John D. Murray President & CEO Concept Laser Inc.
www.conceptlaserinc.com
ADVANCED MANUFACTURING NOW It’s All about Innovation
S
ince Frank Herzog’s founding of Concept Laser in 2000, our Additive Metal (AM) technologies have provided the foundation for a myriad of new production strategies. With the acceptance of 3D Printing and AM, designers and engineers are realizing that AM opens entirely new approaches to design. The breadth of mar- kets integrating AM technologies includes aerospace, automotive, medical, dental, and tooling. Today’s leaders are combining the best of “manu- facturing-oriented designs” such as casting and milling with the almost limitless aspects of “additive design content” where the advantages of AM manufacturing can leverage existing processes. Combining both tradi- tional and new worlds delivers fully optimized designs, better performance and added value. It’s all about unbridled creativity and understand- ing new possibilities developed for targeted use. With AM, integrating additional capabilities is now pos- sible including techniques such as conformal cooling and the production of moving parts in a one-shot process. Lighter weight assemblies can now with- stand heavier stresses. Additive Metal eliminates the need for substitutions, eliminates compromise and produces completely new solutions.
Understanding this has been critical for Concept
Laser. Over the last 15 years, Frank Herzog has led our company to pioneer numerous innovative solu- tions. Our patented “hybrid build style” combines the advantages of conventional CNC processes with AM, bringing the best of both worlds together. We have made enormous progress in terms of production speeds, assembly space sizes, safety, quality assurance and in-situ meltpool monitoring. Concept Laser has many “fi rst to the market”
achievements including: fi rst to produce fully dense metal parts; fi rst to deliver hotwork steel; fi rst to develop and patent the stochastic (island) strategy; fi rst to the market with reactive powders; fi rst ATEX safety compli- ant systems designed for maximum operational and op- erator safety; fi rst to deliver precision clamping systems for use in our systems; fi rst to develop and patent
conformally cooled tool inserts for plastic injection molding tools; fi rst to deliver and patent production tool inserts using our hybrid build style; fi rst to deliver the world´s largest build envelope (31.5 × 16 × 20"), fi rst to deliver a machine designed for 24/7 operation using an integrated turntable approach (the X line 1000R and 2000R), among others. All of these aggressive developments have helped
AM transition from a somewhat eccentric method into a true industrial process. Why is this important? As industrial and pro-
duction strategies change to bring AM machines in-house, we are working closely with several stra- tegic customers who understand that the traditional landscape of manufacturing is changing rapidly. We see a number of key developments that will take place with AM in the coming years. AM pro- cesses will supplement and complement traditional production strategies. Key infl uencing factors include: costs, time and quality, complexity of the components, end use requirements and integration of formerly disparate functions. Globally, the medical industry is most aggressive and the American aerospace industry now practices AM for new innovations as standard in light of time and cost considerations. Airbus has fully embraced AM technologies and plans to produce 30 tons of metal parts per month by 2018. In contrast to manufacturing processes based on molds, or subtractive methods, the effi ciency of AM processes actually increases as component geometry becomes more complex. Production-on-demand capabilities are changing logistics concepts and spare part reserves. Maintenance tasks and retrofi t- ting can be performed in quick succession, thereby reducing downtime. With AM technologies, smaller and “produce when needed” batch sizes can now be produced cost-effectively. Further, AM produces far less waste and the systems are energy-effi cient. The additive approach is enabling designers and engineers to adapt to the new opportunities. The components of the future will perform better and true lightweight building approaches will take hold.
AdvancedManufacturing.org LF25
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