ADMS Industry Applications Overview

 Application overview

Industry / Application	Core challenge	What ADMS delivers	Validated materials
Aerospace lightweighting	Mass reduction without strength penalty. Self-supporting geometry for AM.	Up to 84% mass reduction (GE Bracket baseline). 49% total cost saving vs. AM winner. Passes vibration certification (ESA OSIP, <5% deviation sim to test).	AlSi10Mg, Ti-6Al-4V
Crash and impact absorption	Maximum energy absorption at minimum mass. Progressive failure, no brittle collapse.	210 to 230% specific energy absorption vs. solid metal. 45 to 50% of the mass required for equal impact protection vs. solid. +26.5% SEA vs. gyroid at equal density.	Ti-6Al-4V
Heat exchangers and thermal management	Pressure drop, size, and multifunctional structural integration.	More than 20% lower pressure drop vs. gyroid at equal thermal performance. Up to 3x size reduction vs. conventional plate heat exchangers. 40 to 85% mass reduction.	Metals, polymers, ceramics, composites
Footwear and wearables	Tunable stiffness gradient. Comfort-to-support transition. Rapid design cycles.	10x faster mold design. 49% cost savings and 70% time reduction (framas). Self-supporting geometry eliminates mold support structures in SLS.	PA11, polymers
Biomedical and implants	Trabecular-like geometry for osseointegration. No closed pockets. Biocompatible surface.	Open labyrinth structure enables bone ingrowth. Density gradient mimics trabecular bone variation. No trapped resin or powder after printing.	Ti-6Al-4V Grade II
Defence and drones	Lightweighting under real-world multi-directional loads. Shock resistance.	Drone manufacturing: ADMS structural fill reduces mass while maintaining stiffness under flight loads. Shock and impact absorption for protection applications.	AlSi10Mg, Ti-6Al-4V
Architecture and design	Large-scale structural forms with internal geometry. Visual and structural in one part.	Surface-conformal geometry adapts to any envelope shape. Produces architecturally expressive forms without sacrificing structural function.	Polymers, composites
Interior DFAM optimisation	Cost and carbon reduction vs. CNC machining of interior structural parts.	65% carbon footprint reduction vs. CNC baseline (FCRC bracket). 92% of CNC cost despite AM process. Zero material waste from self-supporting geometry.	AlSi10Mg, Ti

 

The challenge

Aerospace structures carry strict mass budgets, certification requirements, and cost pressures from machining or complex AM support structures. Every gram removed from a launch vehicle or aircraft component has a compounding impact on fuel cost, payload capacity, and lifecycle emissions.

How ADMS helps

ADMS fills structural volumes with a near-isotropic minimal surface that is self-supporting in all major AM processes. There are no strut-to-strut stress concentrations, no brittle collapse mechanisms, and no enclosed pockets that trap powder. Design cycles are shortened significantly because the internal geometry is generated automatically from the envelope, rather than manually laid out.

Demonstrated results

• GE Bracket Challenge: ADMS solution vs. the global competition winner: -58% support volume, -64% engineering time, -80% post-processing time, 49% total cost saving (CHF 9,250 to CHF 4,685). Print mass reduction vs. winner is 7%.
• ESA OSIP study (Contract 4000132632/20/NL/GLC, 2022): Spherene AG was contracted by ESA to validate ADMS on a 3-legged satellite bracket in AlSi10Mg via L-PBF. Vibration test results: less than 5% deviation between simulated and measured natural frequencies across all modes. Low residual stress, no warpage.
• FCRC bracket: 65% carbon footprint reduction vs. CNC-milled aluminium baseline. 43% of the energy consumption of the CNC part. 92% of the CNC cost despite using an AM process.
• ESA Nebula Study: ADMS delivers 210 to 230% specific energy absorption compared to solid metal, requiring only 45 to 50% of the mass to achieve equivalent impact protection.

 

The challenge

Crash and impact structures need to absorb maximum energy per unit mass, fail progressively rather than catastrophically, and perform consistently across loading directions and strain rates.

How ADMS helps

The continuous surface-to-surface load transfer in ADMS distributes stress across the full geometry rather than concentrating it at strut nodes. This produces a progressive layer-by-layer collapse rather than sudden brittle failure. Density grading alone, without changing total mass or material, shifts the collapse mode from simultaneous to progressive, increasing energy management predictability.

Demonstrated results

Architecture	Energy absorbed per unit mass	Mass required for equal protection
Solid metal	100% (baseline)	100% (baseline)
Honeycomb	~135%	~75%
Gyroid	~160%	~65%
Lattice	~170%	~60%
ADMS (Spherene)	~210 to 230%	~45 to 50%

Source: ESA Nebula Study, non-linear impact and dynamic load simulation on identical bracket geometry.

In direct comparison with gyroid at equal density: -23.8% initial peak stress (more progressive onset), +50% plateau strain (more deformation before densification), +26.5% specific energy absorption.

