FOCUS ON ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
material waste, energy consumption and transportation emissions, while also enabling the production of lightweight and complex parts that would be difficult or impossible to produce using traditional manufacturing methods. Metal AM technologies play an important role in improving the sustainability of a range of industries including the production of lightweight parts in aerospace, automotive and medical industries,” commented Cranfield University.
The defence sector has also become an important sales market for the AM process, which bridges the gap between agility in design versus scalability in manufacturing( silencers, drone technologies, spare part production, repairs in the field etc.).
“ In additive manufacturing, a complex design is often as easy to produce as a simple one. This means designers can use geometry, rather than bulk, to achieve structural strength with less weight. It’ s also ideal for components where complex inner shapes( curved channels, for instance) can provide new functionalities and efficiencies,” commented additive manufacturing specialist, Sandvik.
3D-printed parts.
Image: Protolabs.
The strengths of additive manufacturing lie in those areas where conventional manufacturing reaches its limitations. The technology is of interest where a new approach to design and manufacturing is required to come up with solutions. It enables
Laser sintering.
a design-driven manufacturing process, where design determines production and not the other way around.
AM processes in focus
The American Society for Testing and Materials( ASTM) group“ ASTM F42 – Additive Manufacturing” has formulated a set of standards that classify the range of Additive Manufacturing( AM) processes into seven distinct categories. These are listed below.
■ Vat Polymerisation: This process uses a vat of liquid photopolymer resin, out of which the model is constructed layer by layer.
■ Material Jetting: This process creates objects in a similar method to a twodimensional inkjet printer. Material is jetted onto a build platform using either a continuous or Drop on Demand( DOD) approach.
Image: Shutterstock. com.
■ Binder Jetting Process: This uses two materials; a powder based material and a binder. The binder is usually in liquid form and the build material in powder form. A print head moves horizontally along the x and y axes of the machine and deposits alternating layers of the build material and the binding material.
■ Material Extrusion: Fuse deposition modelling( FDM) is a common material extrusion process. Material is drawn through a nozzle, where it is heated and then deposited layer by layer. The nozzle can move horizontally and a platform moves up and down vertically after each new layer is deposited.
■ Powder Bed Fusion: This process includes the following commonly used printing techniques: Direct metal laser sintering( DMLS); electron beam melting( EBM); selective heat sintering( SHS); selective laser melting( SLM) and selective laser sintering( SLS).
■ Sheet Lamination: These processes include ultrasonic additive manufacturing( UAM) and laminated object manufacturing( LOM). The Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing process uses sheets or ribbons of metal, which are bound together using ultrasonic welding.
Part for AUDI.
Image: Druck.
■ Directed Energy Deposition( DED): This covers a range of terminology such as laser engineered net shaping; directed light fabrication; direct metal deposition; 3D laser cladding etc. It is a more complex printing process commonly used to repair or add additional material to existing components.
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