customers, will turn their back on it. And they will make a mistake by doing so,’ he said. He added that it is the industry’s task to educate customers as to realistic expectations, along with how to design parts to get the best out of 3D printing. One way that system makers
are working on improving machines is through process monitoring, such as sensing what is going on inside the melt pool. Martin said the photonics industry has a big role to play to develop the tool for this job. In situ metrology would provide a better understanding of how thermal distortion occurs in the part, as well as whether powder is being applied correctly. ‘Saying it boldly, you cannot
print [geometrically] accurate parts today,’ Leibinger said. ‘It will depend on metrology if this ever will be possible, but at this
manufacturing is real; it will change manufacturing, but it will take longer than many claim
I think additive
point it’s not possible.’ Leibinger observed that
Trumpf has been working on laser cutting – a relatively simple process compared to 3D printing – for 30 years and it is still being optimised. He said that to accelerate the development of 3D printing, engineers need ‘to find the levers to make it more robust’ – this could cover any number of parameters, although Leibinger mentioned specifically that it was important to make the machines operate with lower grade powder, as only being able to use high- quality powder made the process expensive and wasteful. Building robust machines involves sensing and process monitoring. Karsten Heuser, from the
additive manufacturing part of
Siemens’ digital factory division, remarked that engineers should not underestimate post- processing, even if the printers are not perfect. He said that a lot of the cost in additive manufacturing comes from post-processing and that sometimes it might be better to have a lower resolution in the printer, because the part will go through post-processing anyway. ‘You need to take care of the whole value chain in the factory for additive,’ he said. Siemens has built gas turbine components for power plants, which have been proven for 4,000 hours operation.
Standards and simulation Te panellists generally agreed that metal additive manufacturing was at too early a stage to try and impose standards on the process or in any one industry. What is needed is education about AM’s capabilities and also, to some degree, a change in engineering mindset when designing the parts, according to Heuser, which he said soſtware can help with. Siemens is developing simulation soſtware to give an understanding of what happens when a laser hits the powder bed before a print run. However, accurate simulations
need high quality data, which goes back to in situ monitoring. Martin commented: ‘I’d like to understand the depth of the melt pool, the shape of the melt pool, and the temperature distribution – those are all really important so we can validate those simulations,’ he said. As to the future of metal
additive manufacturing, Leibinger commented that he is both optimistic and pessimistic. ‘If I look at the curricula of German engineering universities, they tend to be very traditional. However, if I look at the kids they all have 3D printers at home. Many young people today work and play with plastic 3D printers. Tey take this for granted.’
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