 

The challenge

Conventional plate heat exchangers are large, heavy, and limited in geometric complexity by machining or sheet metal manufacturing. Gyroid-based AM heat exchangers improve on this but have unbalanced labyrinth resistances and higher pressure drop than an optimised geometry.

How ADMS helps

SphereneHEX applies Flow ADMS, a geometry optimised specifically for fluid applications, to heat exchanger design. The two labyrinth channels are balanced for equal resistance, reducing the pressure difference between hot and cold circuits. The geometry is fully self-supporting, compatible with all metal AM processes, and simultaneously structural, vibration-damping, acoustic-absorbing, and thermally efficient in a single printed part.

Demonstrated results

• More than 20% lower pressure drop vs. an equivalent gyroid-filled heat exchanger at equal thermal performance.
• Up to 3x size reduction vs. a conventional plate heat exchanger.
• 40 to 85% mass reduction vs. conventional alternatives, depending on application.
• More uniform temperature distribution and higher specific surface area than alternatives.

Target industries for SphereneHEX

Oil and Gas, Chemical and Petrochemical, Power Generation, Automotive and Transportation, Industrial Manufacturing, Injection Molding, Marine, Food and Beverage Processing, Aerospace and Defence, Renewable Energy.

The challenge

Footwear midsoles and custom fit liners require spatially varying stiffness: firm under the heel for support, compliant under the forefoot for comfort. Traditional manufacturing cannot produce this gradient in a single part. Mold design for SLS-printed components has historically been time-consuming and support-volume intensive.

How ADMS helps

ADMS density gradients produce a smooth comfort-to-support transition across the footwear volume in a single computation. The self-supporting geometry eliminates support structures in SLS printing, reducing post-processing time and material waste. Design cycles that previously took weeks can be completed in hours.

Demonstrated results (framas, SLS in bio-based PA11)

• 49% total cost savings.
• 70% total time reduction.
• 10x faster mold design vs. traditional methods.
• -64% engineering time, -80% post-processing time.
• SLS process in bio-based PA11 (castor oil derivative): 70 to 90% powder reusability, no support structures required, near-isotropic mechanical properties.

 

The challenge

Bone scaffolds and implant structures need to mimic trabecular bone architecture for osseointegration, provide open porosity for vascularisation and bone ingrowth, and be manufacturable in biocompatible titanium without closed pockets that trap powder.

How ADMS helps

ADMS produces a trabecular-like open geometry with density gradients that can be tuned to match the mechanical gradient from cortical to trabecular bone. The two-labyrinth structure ensures there are no enclosed pockets: powder evacuates completely after printing, a mandatory requirement for implant manufacturing. The continuous surface geometry provides a large osseointegration surface area.

Key properties for biomedical use

• Open labyrinth: no closed pockets, complete powder evacuation post-print.
• Density gradient: locally adaptive density matches natural bone variation.
• Surface continuity: no sharp strut nodes that create stress concentrations or crack initiation sites.
• Compatible with Ti-6Al-4V Grade II (medical grade) via L-PBF.
  

The challenge

Architectural structures increasingly use additive manufacturing for complex node geometries, facade elements, and structural forms that integrate visual and structural function in one component. The geometry must be self-supporting to be manufacturable, and must adapt to irregular envelope shapes without manual internal geometry design.

How ADMS helps

The surface-conformal property of ADMS means it fills any envelope, however irregular, without the designer manually laying out the internal structure. The result is architecturally expressive geometry that is also structurally functional. Large-scale AM in polymers and composites makes this accessible for architectural installations.

 

The challenge

Interior structural components traditionally CNC-machined from solid aluminium or titanium carry high material waste, high machining energy, and limited geometric optimisation. Topology optimisation can improve mass, but post-machining of optimised AM parts remains costly and wasteful.

How ADMS helps

ADMS fills the part volume with only the material needed for structural performance. Self-supporting geometry eliminates almost all post-print support removal. The result is a part with significantly lower mass, energy consumption, and carbon footprint than either the CNC baseline or a topology-optimised AM approach.

Demonstrated results (FCRC bracket, Airbus internal structure component)

Metric	CNC milled (Al)	Topology optimised (Ti)	ADMS (Ti)
Total part mass	100%	84%	74%
Total energy use	100%	70%	43%
Carbon footprint	100%	60%	35%
Production cost	100%	197%	92%
Material waste (g)	1,656	127	10

 

What these applications have in common

Across all industries, ADMS addresses the same underlying challenge: creating complex internal geometry that is structurally optimal, manufacturable without supports, and faster to design than manually laid-out alternatives. The specific performance metric varies by application (mass, cost, energy absorption, pressure drop), but the mechanism is the same.

The validated case studies linked below give the full data for aerospace, footwear, and the GE bracket. For thermal applications, the SphereneHEX page covers the heat exchanger use case in detail.