Bottle openers manufactured by metal Additive Manufacturing have become a popular promotional gift, with a variety of designs produced by AM technology suppliers. In the first of a new series of design oriented articles for Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine, Olaf Diegel and Terry Wohlers reveal how these products effectively demonstrate several key concepts that designers need to understand in the development of parts for production by metal AM [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 1, Spring 2017]
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Additive Manufacturing promises huge benefits for industry, but exploiting these in practice can prove difficult. For example, although truss-like component forms will often be found to be much more structurally efficient than traditional forms, identifying these has thus far been laborious and time-consuming. However, a new optimisation approach means that engineers can now directly identify optimised truss forms for AM components, saving time and effort. Prof. Matthew Gilbert of LimitState and the Advanced Additive Manufacturing (AdAM) Centre at the University of Sheffield outlines the technology and its application [First published in Metal AM Vol. 3 No. 1, Spring 2017]
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One of the most promising aspects of Additive Manufacturing is the design freedom it enables. One manifestation of this design freedom lies in our ability to manufacture cellular structures such as lattices and honeycombs. Implementing cellular structures with AM, however, poses a range of design and manufacturing challenges. In this article Dr Dhruv Bhate, from Phoenix Analysis & Design Technologies, Inc. (PADT), focuses on a key area connecting design and manufacturing to final part implementation – the mechanical behaviour of these structures and the challenges and approaches to developing a reliable way to predict it [First published in Metal AM Vol. 2 No. 4, Winter 2016]
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There is no doubt that the Additive Manufacturing of series components is quickly becoming a reality. From high-profile applications in the aerospace industry to performance components for the automotive sector, there are now numerous examples of the successful implementation of metal AM. However, the route that a company chooses in order to adopt AM technology could have a significant impact on a component’s development time and cost. As Nick Williams reports, Germany’s FIT AG sees opportunities in leveraging its expertise to supporting companies with the outsourcing of component development and production. To achieve this, the company has created a model AM factory that it plans to replicate worldwide [First published in Metal AM Vol. 2 No. 3, Autumn 2016]
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The automotive industry has successfully embraced metal Additive Manufacturing as a prototyping technology for a number of years. As the technology advances, however, the possibilities for the use of metal AM for series component production are now starting to be explored. In the following review the challenges and opportunities for metal AM in the automotive industry are presented, including a radical concept to use AM parts as key structural elements in the next generation of automotive spaceframes [First published in Metal AM Vol. 2 No. 2, Summer 2016]
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In the following article Delcam’s Kelvin Hamilton explores the current possibilities for design, topology optimisation, simulation, process planning and process preparation in metal Additive Manufacturing (AM). Exploring the three Ps, Plan, Prepare and Produce, all the processes involved in transforming three airbrake bracket designs into final products are revealed. As well as explaining how important it is to appreciate and plan for the significant amount of subtractive manufacturing in metal AM, a number of the lessons learnt in this project are discussed as the author reflects on the experience of planning, preparing and producing parts [First published in Metal AM Vol. 2 No. 1, Spring 2016]
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VTT, based in Espoo, Finland, is one of Europe’s largest research and technology centres with a long track record in metal powder processing technologies. In the following case study VTT’s Erin Komi reviews the development of an additively manufactured valve block for demanding industrial applications. The project, in conjunction with industrial partner Nurmi Cylinders, looked at the optimisation of the valve block in terms of size reduction, weight saving and performance gains [First published in Metal AM Vol. 2 No. 1, Spring 2016]
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Metal Additive Manufacturing promises to enable smaller organisations to compete with global corporations in the development of new products. Expensive tooling and traditional production lines, it is suggested, need no longer be a barrier to market. As US-based designer and engineer Spencer Wright reveals in this insightful report, the reality of developing a low volume AM titanium part for production exposes a number of challenges that the industry needs to overcome if it is truly able to serve a new generation of product developers [First published in Metal AM Vol. 1 No. 3, Autumn 2015]
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With Additive Manufacturing, the next generation of component fabrication technologies has arrived. No other technology, explains Tim Richter, of RSC Engineering GmbH, Germany, has the potential to change the design process and the appearance of new products so fundamentally. In this report for Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine, Richter shares his experiences in designing metal AM components for powder bed fusion based AM systems, explaining both the potential and the limitations of the process [First published in Metal AM Vol. 1 No. 1, Spring 2015]
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