Product category:
Coordinate Measurement systems
News Release from: EOS Electro Optical Systems | Subject: DMLS University Wolverhampton
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 01 April 2005
Firms benefit from university's
prototyping
The University of Wolverhampton's Telford campus has started making metal tooling and components in short lead times using a direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) machine from EOS , Warwick.
As part of the University of Wolverhampton's programme of support services it offers to local manufacturers, the Innovative Product Development Centre (IPDC) located on the Telford campus has started making metal tooling and components in short lead times using a direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) machine from EOS , Warwick The result has been to compress the time it takes West Midlands firms to bring new products to market, thereby improving their competitiveness
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 12 Oct 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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It builds functional metal parts from successive 20-micron layers of metal powder, which are fused by a laser guided by data generated from slices taken through a computer model of the part.
Consultancy and practical engineering help provided by the IPDC is funded by grants to eligible companies from the regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands.
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A prime geographical focus is the M52 corridor from Telford to Wolverhampton and hundreds of firms have benefitted over the years from the wide range of engineering services on offer.
Although DMLS was added as recently as April 2004, dozens of metal components for pre-production evaluation have already been manufactured for such diverse industries as motorsport, jewellery and lock manufacture; and several injection, diecasting and blow moulds have also been produced rapidly by laser sintering.
According to IPDC assistant director, Mark Stanford, so popular has the service become among engineering and plastics companies, inventors and other local educational establishments that people are returning for more DMLS parts after their grants have been spent, with the result that the facility is working around the clock, 24 hours a day.
Mr Stanford went on to describe in some detail an application where DMLS technology has proved seminal in realising significant benefits for manufacturers, that of producing complex dies with conformal cooling/heating channels.
The tool is built layer by layer leaving spaces for the channels, allowing a much more complex labyrinth of straight, curved and variable-diameter cooling ducts to be created than is possible by deep hole drilling, which is capable of straight holes only.
Thus the channels can conform to, or follow, the shape of the tool surface and the temperature profile across it to provide more efficient and accurate heat transfer, reducing injection moulding and die-casting cycle times and improving the quality of the parts.
It is also possible to produce a tool with porous faces by adding, for example, designated areas on the tool built with lower densities, eliminating the need for a vent plug and the witness mark that is inevitably left on the plastic part.
"We have endeavoured to make a few conformal moulds in our plastic laser sintering machine using 100 micron diameter, polymer-coated, stainless steel powder, but the process was crude compared with DMLS, which builds layers of 20 micron, high strength, hardenable tool steel powder," commented Mr Stanford.
The previous sintering method involved subsequent burning away of the plastic at high temperature and then infiltrating the gaps with bronze.
The former lead to contraction and stability problems while the latter was constrained by the shape of the tool.
With DMLS, both problems are avoided and there is the additional benefit that the detail resolution is much higher, resulting in a better quality tool.
"Manufacture of finished components directly from the CAD data is similarly impressive," continued Mr Stanford.
"Clients tell us that the prototypes we supply are functional and may be heavily loaded without breaking, so their evaluation closely predicts the performance of the eventual metal component.
"Moreover, we are able to turn round a new design iteration in a couple of days, or even overnight, and we often produce several iterations of the same part in the Eosint machine within a single build volume, shortening development time further.
Some components could not be made any other way, even by 5-axis machining techniques, so the scope of the design engineer is considerably extended." Applications for DMLS are increasing all the time, both for prototype and series part manufacture, and for rapid tooling production.
The development of new powders, plus the ability to build parts more quickly using variable layer thicknesses and adjustable laser beam focus, is further expanding the scope of the technology.
With so many areas of manufacturing in the UK and other developed countries in decline, it is refreshing to find one sector that is growing strongly.
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