Advance Your Metal Additive Manufacturing Capabilities

New challenges and technologies arise at a rapid pace. Metal additive manufacturing (AM) is no exception, and the industry is facing new demands for more complex geometries, faster build times, and lighter final parts.

 Manufacturers are increasing their adoption of metal AM to reduce costs, accelerate time-to-market, and meet growing demand from customers for smaller, lighter devices with higher functionality.

The following six key metal additive manufacturing capabilities will help manufacturers accelerate their adoption of this technology and drive greater returns on their investments in metal AM machines.

In this blog post, we’ll explore these six areas: accelerated design processes, advanced materials, computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), collaborative workflows and robotics, Computer-Vision-assisted Inspection (CVi), and Digital Twin™ technology.

Accelerated design processes

As any engineer knows, a design process that is too slow can jeopardise the success of a project. The same is true for metal AM. For example, customers who manufacture aircraft components may have to follow a costly and time-consuming design-build-test-redesign cycle. Design-build-test cycles can be even longer, if the engineers are unsure whether their design will work with the AM machine.

 What will help: Designers can now use simulation tools to run virtual tests with their part design before building a physical prototype. This way, they can identify potential issues with the design early on and make necessary adjustments before testing the physical model. This can cut down their design process significantly.

 Designers can also use CAM software to automate parts of the production process. With this approach, designers can create rules in the software to determine how a part will be manufactured, what materials are used, and which machine settings to use.

This can save a lot of time when producing multiple parts.

Advanced materials

To date, the majority of metal AM applications have focused on metals like aluminium, titanium, and nickel-based superalloys. In recent years, the industry has seen a growing number of manufacturers extend their metal AM applications to other metals to drive greater value from their systems.

 What will help: Once used for aerospace and medical applications, cobalt-based alloys are now finding their way into automotive, industrial equipment, and heavy equipment industries.

 For example, manufacturers of industrial presses can use 3D printing to produce lighter, cheaper components with fewer moving parts. Cobalt-based alloys also offer higher strength, which is beneficial for applications where higher forces are expected.

 Cobalt-based alloys are just one example of the many advanced materials being used with metal AM today. Other examples include high-performance steels, composites, and more.

Computer-aided manufacturing

The transition from design to manufacturing is a critical stage in the product development process. When manufacturers use computer-aided design (CAD), they can greatly accelerate the design process. The CAD software translates the designer's ideas into a digital model that can be used for simulations or to create a 3D print.

 CAD tools enable engineers to better visualise their designs and easily edit them to make adjustments before manufacturing. However, many CAD tools are not designed for metal AM, which is a very different process from 2D, CAD-based manufacturing.

 What will help:

 CAD tools designed for metal AM. Such software allows engineers to translate their designs into 3D models, analyse those models for potential issues (e.g. interferences), and then send them to the AM machine to produce a part.