Novel Emerging AM Equipment Technology Evaluation

 

CRP year	2017
Budget	£140k
Project Reference No.	31902
Technical Lead	Nick Cruchley
AM process & materials used	Laser powder bed fusion (316L, Ti-6Al-4V), Metal Binder Jetting (316L), Vat photopolymerisation (316L)

Summary

The AM technologies commercially available continue to evolve rapidly, with new capabilities and improvements on existing capability occurring frequently. This project was tasked with understanding the developments in AM that had occurred in the last 12 months (2016-2017) and again to conclude the project (2017-2018). The project also investigated four technologies (selected by the steering group) by performing physical trials which investigated the accuracy, resolution, surface roughness and tensile properties achieved with each process. Further to this a full process workflow was described for each technology. The technologies investigated were:

• Hoganas Digital Metal DM P2500 – Metal Binder Jetting
• Lithoz Hammer HD40 – Vat Photopolymerisation
• Laser Melting Innovations Alpha 140 – Laser Powder Bed Fusion
• Additive Industries Metal FAB 1 – Laser Powder Bed Fusion

 

Figure 1: One of the systems (metal binder jetting) evaluated on the project and some example assessment features

DELIVERABLES

If you are a member you can access the deliverables of this project here.