Read the Summer 2019 issue of Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine
July 2, 2019
The Summer 2019 issue of Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine (Vol. 5 No. 2) is now available to read online or download for free via our website or app (available on iOS and Android). In addition to the latest industry news, this 172-page issue of Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine includes the following exclusive features:
United Technologies: Pioneering new possibilities for Additive Manufacturing in aerospace
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.
Additive Manufacturing at HP:
A new ‘centre of excellence’ supports the move to volume production
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.
Powder removal: The Achilles heel of powder bed-based metal Additive Manufacturing
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.
Defining your digital future:
The path to industrial digitalisation in Additive Manufacturing and beyond
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.
DfAM insight: How to choose candidate products for AM production applications
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.
VBN Components: Additive Manufacturing delivers a new generation of wear-resistant carbide parts
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.
Developing an effective metal powder specification for Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing
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 assesment and qualification process for a new 316L stainless steel powder.
Rapid qualification of new alloys for Additive Manufacturing through a holistic process chain
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.