Mold with Eight Complex,
Conformal Cooling Channels
via Laser Melting
The conformal temperature control arrangement
pictured here requires complicated design work—eight
outlets of 3 mm (0.12 inch) in diameter and practically
identical fow conditions branching out from a 10-mm
(0.40-inch) inlet. According to Renishaw and LBC
Engineering, this design guarantees uniform, highly
turbulent coolant fow and effcient heat transport in
each channel. These inserts were laser-generated on
a Renishaw machine with a 0.5-mm (0.02-inch) margin
per wall. Conventionally made inserts cannot usually
be pre-worked in such detail before hardening, so this
means reduced hardening work for cost savings that
partly offsets the cost of the laser melting process.
LMD Toughens Automotive Dies
Laser metal deposition (LMD) can increase automotive die
life and reduce setup times. That is what researchers at the
Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT, toolmaker
Mühlhoff Um-formtechnik GmbH and other Green Carbody
Technologies Innovation Alliance (InnoCaT) partners set out
to prove during Euromold with their new universal,
reproducible, industrial-use LMD process.
During LMD, a laser beam carefully melts the surface of
the die and the fller material to produce a local layer that
guards against wear on the die surface. This treatment,
which is completed in fractions of a second, is designed to
increase the robustness and resilience of the stainless steel
die at critical points.
The group rebuilt a conventional fve-axis milling machine
(pictured here)—which can be installed within the current
manufacturing process—for the automated LMD of forming
dies. According to Fraunhofer, this processes increases the
lifetime of dies by more than 150 percent, improves the
quality of components and makes it possible to plan setup
times with greater precision.
Another key part of the LMD system is integrated software
that enables the laser surface treatment processes to be
controlled in a clear, reproducible way. All necessary process
parameters are transmitted to the machine without the need
for any interface. Processes can be simulated in detail and
optimized in advance of actual processing operations.
AdditiveManufacturingInsight.com February 2014 — 13