FIELD INTELLIGENCE Smart Processes, Solutions & Strategies
Multiple lasers in metal AM a blessing and a bane
R
eality sometimes bites. As I write this, a machine in our ap- plications development center
in Wixom, Michigan, is idle. The nine-day build for a major aero-
space customer failed seven days in be- cause of an unexpected problem, so we had to scrap the part and start again. Anyone using 3D printers is famil- iar with arriving in the morning (or receiving an e-mail from the machine in the middle of the night) to find a failed build, for a variety of reasons. As the technology matures, and
users and system manufacturers become more knowledgeable, failures diminish and uptime increases. Redun- dant systems, uninterruptible power supplies, intelligent pauses, process controls and optimized process pa- rameters all play a role in achieving high productivity from a metal addi- tive manufacturing system. SLM Solutions pioneered multiple
laser systems and has taken a leading position in productivity improvements in recent years. The newly re-launched SLM280 offers not one but two 400- W lasers, and the SLM500 comes with four 400-W lasers. The latest systems also offer 700-W configurations. Multiple and higher-power lasers bring one main, significant benefit: higher productivity. In general, switch- ing from one to two lasers nearly halves the build time. The SLM500 with four 700-W lasers offers game-changing productivity increases: Parts that were uneconomical to build with metal AM suddenly become very cost-effective. However, multiple lasers can also bring some extra challenges and decisions.
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If the user is building many small parts, it makes sense to build some with one laser and some with the second laser. However, if you’re building one
large component, both lasers need to work on the same part, and so the alignment of the two lasers to each other, and the manner in which they work together to build the part, be- come critically important.
and quality and robustness continue to be of critical importance. The market will eventually find the balance of build chamber size, laser count, laser power, system cost and reliability. The value proposi- tion for large multilaser machines is quite compelling, but if a $100K part build fails just before completion, the benefits become harder to jus- tify. The exact size, format, number
The value proposition for large multi-laser machines is quite compelling, but if a $100,000 part build fails just before completion, the benefits become harder to justify.
If one laser is doing most of the
work with the other laser melting much less material and sitting idle much of the time, the benefit of mul- tiple lasers is largely lost. If the lasers are not properly aligned, there will be an obvious witness mark—maybe a step—on the surface of the part, or worse, an actual defect where some material is unmelted. SLM Solutions has worked for years
with hardware, software and proce- dures to push through the challenges and devise a workable solution for multiple laser builds for many indus- tries and components. Challenges remain, however, and
are likely to continue as the indus- try looks to further increase both throughput and the build capacity of metal powder bed fusion machines. As the size and value of the parts pro- duced on the machine continues to increase, the stakes continue to rise,
and type of lasers and useful ap- plications are still very much open questions in many industries. The benefits are substantial, but there will be more than a few headaches along the way toward large-scale serial production. The drive for increased produc-
tivity from metal AM processes is relentless. Moving from a single- laser system to a twin- or quad-laser system provides a step-change in productivity that opens up new ap- plications that weren’t previously economically feasible. Smaller, less “marketing-friendly” features, such as the removable/swappable build chamber in the SLM500, mean that that machine in our application cen- ter—the machine that I mentioned was sitting idle—is back up and run- ning now: Getting it fixed only took as long as it took me to sit down and write this guest column.
Richard Grylls
Technical Director for North America SLM Solutions NA Inc.
www.slm-solutions.us
March 2017
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