Led by Airbus, the DECSAM project is a landmark £38 million, four-year UK aerospace research and development programme. Its primary mission is to advance the cost-effectiveness, productivity, and sustainability of metal laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) for manufacturing flight-ready components. Funded through Innovate UK, the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), and the Department for Business and Trade, this initiative unites a consortium of 11 organisations, including OEMs, suppliers, SMEs, and research institutes, to create a fully integrated, UK-based additive manufacturing supply chain.
DECSAM is strategically structured around four key innovation pillars to overcome the barriers limiting wider industrial adoption of L-PBF. The focus areas are performance (developing new alloys and advanced modelling), productivity (implementing high-power lasers, beam shaping, and in-situ monitoring), scalability (establishing an end-to-end digital thread and automated factory concepts), and Application (demonstrating overall cost benefits on specific aerospace parts).
The programme will deliver tangible outputs designed to accelerate industrial exploitation. Planned results include ground and flight-test demonstrators, validated routes for recycled and repurposed metal powder, and verified parameter sets to ensure quality and throughput. A critical output is the development of in-situ process monitoring with closed-loop control, which aims to enhance quality assurance and reduce the need for costly post-process inspections. Furthermore, the project will provide clear guidance for qualification and certification, essential for serial production in the stringent aerospace sector.
For partners like GKN Aerospace, a risk-sharing partner on major aero-engines, DECSAM is a vital platform to integrate multiple developed technologies. GKN will lead efforts on new material systems, part-based simulation, and productivity studies to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of powder bed additive manufacturing for future engine products. This strengthens the UK’s technology base and positions the nation for future production growth.
Ultimately, DECSAM matters because it directly addresses the challenges of end-to-end productivity, fragmented data, and reliance on overseas supply chain steps. By closing these gaps, the project aims to make AM parts repeatable, cost-competitive, and producible at volume within the UK. This supports the aerospace sector’s transition toward net-zero manufacturing by 2050 through resource efficiency, material reuse, and circular design principles. The business-case-led approach, demonstrated on use cases like aircraft floor beams and hydrogen subsystems, will prove a digitally connected, production-ready “to-be” state, enabling L-PBF to buy its way into serial aerospace production and create a more resilient, sustainable UK supply chain.
