ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
When additive machines were used strictly for making
quick prototypes, their manufacturers gave little thought to equipping them with the technology that would make it possible to connect them to each other, to other produc- tion machines, or to the Industrial Internet. Now that AM machines are moving to the factory floor, manufacturers will have to play catch up. “One of the big things right now that is very desirable
is to have process controls,” Krampitz said. “If something goes wrong, there’s nothing to bring it back. We need con- trol loops so the machine can sense what’s going on with the part build and take corrective actions if necessary.” Organizations like America Makes (Youngstown, OH) and
companies such as 3DSIM (Park City, UT) are working on soft- ware for a logic controller for AM machines, Krampitz said. Experts at the University of Louisville are also working on algorithms that would tell an operator there’s a prob- lem, Tackett said. “It’ll be six to eight months before we see that transition to machine manufacturers,” he said.
Tackett said the lack of feedback built into the ma- chines makes them incapable of interfacing with the Inter- net of Things. “We’re only right now at the phase of getting these ma- chines smart enough to correct errors,” Tackett said. In fact, SLM made its automated layer control system,
formerly an add-on, into a standard feature on all of its models in 2015.
During a build, the machine takes a picture to detect
and correct powder preparation and execution after each cycle. If it detects a problem such as a short feed, where the powder doesn’t spread over the entire build area, the machine takes corrective action. If it can’t correct the problem, if the machine is out of material, for example, the machine notifies the operator via text message. “I’ve done it myself over the weekend,” said Fendrick,
who’s made the 10-minute drive from his home to work to correct a problem detected by the automatic layer control system. Melt pool monitoring is another quality feature SLM was
testing in March, as this first issue of Smart Manufacturing went to press. With this feature, the machine will monitor and record the properties of the pool of molten metal at the powder bed. This information can be evaluated to look for variances that might affect the quality of the part. The next stage of development will be to use the information collected to actually control the process, Fendrick said.
Certification × 2 Operating a facility certified in metal production, and
This model turbine
assembly for GE was made with an SLM metal AM machine.
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having certified processes with demonstrated repeatability in making parts for OEMs and regulators like the Federal Aviation Administration and Food and Drug Administra- tion, can both borrow from precedents set with subtractive manufacturing. Tapping into an infrastructure of advisors knowledge- able about metal AM part certification and ISO approval for a metal AM shop is still tricky, though. “A major challenge, the largest challenge, in the adop- tion of the technology is in certification,” said Krampitz. “The infrastructure of support and advice to do health, safety and environmental reviews, among others, is very, very young and not known by industry. But we’re seeing third parties emerging, like us, to fill those gaps.” He advises getting help from: America Makes
(Youngstown, OH), a public-private partnership that’s working to innovate and accelerate AM, with a focus on startups and small and medium shops; the Additive Manu-
Spring 2016 Photo courtesy of GE
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