Additive Manufacturing is a media brand devoted to industrial applications of 3D printing and digital layering technology to make functional parts. We don’t cover 3D printing as it relates to making design models, movie props, sculpture or swimwear (sorry). Instead, we speak to a manufacturing audience. We are exploring the use of additive manufacturing to make tooling, molds and functional prototypes, along with the ultimate aim of manufacturers: end-use production parts. We report on the promise of additive manufacturing in these applications. We also report on the pitfalls. Staff members write about successes with additive manufacturing and the hard roads that led to those successes. Visit our website to subscribe and follow us on LinkedIn for these stories. We want to hear from you, too. (Among other things, we’re always interested in story suggestions.) Get in touch with us on LinkedIn or contact us through our website. Additive Manufacturing is published by Gardner Business Media Inc.
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Fun to look back...and even more exciting to look ahead. ⚡ Formnext Chicago ⚡
Today's #flashbackfriday is brought to you by Formnext Forum Austin last year. At this amazing event, we had our original Founders Club members- FormAlloy Technologies, Inc., EOS and Mazak North America-sign up to exhibit at Formnext Chicago in 2025! We can't wait to see them all together again, this time on the show floor in just about 9 months!
Cost is not just monetary. In many instances a customer has limited time to spend. That's the case for the US Navy and the forging lead time challenges it is facing. In response, Big Metal Additive has developed and proven out a process using directed energy deposition (DED) via a robot to make projectile housings for the US Navy. One robot and one lathe can produce housings at the rate of six per day, and the company is getting ready for an eventual AM factory that will make these rounds by the hundreds per day. Peter Zelinski tells more here: https://lnkd.in/gSgPYgmX ___ #additivemanufacturing #3Dprinting #forging #leadtime #supplychain #DED
Metal additive manufacturing WANTS machining interacting with it. Case in point: For this 3D printed aircraft structure, machining aids fatigue strength. 💡 Learn more in Peter Zelinski's video here 👉 https://lnkd.in/g4Bv-_eC ___ About the video: Big Metal Additive used its DED capabilities to produce experimental, topology-optimized aircraft structural components for the United States Air Force. The machine that produced the components was a hybrid, and testing revealed an important advantage of incorporating machining into the process: Compared to the as-printed versions, the parts that were machined inside and out as the forms were being built had thinner walls due to the machining, but nevertheless performed dramatically better in fatigue life.
Unlike conventional robots, cobots do not require caging or complicated safety measures, and they are easy to program and reprogram as needs change. 🤖 The challenge with integration today is not with the cobot itself, but with establishing the ways that it will interact with its surroundings. Hardware such as end effectors, grippers, part jigs and nests, and even cable management brackets can be custom-made to suit the application through 3D printing. Universal Robots and its partner EMI Corp. recently highlighted the value of 3D printed tooling with a demonstration incorporating multiple Multi Jet Fusion prints. Watch here: https://lnkd.in/gCBafNdg ___ Stephanie Hendrixson, NPE: The Plastics Show
Pictured: Eaton evaluated the Foundry Lab digital casting process with three parts currently made through die casting in aluminum and zinc. Two of the parts (shown) require cast-in-place pins, a possibility of die casting that is also possible in digital casting. Eaton's Cameron Peahl observed that parts made through the digital casting process are arguably superior to die-cast parts. Specifically, the density is better. This is good and bad, he notes. Read more on Additive Manufacturing Media: https://lnkd.in/gX59tUvF ___ #additivemanufacturing #3Dprinting #diecasting #casting #foundries #supplychain #metal3Dprinting
The July/August issue of Additive Manufacturing is out. Read the Digital Edition here! https://lnkd.in/gFQjbF2Z 👈 Snippets from this issue: 🔹 Applying DED to production is not a technological challenge but an organizational one. We look at what it means to implement a quality system. 🔹 A startup is providing an alternative to traditional casting and forging. Success so far has led to the company redefining the limits of its additive equipment. 🔹 Formnext Chicago is set to arrive next year. AMT president and VP of Formnext at Mesago Messe Frankfurt talk about the long road to this event. 🔹 A maker of machine tools replaces an outsourced plating step with production on a hybrid. The result is dramatic reduction in time and CO2. 🔹 An expert in AM of high-value DOD parts often must change material in its powder bed machines. We present lessons from this company's system. 🔹 The design freedom possible with laser powder bed fusion is making it easier and faster to produce complex anticavitation devices for valves. #additivemanufacturing #3Dprinting #manufacturing
