NEWS
Trumpf aims for €0.5bn revenue in additive manufacturing
At the Formnext trade fair in
Frankfurt in November, Trumpf presented its fastest and most productive medium-format 3D printing system, the TruPrint 5000. The system uses three lasers,
special optics and optimally adjusted process parameters to cut exposure times by a factor of three. It uses laser metal fusion manufacturing to generate metallic components layer by layer in a powder bed. ‘If the market for 3D printers
continues to develop in line with current indications, then we see an opportunity for our company to achieve additional revenues of € half a billion euros in a timescale of five to seven years,’ commented Peter Leibinger, CTO of Trumpf. ‘We want to gain a leading role in the market and secure a market share of around 20 per cent in the medium term.’ Trumpf employs over 200 people in the field of additive manufacturing.
FUTUREAM PROJECT TO ACCELERATE METAL ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
The Fraunhofer focus project, FutureAM, which over the next three years aims to establish the prerequisites for advances in metal additive manufacturing (AM), was launched in November by the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT and five other project partners. The research platform will
develop new digital process chains, scalable and robust AM processes, systems engineering and automation, as well as expand the range of affordable materials. It will look at reducing manufacturing costs of AM and develop smaller AM plant design concepts. Professor Johannes Henrich
In brief
SPI Lasers has appointed Dr Mark Greenwood as CEO and Richard Hendel as VP of sales.
Bystronic has formed a strategic partnership with TTM Laser, an Italian producer of laser systems for tube processing, in order to expand its product portfolio.
GE and Concept Laser have laid the foundation for a €105 million facility in Lichtenfels, Germany. The 3D Campus, schedule for completion in early 2019, will be the global GE centre for manufacturing 3D metal printing machines. It will have a production capacity four times higher than the current site.
3D Micromac has installed three of its MicroCell OTF laser systems at Hanwha SolarOne’s production facility in Qidong, Jiangsu-province, China. The installation was followed by an additional order of a fourth laser system to support the conversion of Hanwha SolarOne’s aluminium back surface field (Al-BSF) technology production to high-efficiency Passivated Emitter Rear Contact (PERC) solar cells.
6 LASER SYSTEMS EUROPE ISSUE 37 • WINTER 2017
Schleifenbaum, coordinator of FutureAM and director of additive manufacturing and functional layers at Fraunhofer ILT in Aachen, commented: ‘The complete digitisation of the process chain, new materials, innovative design options and an accelerated production process by a factor of 10 are the objectives.’ The six project partners will
cooperate in a virtual lab. Every machine or product is assigned and described a ‘digital twin’, enabling real systems to be
Christian Tenbrock of Fraunhofer ILT presents the SLM laboratory equipment for large metal components to the participants of the FutureAM kick-off meeting
optimised by means of modelling and simulation. This is used, for example, for error diagnosis, predictive analysis or product and process optimisation. The Laser Zentrum Nord and
Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD will be responsible for Industry 4.0 and digital process chains. The Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS and the Fraunhofer Institute for
IPG Photonics acquires Laser Depth Dynamics
Fibre laser manufacturer IPG Photonics has acquired Laser Depth Dynamics (LDD), a Canadian provider of in-process quality monitoring and control solutions for laser-based welding applications. The move will help IPG sell
laser-based welding into industries such as automotive, medical, consumer products and aerospace. LDD’s headquarters in Kingston, Ontario, will also become IPG’s new centre of product development for weld monitoring solutions. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. LDD’s inline coherent imaging technology enables the real time,
high precision, direct measurement of laser weld penetration depth by adding a near-infrared measurement beam to the welding head. The technology offers higher accuracy, speed, and cost-performance, compared to conventional indirect measurement techniques such as destructive sectioning. The solutions provided by LDD
also support advanced monitoring features including seam tracking, height following and 3D volume imaging in a single tool. LDD’s flagship imaging systems can be integrated with popular welding head technologies, including IPG’s wobble
welding heads, which provide process consistency and high-power welding heads for deep penetration welding. Felix Stukalin, IPG’s senior vice
president of North American operations, commented: ‘LDD’s ability to monitor weld quality in real time and ensure process consistency is increasingly important within automated production environments.’ LDD has 16 employees and was
founded in 2012 by Paul Webster, CTO, who initially developed ICI technology as a PhD candidate in engineering physics at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.
Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM will work on a reinforcing structure made of a high-strength material. Lastly, the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU will be responsible for the system technology and automation of component post-processing. As the coordinator, Fraunhofer
ILT will ensure that the project results in scalable and robust AM processes.
@lasersystemsmag |
www.lasersystemseurope.com
Fraunhofer ILT
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