Additive Manufacturing

FEB 2014

Modern Machine Shop and MoldMaking Technology present ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, a quarterly supplement reporting on the use of additive processes to manufacture functional parts. More at additivemanufacturinginsight.com.

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F E AT U R E Material Savings A new SLS platform from 3D Systems was used to produce the pump part shown here without tooling. This process is designed to generate a lot of parts fast while producing only about 20 percent material waste. Of note is the pump's complex shape, which would typically require long lead times if tooling were needed, but no tooling was required. This part is strong enough to use directly in the feld on a machine or an engine, according to the company. The ProX 500 3D printer used to produce this part builds on the company's patented SLS technology and, together with its newly developed DuraForm ProX materials, can deliver end-use-ready thermoplastic parts more quickly and more accurately than previous 3D printers. Machining Hidden Features DMG Mori's Lasertech 65 hybrid solution can do rough machining, deposition and fnishing on one machine, allowing a part such as the one pictured here to be built and machined with fve axes. The additive features grown off of the central OD show the machine's ability to reorient the part to build in different directions within the cycle. The drilled holes and milled mating surfaces were created using the machine's conventional machining capability. Parts such as this can be built as much as 20 times faster than with powder bed solutions, DMG Mori says. Parts can also be built up in sections, with milling operations used on important areas in between. Support structures are not necessary, and wall thickness can range from 0.5 to 5 mm (0.020 to 0.2 inch). Dr. Greg Hyatt, DMG Mori's chief technology offcer, explains that an advantage of this process is that it can be used to build up a number of layers, of the same or various alloys, which can then be machined to the required accuracy before the next layers are added. These part areas would not normally be accessible for milling cutters, meaning hidden features can now be machined. 10— AM Supplement

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