10— AM Supplement
F E A T U R E
By Christina Fuges
R
epairing damaged mold inserts is a growth
area for additive manufacturing, particularly
for direct metal laser sintering (DMLS).
Rather than replacing damaged tools, DMLS can
be used to quickly repair only the damaged areas,
resulting in simplifed repair, decreased downtime,
longer operating life and reduced costs associated
with maintenance and repair.
Conventional repair processes can require mul-
tiple steps and be time-consuming. Welding, for
example, requires cutting out the broken or worn
area, fxing a new block of steel, performing the
welding and completely re-machining the insert. It
also can involve additional steps such as machin-
ing, polishing, testing, etc., and it has limitations,
such as the durability of the repair.
The need for faster, more economical ways to
repair mold inserts has opened the door for DMLS.
Two companies, Ecoparts and Innomia, have
walked through that door and now offer customers
R E BU I LD,
DON'T REPLACE
If you could rebuild a damaged or worn-out mold insert instead
of replacing it with a new one, wouldn't you?
the speed and cost advantages of DMLS tool repair.
Innomia provides plastic and metal part design
and development using reverse engineering, 3D
scanning and additive manufacturing. Ecoparts is
an EOS service provider that produces prototypes,
short runs and tool inserts, as well as hot runner
water-cooled gate inserts, for the mold and die and
mechanical engineering industries.
"In general, laser welding is very good for repair-
ing damaged corners, edges or thin layer defects
when there is no need to add to the material's
volume," says Lubos Rozkosny, managing director
of Innomia (innomia.cz). "When it's more suitable to
add material volume to repair the damaged area,
DMLS is very effcient. It can bring material back
to the exact 3D geometry specifed by the part's
3D model. This is not possible using laser welding
because the process is manually controlled. DMLS
can because the laser beam is computer-controlled
by the CAD fle."
Damaged insert before undergoing DMLS.
Repaired insert after DMLS.
Images courtesy of Ecoparts.