Additive Manufacturing

Here's an exterior and interior view of 40kg ER100S-1 Shock absorber housing created in their new WAAM Cell

Additive manufacturing comes into it's own when used to produce complex and high-strength parts that are difficult or impossible to make using traditional machining.

Whereas a sculptor would chip away at a block, additive manufacturing builds the piece in layers as desired. What's important to balance is the benefits of ensuring our bodies continue being honed and developing muscle memory, whilst being saved from more dangerous tasks, especially against the clock.

Now's a great time to revere a monumental example of that precise propensity - a clip you'll be glad to watch or indeed rewatch , don't miss it!

Our partners over at Arc Additive have been in the welding sector for many decades and joined forces in 2016 to integrate and expand upon their industry experience.

Materials they've much experience working with include:

• Titanium, grade 5.
• Inconel 625 & 718.
• Aluminium 2319, 5556 & 7075.
• High strength low alloy steel.

Here you can see one of their additive manufacturing pieces in alloy steel.

https://arcadditive.com/

This montage shows the piece towards the beginning of the process. ER70S-6 steel was used for both user-friendliness and cost-effectiveness for trial pieces.

The cobot welding cell being used here is provided by Fronius.

These images show a test piece made using 316L wire from the same wire supplier beginning to take shape.

Here we can see the completed piece made by the team at https://arcadditive.com/.

Do you have any additive manufacturing favourites you'd like to share with us?

Share your thoughts and clips with us at [email protected].

Here's a part created in less than 2 hours. The last photo shows the part fully-machined.

The aim here is to alleviate long lead-times, especially when they're causing safety issues or downtime.

The case for additive manufacturing includes the premise of using only the raw materials required to make a part - rather than creating the part from a block piece thereby creating waste.

This premise requires adequate stress tests to ensure that the process is a robust viable replacement.