With seven structural titanium parts flying on every Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a Master Supply Agreement with Airbus for the A350, and projects with the likes of Northrop Grumman and General Atomics, Norsk Titanium is setting the pace when it comes to the production of airframe components by Additive Manufacturing. By using wire instead of powder and its own proprietary version of the Directed Energy Deposition (DED) process, the company combines high deposition rates with aerospace-grade materials properties. Martin McMahon visited the company on behalf of Metal AM magazine.
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For many decades, North America’s Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF) has organised its PM Design Excellence Awards competition in order to showcase the capabilities of the Powder Metallurgy industry. With the growing commercial success of metal powder-based Additive Manufacturing, the competition is seeing an ever larger number of entrants from this sector. Award-winning parts in this year’s competition include parts not only produced by Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion, but also a wide range of innovative sinter-based AM processes.
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The metal Additive Manufacturing industry has significantly increased machine productivity in recent years. In the case of Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion
(PBF-LB), efforts have primarily focused on what happens inside the build chamber. Here, Sebastian Becker, Head of Product Management Metal, EOS GmbH, reports on how, with Grenzebach Maschinenbau GmbH and Volkmann GmbH, the company is looking outside of the build chamber. Thanks to automation, machine time utilisation can be taken from an estimated 60% to nearer 90% through rapid automated build box exchange and fully automated powder removal and recycling.
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The very existence of BMW Group’s state-of-the-art Additive Manufacturing Campus, located close to Munich, speaks volumes about the potential of AM technology in the automotive industry. In April, Metal AM magazine’s Technical Consultant, Martin McMahon, and Managing Editor, Nick Williams, had the opportunity to visit the campus. As is revealed here, they discovered an operation that not only functions as an application development centre and centralised location for the BMW Group’s AM expertise, but also operates as a model AM factory built around the concepts of productivity and automation.
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The frenzy of media attention surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) dwarfs the past hype surrounding Additive Manufacturing (AM). Whether you look to the future with fear or excitement, there is no escaping the wave of change that is coming. Whilst we once again hear words like ‘revolution’ being used – to which so many have become immune – Dr Omar Fergani believes that we are now at a crucial point of convergence for AM and AI. Here, he explains why AM is in an especially strong position to leverage the potential of AI, with the power to transform many areas of our industry, from part design to machine operation, quality management and beyond.
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In the digital world of Additive Manufacturing, just how cybersecure are your operations and your customers’ critical parts? A survey of AM producers has suggested that the answer is probably not secure enough. In this article, Auburn University’s Prof Mark Yampolskiy, and industry analyst Joseph Kowen, present a high-altitude overview of the security threats facing those in the AM community. Cybersecurity, they suggest, should be considered as no less important than metallurgy or ‘Design for AM’ and, with the development of AM-specific standards and third-party security solutions, it need not be an overwhelming task.
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The growth of metal Additive Manufacturing has been held back, believes Oqton’s Dr Ben Schrauwen, by a specific set of challenges: repeatability, cost, and the need for a high level of expertise. This article considers how next-generation software solutions that leverage Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, and hybrid modelling are improving metal AM workflows. By addressing all three challenges, Schrauwen believes that metal AM can achieve faster and deeper adoption, leading to a more efficient and innovative future.
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Additive Manufacturing offers the opportunity to transform industrial production. Currently, however, AM components are typically produced in only one material, which in many cases does not allow for full performance utilisation. In this article, Xiaoshuang Li and Arthur Seibel describe, through a heat sink case study, how multi-material design and manufacturing can increase component performance as well as integrate additional functionalities when using the Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) process.
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Three years ago, Metal AM magazine published a widely read article on the use of Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) technology for precious metal jewellery production. Today, the continuing rise of sinter-based AM technologies promises to open up the jewellery sector yet further, with new opportunities for both mass-market production as well as bespoke pieces. Chiara Armbruster, Sonja Kappler, Carlo Burkhardt, Gerald Mitteramskogler and Apollinaria Frydmann offer an overview of this new generation of solutions and the state of the technology. A number of application examples are also presented.
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Additive Manufacturing processes offer a high degree of design freedom. The Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion of metals (PBF-LB/M), in particular, has established itself for series applications of complex-shaped parts in numerous industries. In this article, Prof Dr-Ing Christian Seidel considers the next major step in PBF-LB, which could offer designers unknown potential: the production of sensor-integrated AM parts. Methods and solutions for the manufacturing of sensor-integrated AM parts are presented and industry-relevant case studies showcased, illustrating the potential offered by sensor-integrated ‘smart parts.’
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In the men’s track cycling team pursuit qualifying at the 2020 Olympics, broadcast live to a global audience, a handlebar part produced by metal Additive Manufacturing failed with catastrophic consequences for the rider, Australia’s Alex Porter. Six months later, a forensic analysis of the incident was published as a 170-page report. The good news is that the company that made the AM part, along with the technology itself, were cleared of blame. So: what went wrong, and what lessons can be learned? Robin Weston digs into the details. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 8 No. 2, Summer 2022]
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Designs not driven by requirements increase the risk of an incomplete solution. This relatively simple statement gets to the heart of how designers need to be approaching AM, particularly when balancing the ‘design freedoms’ offered by the technology with the reality of viable and profitable production. Through an exploration of the ubiquitous AM bottle opener, John Barnes, Jennifer Coyne and Chelsea Cummings, The Barnes Global Advisors, and Jon Meyer, APWorks, explore how, by focusing on requirements, a data-driven approach ensures fully functional designs that deliver on multiple requirements for the lowest cost. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 7 No. 1, Spring 2022]
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