Machine builder Hittech Bihca was machining the precise, rigid carrier trays required for semiconductor production out of solid blocks of titanium. The costs included 90% material waste and 30 or more spent cutting tools for every part. In search of a more sustainable solution it could present to its customer, Hittech found Norsk Titanium’s proprietary DED process, Rapid Plasma Deposition (RPD). 👇 Want to know more? We give the details on a bonus episode of The Cool Parts Show. Watch here: https://lnkd.in/g2bM2bnB ___ #TheCoolPartsShow is sponsored by Carpenter Additive. ___ #additivemanufacturing #coolparts #titanium #DED #machining #semiconductors #3Dprinting
Additive manufacturing or 3D printing has many potential applications that make sense for the CNC machining job shop — some sophisticated and some very simple. They include making ☑️ prototypes, ☑️ shop aids, ☑️ fixturing and tooling, ☑️ and end-use production parts. The machines used range from desktop-size polymer 3D printers to metal additive manufacturing systems comparable to machine tools. IT'S A LOT, and all these 3D printing applications are advancing. 💡 To help job shops explore their possibilities with additive manufacturing, the Elevate Job Shops Series at IMTS includes a half-day workshop on 3D Printing for Job Shops. Join us at the workshop! Here's more about it: https://lnkd.in/gMDbvZjT ___ #additivemanufacturing #3Dprinting #jobshops #manufacturing #IMTS #CNC
More and more sporting goods companies are turning to 3D printed lattices as a potential alternative to conventional foams for protective gear. For instance: This lightweight helmet from Xenith will be used by National Football League (NFL) and collegiate football players beginning this fall. In the Orbit X Pro, the 3D printed Ultrasint TPU01 lattice is sandwiched between an Ultramid PA 6 injection molded nylon shell for immediate impact resistance and Elastopan/Elastocast polyurethane foam for the player’s comfort. The lattice helps to dissipate energy from an impact. It also reduces weight and enables airflow through the helmet. Stephanie Hendrixson shares more in this video here: https://lnkd.in/gFZ_vGt3 ___ #additivemanufacturing #3Dprinting #lattice #sportinggoods #football
Before anything, we send our wishes for good health and quick recoveries to the drivers involved in the INDYCAR crash this past weekend. As AM executive editor Stephanie Hendrixson shares below, a rollover crash occurred. It appears the 3D printed top frame, a safety requirement implemented in 2020, worked as intended. We await further analysis and will update as more information becomes available. #INDYCAR #additivemanufacturing #3Dprinting
Executive Editor, Additive Manufacturing Media | Co-host, The Cool Parts Show & AM Radio podcast
**As of this writing, all drivers involved are ok!** At an INDYCAR race in Iowa over the weekend, chaos broke out in the final lap as one car slowed and launched a second into the air. That car flipped twice before landing upside down on the track. More collisions happened as drivers reacted, resulting in spinouts, blown tires and a different car landing on top of yet another. I haven't seen any official analysis yet, but I believe there are a couple of spots where the 3D printed top frame we reported on early this year (part of the aeroscreen structure) may have saved a life—or at least kept this incident from being much worse. Looking at the clips, I think I'm seeing car 41 landing and sliding on its top frame, and the top frame of car 27 protecting its driver by supporting the back end of car 20. There's likely more going on here, but the clips certainly show the need for racing safety measures such as the aeroscreen and the Formula 1 halo. (Both structures serve a similar purpose, but for INDYCAR's aeroscreen the key component is 3D printed. The wishbone-shaped top frame is manufactured with laser powder bed fusion from titanium powder in 5 pieces, which are then welded, machined and painted before being installed on the car. The frame holds the aeroscreen windshield in place and provides a protective structure over the driver's head.) Three of the drivers involved walked away from the crash, and the fourth (in the flipped car 41) was assessed at the hospital and released. Screenshots from INDYCAR footage available at: https://lnkd.in/gcugVhKR (Arrows and speculation all mine) + a shot of the 3D printed, welded and finished top frame as seen at Dallara last year