work Package 1, which is building the experimental dataset at the core of the project. Across five pilot use cases — each involving a different additive manufacturing technology, material, and industrial application — partners have been designing, printing, and characterising parts that will feed into the lifecycle assessment and digital modelling work downstream.
ValCUN presented results from the Molten Metal Deposition (MMD) process, working on a catalytic converter geometry in a novel alloy configuration. KTH Royal Institute of Technology shared updates on Electron Beam Melting (EBM) of copper components, including energy measurement models developed specifically for this process. TTS described their work with Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) on industrial valve components in super-duplex steel, while AMRC (University of Sheffield) reported on Additive Friction Stir Deposition (AFSD) — a solid-state process particularly suited to large aluminium structural parts for aerospace applications. Fraunhofer IWU and Valland rounded out the picture with Laser Directed Energy Deposition (DED) applied to turbine blade geometries in Inconel 718.
Across all five use cases, the emphasis was on rigorous data collection: energy consumption, process parameters, mechanical properties, microstructure, and geometric accuracy. This data will flow into Work Package 2 and the project's LCA/LCC models — and eventually into the DIAgonal decision-support platform being developed by the consortium.
A notable highlight was the live machining demonstration that took place during the facility tour at Fraunhofer IPT, where participants witnessed the high-performance cutting of turbine blade components — a vivid illustration of the hybrid manufacturing paradigm that DIAMETER aims to characterise and optimise.
Work Package 7: Building the Framework for Circular Strategy
Day two included dedicated workshop sessions on Work Package 7, led by KTH. This work package addresses the strategic and methodological dimension of the project: developing the frameworks, indicators, and decision-support tools that will allow manufacturers to evaluate and act on the circularity potential of their processes.
The discussions were both technical and conceptual — touching on how to define meaningful metrics for circular manufacturing systems, how to account for the full material and energy lifecycle, and how to position the project's outputs in relation to existing European policy frameworks on sustainability and green manufacturing.
DIAdemia: The e-Learning Platform Is Live
For the DIAMETER communication and education team (OC Group, leading WP6 and WP5.1), the Aachen meeting was also an opportunity to present a significant milestone: the DIAdemia e-learning platform is fully operational, and its first bundle of modules is complete.
Built on the ILIAS open-source LMS — a European platform aligned with the project's commitment to open-access research infrastructure — DIAdemia currently hosts introductory content covering the DIAMETER project itself, key concepts in circular economy and Digital Product Passports, and hands-on technology modules for each of the five AM processes in the project. The module on AFSD was recorded on-site at AMRC in Sheffield; the module for MMD was produced directly at the Aachen meeting, capturing the machine and process in action.
A forward-looking aspect of the platform's design is its planned integration with the DIAgonal software environment. The architecture of DIAdemia has been conceived from the outset to support not only standalone training, but also contextual help embedded within the DIAgonal interface — so that users navigating the decision-support tools will be able to access relevant learning content directly in context. This integration layer will be developed during the project's second year, once the DIAgonal platform itself reaches a stage where such linkage becomes practical.
The platform is also search-engine optimised, meaning that publicly available content will be discoverable via standard web searches — extending the project's reach well beyond the consortium.
Communication and Dissemination: Building Visibility with Results
The GA included a structured review of communication and dissemination activities under WP6. With Year One focused on infrastructure and content foundations, the team is now turning its attention to external visibility — guided by the principle that communication should be grounded in concrete results rather than early-stage promises.
Video interviews documenting each pilot use case are being produced and will be published across the project's channels by September. The first interview, covering ValCUN's MMD process, was already completed before the Aachen meeting; additional recordings took place on-site during the GA. These short-form case study videos are designed to be accessible to both technical and non-specialist audiences, and will feature on both DIAdemia and the project's LinkedIn channel.
On the events front, the consortium confirmed its intention to participate in at least two major industry events during the second year of the project. These appearances will be the natural stage for DIAMETER to present its integrated approach — combining advanced manufacturing processes, lifecycle data, and digital tools — to an industry audience. Details will be announced as plans are confirmed.
RMIT University confirmed that an Australian seminar series is underway, extending the project's reach to the Oceanian research and industry community. SU reported active engagement with international conferences and industrial visits, and several partners are preparing their first peer-reviewed contributions for submission in the coming months.
A Constructive Dialogue with the Project Officer
The General Assembly also included a check-in session with the European Commission project officer responsible for monitoring DIAMETER's progress. The exchange was collegial and constructive, focusing on the project's trajectory as it approaches the Month 18 milestone — the first formal review point.
The review meeting is expected to take place in May or June 2025. It will be an opportunity for the consortium to demonstrate the progress made in Year One and to outline the technical results expected as experimental campaigns conclude over the coming months.
Looking Ahead: From Data to Demonstration
As DIAMETER moves deeper into its second year, the focus shifts from building experimental infrastructure to generating and interpreting results. Characterisation campaigns for all five pilot use cases are converging; the LCA and LCC models in WP2 will begin processing real process data; the DIAgonal platform will increasingly take shape; and the DIAdemia course content will expand to include case studies and technology demonstrations.
The Aachen General Assembly confirmed what the consortium has known since the beginning: this is a project that works best when its parts are tightly connected. The same data that flows from a print run in Sheffield or Stockholm feeds into models in Istanbul, tools in Aachen, and content on a platform hosted in Forlì. That integration — technical, organisational, and human — is what gives DIAMETER its depth.
We look forward to sharing more as the results come in.