Metal Additive Manufacturing, Vol. 6 No. 4 Winter 2020
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In addition to the latest industry news, this 168-page issue of Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine includes the following exclusive features:
Metal Additive Manufacturing and the new Space Race: The inside track with Launcher and AMCM
In October 2020, New York City-based space technology company Launcher started testing its full-sized E-2 liquid rocket engine, designed to deliver the highest performance at the lowest cost for smaller space launch vehicles.
That the E-2 features a one metre tall single-piece copper alloy Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) combustion chamber is remarkable. What is even more impressive is the fact that Launcher, a company with less than twenty employees, achieved this in a short time frame and to a relatively modest budget.
Metal AM magazine’s Nick Williams reports on the project and Launcher’s close collaboration with specialist PBF-LB machine builder AMCM GmbH.
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Falcontech: The journey from materials engineering to large-scale metal Additive Manufacturing
China’s Falcontech Co. Ltd. is well on the way to completing its first ‘Super AM factory’, designed to house fifty metal Additive Manufacturing machines supplied by its partner, Farsoon Technologies.
Whilst the wider story may take in the dramatic rise of Additive Manufacturing in China over the last decade, at the heart of this ambitious project’s success is the story of a successful partnership between an AM technology supplier and its customer.
In this article, Chenlu Fang, Global Marketing Manager of Farsoon Technologies, interviews Shen Yulan, General Manager of Falcontech, and Li Wei, its Sales Director, to tell the story of the company’s rise, its ambitions and the partners’ close collaboration.
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Strategies for advancing the automation of metal Additive Manufacturing
In the early days of metal Additive Manufacturing process development, automation was off the radar of machine manufacturers. Technologies created for rapid prototyping simply had no need for it and, until the last decade, few truly anticipated the pace at which Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion and Binder Jetting have evolved in the race towards the series production of metal parts.
In this article, Joseph Kowen reports on how the industry has addressed the challenges of automation so far, and what developments we can expect in the near future.
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Machine Learning and Additive Manufacturing: What does the future hold?
As industry marches toward automation, networked communication and robotics, Additive Manufacturing has a unique advantage. No other production technology has been designed, from its inception, to enable connectivity and communication; AM machines around the world are already producing more build data than any other manufacturing technology. If used properly, this data will provide the foundation for the development of Machine Learning tools that can improve and industrialise the AM process at nearly every point in the workflow.
In this article, Chelsea Cummings and John Barnes, from The Barnes Global Advisors, discuss the present and future of Machine Learning in AM.
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System 3R: Bridging critical gaps in the Additive Manufacturing workflow to enable serial production
In conventional subtractive manufacturing process chains, components move efficiently throughout a production chain using pallets and standard referencing and clamping systems, enabling parts to be automatically processed by a variety of technologies as they move through a facility.
GF Machining Solutions’ System 3R division has leveraged its expertise in this area to create a tooling solution tailored to Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) production. As Dogan Basic, Product Manager AM, explains, this optimises workflow, increasing the potential for AM automation and, as a result, for successful series production.
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Metal AM in South Africa: Research and commercial initiatives bring the benefit of AM to the African continent
The Additive Manufacturing industry in South Africa has come a long way since the installation of the country’s first AM machine in 1991, with a number of research and commercial initiatives driving the development of world-class applications and knowledge.
In this article, Terry Wohlers and Olaf Diegel, Wohlers Associates, present an overview of metal Additive Manufacturing activities in South Africa, from the technology’s life-changing use for medical implants to its development for rapid, large-scale part production and beyond.
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CFD simulation for metal Additive Manufacturing: Applications in laser- and sinter-based processes
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is widely applied to solve a broad range of research and engineering problems, from aerodynamics to engine combustion and microfluidics.
In this article, Pareekshith Allu, Senior CFD Engineer at Flow Science, Inc, explains how CFD can also be used to improve laser- and non-laser-based metal Additive Manufacturing processes, including Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB), Directed Energy Deposition (DED), Binder Jetting (BJT) and Material Extrusion (MEX).
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