With its Sapphire machine and Flow build preparation software capable of highly-controlled, virtually support-free Additive Manufacturing, Velo3D is pushing the limits of what is possible with Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF). Since launching its first machine in 2018, the California-based company has seen success with a range of highly complex parts which would challenge even the most experienced AM engineer. In this article, Zach Murphree, Velo3D’s Vice President of Technical Partnerships, explains the key factors which set the company’s process apart from the wider AM market. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 5 No. 3, Autumn 2019]
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United Technologies Corp (UTC), through its Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace businesses, has a long history of innovation in aerospace engineering. As Venkat Vedula, Executive Director of UTC’s Additive Manufacturing Center of Expertise (AMCoE), and Vijay Jagdale, the centre’s Principal Engineer, explain, this tradition is today being continued through the corporation’s cutting-edge Additive Manufacturing activities. This report highlights, with the support of an in-depth case study, the centre’s core areas of activity and UTC’s vision for the future of AM.
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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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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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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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Build failures remain a major challenge in metal Additive Manufacturing, particularly on large parts for which build times are measured in many days rather than hours. They come at a high price in lost machine time, wasted material and delayed deliveries. Olaf Diegel and Terry Wohlers explain a number of reasons for such failures in Laser Powder Bed Fusion processes. In many cases, one can reduce their risk through effective part and support design, parameter control and machine maintenance. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 5 No. 1, Spring 2019]
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With the launch of a number of new systems targeting the series production of components, Binder Jetting is generating a high level of interest in the world of metal Additive Manufacturing and beyond. In the following report, Sebastian Boris Hein, Claus Aumund-Kopp and Bastian Barthel of Fraunhofer IFAM review the main process considerations and production steps in the Binder Jetting of metals as related to series production, highlighting both the advantages of the technology and the challenges that it poses [First published in Metal AM Vol. 4 No. 4, Winter 2018]
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