On June 12th, HP Inc. formally opened its new 3D Printing and Digital Manufacturing Center of Excellence at its campus in Barcelona, Spain. Metal AM magazine’s Emily-Jo Hopson attended the event and here reports on the 14,000 m2 facility’s opening and the company’s rapid rise in the world of Additive Manufacturing. She reveals how, whilst the company is not traditionally associated with equipment for industrial manufacturing, many of its core technologies directly lend themselves to a new generation of metal binder jetting systems. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 5 No. 2, Summer 2019]
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The broader industrial-scale use of powder bed-based metal Additive Manufacturing is resulting not only in improvements in process performance and material properties, but also in a growing scrutiny of the process by regulators, risk managers and legal departments. One key area of their focus is powder removal, the step in the production chain where there is perhaps the greatest risk to worker and plant safety as a result of dust exposure. Joseph Kowen reviews the current status of this topic and reports on how leading producers are addressing what is often described as the Achilles heel of metal AM [First published in Metal AM Vol. 5 No. 2, Summer 2019]
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Terms such as Industry 4.0, the Digital Thread and the Digital Twin have become familiar buzzwords in manufacturing, but many such terms barely make sense to IT experts, let alone AM professionals. In the crowded and jargon-heavy landscape of solutions for digitalisation, articulating future AM software trends can help offer clarity and confidence in IT investments and give insight into the data-driven future of manufacturing, believes Authentise’s Andre Wegner, who shares his vision of the route to developing an effective digital factory with Metal AM’s Emily-Jo Hopson. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 5 No. 2, Summer 2019]
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With the right training and experience, a design engineer can quickly make an informed decision on whether a production part might be suitable for Additive Manufacturing. For the rest of us, some basic rules can be applied to understand if a product is a good fit. Here, Ray Huff and Terry Wohlers outline six questions that should be asked before going down the AM route for series production, and present a selection of successful real-world application examples that illustrate the issues raised.
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Sweden’s VBN Components AB has successfully combined the design freedoms offered by Additive Manufacturing with innovative process and material developments to create a new generation of high-strength, carbide-rich tool materials. These unique, patented alloys are transforming tool and wear component performance across a range of applications, from gear cutting hobs to food processing and the mining sector. Isabelle Bodén reports on the company’s development and the unique properties of its products. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 5 No. 2, Summer 2019]
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Powder specifications vary significantly across the various metal Additive Manufacturing technologies. As Andrew Klein, Director of R&D at The ExOne Company, and Jamie Clayton, Operations Director at Freeman Technology explain, powders for binder jetting in particular have very specific process-related requirements. In the following article, the two offer their insight into the rapid assessment and qualification process for a new 316L stainless steel powder. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 5 No. 2, Summer 2019]
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The limited number of alloys currently commercially available for metal Additive Manufacturing is regarded as a key factor hindering the growth of the industry. In this article, Rosswag GmbH’s Daniel Beckers reports on a high-speed qualification process that the company has developed for new alloys, and that spans the complete AM process chain – from alloy atomisation to L-PBF process parameters, heat-treatment and mechanical testing [First published in Metal AM Vol. 5 No. 2, Summer 2019]
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With two decades of experience in part production using Additive Manufacturing technologies, 3T Additive Manufacturing Ltd, based in Newbury, UK, today enjoys a strong position as an international developer and supplier of cutting edge metal AM components. At a time of transition for the company, Metal AM magazine’s Nick Williams and Emily-Jo Hopson met with outgoing CEO Ian Halliday and his successor, Nigel Robinson, to discuss the evolution of the metal AM industry to date and the business’s plans for further expansion [First published in Metal AM Vol. 5 No. 1, Spring 2019]
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Australian expertise is today becoming much more commonplace on the international AM scene. From technology and materials suppliers to application developers, companies are growing on the back of world-class research and education facilities, and a business environment where innovation and international trade are rewarded. Combine this with an abundance of AM-relevant natural resources and, as Alex Kingsbury explains, an environment has been created in which AM is thriving. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 5 No. 1, Spring 2019]
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Additive Manufacturing is not a cheap production process. The software, machine time, materials and expertise required to make the most of the technology all come at a significant cost. The resulting financial pressures may give rise to the temptation to select a material on its price and view advanced topology optimisation as a luxury. As Jon Meyer, APWORKS, and John Barnes, The Barnes Group Advisors, demonstrate, the unique capabilities of AM mean that basing material choice on cost without considering the impact of material performance on the mass of the part is a false economy, limiting the competitiveness of AM and the potential of an application [First published in Metal AM Vol. 5 No. 1, Spring 2019]
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In the following article, UL LLC’s Balakrishnan V Nair discusses key safety issues in metal Additive Manufacturing, identifying some of the principal sources of risk associated with production operations and sharing safety concerns as encountered in UL’s work with metal AM clients globally. In addition, Nair highlights some of the benefits that many AM facilities have enjoyed as a result of the successful implementation of sound safety practices [First published in Metal AM Vol. 5 No. 1, Spring 2019]
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In a bid to better understand the impact of process parameters on material performance, the U.S. Navy turned to Senvol to develop data-driven machine learning software for Additive Manufacturing. As Zach Simkin and Annie Wang explain, such an approach allows the user to overcome the time and expense required by a conventional trial-and-error process, whilst delivering remarkably accurate results that have the potential to accelerate application development [First published in Metal AM Vol. 5 No. 1, Spring 2019]
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