Over a period of just twelve months, Switzerland’s Oerlikon Corporation AG has made a major move into the world of Additive Manufacturing. Through a combination of acquisitions and new facility investments, the company has established itself as a leading international developer of both AM materials and components, offering its customers the complete process chain, from new alloy development to component post-processing and testing. Metal AM magazine’s Nick Williams reviews the company’s progress to-date [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 4, Winter 2017]
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More than 600 international metal AM professionals gathered in October for the 1st Munich Technology Conference. Organised and sponsored by Oerlikon, the aim of this unique event was to provide a dedicated platform for the discussion and sharing of best practices in AM production and applications, along with the business models needed to drive the industrialisation of AM. We invited Prof Dr-Ing Michael Zäh, Chair of Machine Tools and Production Technology at the Technical University of Munich, to consider the status of metal AM as revealed over the event’s two days of presentations and discussions [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 4, Winter 2017]
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A technical session at the Euro PM2017 conference, held in Milan, Italy, October 1-5, 2017, investigated three different concepts in processes that combine metal Additive Manufacturing with Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP). In the following report, Dr David Whittaker reviews three papers that consider the use of SLM for the manufacture of HIP capsules, HIP as a final densification process in AM, and finally HIP as a process to join EBM processed components into larger structures [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 4, Winter 2017]
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Making the investment in a metal Additive Manufacturing machine is, for many, the first step on a journey to truly understanding how the technology can transform a business. There are, however, many considerations when planning such an investment; from essential ancillary equipment and devices, such as sieving stations, to facility changes, software and support. In this exclusive report, Terry Wohlers and Olaf Diegel highlight some of the commonly overlooked costs and considerations when making the move to establish an in-house AM capability [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 4, Winter 2017]
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In recent years much effort has been put into developing powders that are optimised for AM processes. As a result, a far greater understanding of the complex requirements for powders now exists. Particle size is widely recognised as a key property, but there is also an appreciation that particle shape has an important role to play. As Malvern Panalytical’s Debbie Huck-Jones and Cathryn Langley, explain, finer particles are advantageous from the perspective of packing behaviour, but are typically associated with poor flowability, compromising processing efficiency. Controlling particle shape can help to alleviate this problem [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 4, Winter 2017]
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In addition to the parallel Metal Powder Industries Federation’s AMPM2017 conference, the programme for the POWDERMET2017 International Conference on Powder Metallurgy & Particulate Materials, Las Vegas, June 13-16, 2017, included technical sessions on AM. Two of these sessions were devoted to powder production methods for AM feedstocks and this report from Dr David Whittaker reviews three selected papers in this subject category [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 4, Winter 2017]
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Over the past decade Honeywell has been a leader in accelerating the adoption of metal Additive Manufacturing in the aerospace industry. With dedicated facilities in five countries, the company is at the forefront of the development of new commercial aerospace applications and the supply chain needed to implement series production. Dr Dhruv Bhate, Associate Professor in the Polytechnic School at Arizona State University, visited Honeywell’s Phoenix facility on behalf of Metal AM magazine and met with Donald Godfrey, an Engineering Fellow at Honeywell and the person most credited with initiating and directing the company’s progress in the field of metal AM [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 3, Autumn 2017]
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From June 20-22, 2017, the German city of Erfurt became a centre of gravity for Additive Manufacturing, hosting the annual RapidTech technical conference and its accompanying trade exhibition, FabCon 3D. Dr Georg Schlieper visited the event for Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine and highlights a number of innovative trends in metal Additive Manufacturing process technology and applications, including the latest binder-based Additive Manufacturing technologies and innovations in toolmaking [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 3, Autumn 2017]
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Paying the right amount of attention to Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) can make the difference between economic success and failure. When considering Additive Manufacturing for production applications, it is important to consider designing, or redesigning, parts that would otherwise be produced using conventional manufacturing. In this case study, Terry Wohlers and Professor Olaf Diegel, both of Wohlers Associates, reveal how industrial mining machine manufacturer Atlas Copco has used DfAM to increase the value of a hydraulic manifold [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 3, Autumn 2017]
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Additive Manufacturing presents the opportunity to completely rethink a product’s design, transforming its functionality and reducing manufacturing complexity. With the right application and the right approach, the results really can live up to industry buzzwords such as ‘disruptive’ and ‘transformational’. In the following article, Optisys LLC reveals how, through intelligent design optimisation, the company has used Additive Manufacturing to develop the next generation of RF antenna systems for aerospace and defence [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 3, Autumn 2017]
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An issue of significant current interest to the AM world, which can potentially impact both the quality and cost-effectiveness of built parts, is whether there is a limit on the number of times that metal powders can be cycled around an AM process. In this article, Dr David Whittaker reviews three presentations on the topic from AMPM2017, the fourth annual Additive Manufacturing with Powder Metallurgy Conference, held in Las Vegas, USA, June 13-15, 2017 [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 3, Autumn 2017]
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The global tyre industry and its supply chain met in Hannover, Germany, from February 14-16 for the Tire Technology Expo 2017. This exhibition and accompanying technical conference was held at the Hannover Messe for the second time and attracted 280 exhibitors and close to 5000 international visitors. Dr Georg Schlieper visited the exhibition on behalf of Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine and reports on the growing use of Additive Manufacturing in the tyre industry [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 2, Summer 2017]
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