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.
Issue link: https://am.epubxp.com/i/497467
6 — AM Supplement F E A T U R E way to manufacture a broad variety of parts. Additive's promise is something different—it can achieve intricate and enclosed geometries that CNC machining cannot produce. For this capa- bility to be used in production, it has to be used effciently, and that means using it where it makes sense. With Hybrid's system, additive manufac- turing can be applied only to the forms or the features that need it, while machining is left to do the rest. Subtractive and additive manufacturing therefore support and complement one another. And with this system, the proven and versatile CNC machine tool remains the fundamental plat- form for making metal parts. Additive/Subtractive Ecosystem Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies opened for business three years ago. The additive head was in development prior to this (the UK's De Montfort University and the Manufacturing Technology Centre were involved in this development), but company founders Peter Coates and Dr. Jones ar- rived at a mature, tested, commercializable model of the head only this recently. Dr. Jones says a great deal has changed in just those three years since the company began. A particularly important development during this time was the introduction by DMG MORI of its own Lasertec 65 3D additive and subtractive ma- chining center. This hybrid machine, which uses additive capability engineered by DMG MORI, provided a prominent validation of the promise of machining and additive manufacturing work- ing in tandem, Dr. Jones says. To be sure, milling spindles had been added to additive machines before; machining capability within a powder-bed machine was an idea already in use. But here was a recognizable machining center—and a fve-axis machining center at that—offering a seemingly accessible and appropriate place for additive manufacturing in mainstream production. Instead of slowly building complete parts through additive manufacturing, this machine offered the promise of using additive just to build the intricate features of the part onto what was otherwise a tradition- ally machined workpiece. This was the very idea Dr. Jones had been advancing all along. It was a bizarre idea when he began. DMG MORI helped to make it mainstream. The Lasertec 65 3D is the additive/subtractive machining center developed by DMG MORI. Dr. Jones credits the introduction of this machine as a major step in advancing the promise of machining and additive manufacturing working together in the same cycle.