FEATURED ARTICLE LAM 2016 BY BETSY MARONE
The eighth year of Laser Institute of America’s Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM®
) Workshop brought together over 170
attendees from 14 countries. The successful event gathered these individuals – over half of whom attended for the first time – who are involved in the manufacturing of complex, lightweight, metal and various other structural materials. From 3D printing and cladding to rapid manufacturing and sintering, presentations covered a plethora of revolutionary Additive Manufacturing (AM) methods that continued the workshop’s tradition of building enthusiasm in the industry.
The event, which was held at the Embassy Suites in Orlando, FL, March 2-3, featured numerous speakers from key companies involved in the industry. Presenters hailed from companies including Keystone Synergistic Enterprises, Inc., Fabrisonic LLC, Rolls Royce and General Electric as well as universities around the world who are making important advances in additive manufacturing.
LAM General Chair Paul Denney of Lincoln Electric led the 2016 workshop, along with co-chairs Ingomar Kelbassa from Siemens and Jim Sears from GE Global Research Center. Together, they designed the program to not only look at how people are using AM in the industry today, but also the situations in which lasers provide the best solution when compared to other technologies.
“New this year was a session dedicated to technologies (electron beam, arc welding and ultrasonic) that compete against lasers for additive manufacturing,” said Paul Denney. “We also had presentations from end users that addressed when and why they select a technology for AM. These two sessions were designed to make those involved with laser additive to understand the ‘competition’ and to help people selecting additive processing to choose lasers if it makes sense for their needs.”
The first day of the workshop began with the session on alternative technologies, which featured a keynote presentation by Professor Sudarsanam Suresh Babu from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. His presentation focused on recent advances in metal additive manufacturing, as well as the role in- situ process monitoring, computational monitoring and advanced
An In-depth Look at AM’s Challenges & Successes
characterization play in the field. Professor Babu’s discussion of AM’s benefits, compared to traditional manufacturing methods, gave way to an overview of the additive manufacturing process – from geometrical conformity and topography optimization to size specific properties and beyond.
Raymond Walker from Keystone Synergistic Enterprises, Inc. – a company that has been involved in AM for over 20 years and is currently focused on cost-reduction and the use of additive manufacturing to make larger scale products – discussed the large-scale robotic pulsed-arc the company is developing. The robotic arc prototype Walker presented to the crowd has several benefits that make it a promising alternative technology. Not only is it stable and uniform, but it has in-process sensors for process verification and can calculate melt pool for monitoring, record events away from the control, and provide uniform conditions throughout the build.
Robert Salo of Sciaky, Inc. also presented a session on alternative technologies, discussing Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing (EBAM™). Sciaky, Inc. has continuously worked on its EBAM™ Systems and Services as a contract service company for Electron Beam Welding, Pulse Additive Welding and EBAM™. Salo demonstrated simulations of Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing and discussed the benefits of the method, including the way in which the high power couples with metals easily, its use of basic inputs, its large system designs and its high deposition rates.
The Focus of LAM 2016 Two of the missions of LAM 2016 were to give attendees a thorough understanding of the benefits and challenges of laser-based additive manufacturing while establishing what technologies in the industry need to be further developed or improved. Numerous presentations from the two-day event worked toward these goals, including David Bourell’s Materials Issues in Laser-based Additive Manufacturing. Bourell, who works at the University of Texas at Austin, presented data that estimates exponential growth in materials sales in upcoming years. Though some project the growth will reach $1 billion by 2025, materials issues still remain a concern in the industry. Bourell discussed the four major material issues that currently pose problems: proper form feedstock, fabricator process
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LIATODAY FOCUS: LASERS IN MANUFACTURING MARCH/APRIL 2016
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