Additive Manufacturing Product and Services by digiMODE
As digiMODE, we offer you solutions for Metal 3D Printers and Design and Production Consulting.
For more than 20 years, we have been supporting OEM and supplier companies in the Defense-Aviation, Automotive, White Goods, Consumer Products and Energy sectors to recognize and benefit from Additive Manufacturing technologies, and to develop new applications by creating both technical and strategic approaches.
Our aim is to develop practical and rational strategies for our partners to get the most benefit from their investments in Additive Manufacturing Technologies.
About Additive Manufacturing
What is AM and The Emergence of Additive Manufacturing
The process has started with Rapid Prototyping and developed from concepts such as 3D Printer – 3D Printing, Digital Manufacturing, Flexible Manufacturing Systems and Additive Manufacturing Systems. And finally it has evolved into the concept called Additive Manufacturing as used today.
Beginning in the early 1990s, additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, originally known as rapid prototyping, were used to produce prototypes quickly. In fact, the ability to make physical objects directly from virtual CAD data in a short time helps to reduce the production development step. Today, the production of conceptual and functional prototypes in a wide variety of materials such as polymers, metals or ceramics is widely used in different industries.
Nowadays, along with the diversification of Metal 3D Printers for Additive Manufacturing and the increasing variety of materials that can be used, provides almost an unlimited range of options to individuals and institutions that prefer to manufacture with the Additive Manufacturing method.
In the field of Additive Manufacturing, it is beneficial to work only with the guidance of a team that really knows and has experienced this technology and its needs;
- if you want to learn which machine is suitable for you, which part should be produced with which material,
- if you want to find out which materials will be more accurate and cost-effective to produce with,
- if you want to apply methods such as topology optimization and you don’t know how.
Sectors which benefit from 3D Metal technologies
Metal 3D Printers, or in other words 3D Metal Printers, are among the most preferred machines in Additive Manufacturing. As you can observe in many foreign sources written about “Additive Manufacturing”, this subject has started to gain importance. Thanks to the increasing usage rates every year, machine manufacturers continue to develop these systems further and produce new versions for the benefit of the users.
If you are designing or ordering designs for parts to be printed on 3D Printers, you can see in which sectors Metal 3D Printers are most preferred, from our diagram below.
If you want to learn in which other sectors 3D Metal Printers can be used or if they can be used in your sector too, please do not hesitate contact us.
The Different Types of Metal Additive Manufacturing
Metal Additive Manufacturing Systems can be classified by, material feeding technologies, energy sources, building volumes.
(i) powder bed systems,
(ii) powder feeding systems and
(iii) wire feeding systems.
The energy source (electron beam, laser, arc, etc.) for these systems may differ.
(i) Powder Bed Systems
A powder bed is created by raking the powder across the work area. The energy source (electron beam (EBM) or laser beam (SLM, DMLS or SLS)) is programmed to energize the surface of the bed or shape the powder into the desired shape. Additional powder is raked across the work area and the process is repeated to form a three-dimensional component. The advantages include high resolution, the ability to produce hollow structures, and the ability to provide dimensional control.
(ii) Powder Feeding Systems
Powder feeding systems (LENS, DED) can generate more volume scales than powder bed units. In these systems, dust is transmitted from a nozzle to the building surface. A laser is used to melt a monolayer or more of powder into the desired shape. This process is repeated to create a solid three-dimensional component. There are two dominant types of systems in the market:
- The workpiece remains stationary and the accumulating head moves.
- The deposition head remains stationary and the workpiece is transported.
The advantages of this type of system include the ability to manufacture larger parts, the ability to be used to replace worn or damaged components.
(iii) Wire Feeding Systems
The feedstock is wire (WAAM) and the energy source for these units can include electron beam, laser beam and plasma arc. Initially, a single piece of material is deposited and subsequent passes are built over to develop a three-dimensional structure. In general, wire feed systems are well suited for high deposition rate machining and have large build volumes; however, the end product often requires more extensive processing than powder bed or powder fed systems.
In summary, there is a huge variety of equipment commercially available. These can generally be characterized as powder bed, powder feeding, and wire feeding systems. There are different advantages for each type of system depending on the intended applications, for example system selection can be made according to repair and replacement, small or large part manufacture.
Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM)
Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) is a methodology in which the designer is guided by the manufacturing process of developing products to streamline the manufacturing and assembly stages, exploit manufacturing potentials and reduce manufacturing costs. Therefore, the most important principle to achieve the objectives of DfAM is to design for ease of manufacture and fabrication, which may differ depending on the manufacturing process adopted. As a result, DFM requires a deep knowledge of manufacturing, including material behavior and assembly processes so even though DFM is a conceptually simple approach, it can be very difficult and time consuming to perform.
Design principles for additive manufacturing (DfAM) and changes to traditional manufacturing processes are described by many researchers. We can define DfAM’s goals as maximizing product performance through the synthesis of shapes, sizes, hierarchical structures and material compositions depending on the capabilities of their technologies. To pursue these goals, designers should consider the following elements:
Points Which Has To Be Considered in DfAM
- Additive Manufacturing enables the use of undercuts, variable wall thickness and deep grooves
- With Additive Manufacturing it is possible to design parts with unlimited complexity, allowing bent and contoured shapes, blind holes and screws, and a very high strength-to-weight ratio;
- Additive Manufacturing allows parts to be joined both statically and dynamically. It is possible to combine several parts into an integrated assembly. In addition, the ability of additive processes to create assembled products allows to minimize the number of parts, thus minimizing the usage time while making assembly easier.
Additive Manufacturing technologies offer many advantages, and the opportunities created by these processes are extensive and profound. Above all, additive manufacturing makes it possible to circumvent the constraints imposed by tooling. In fact, traditional manufacturing limits design freedom because the product must conform to the constraints imposed by the traditional process. On the contrary, complex geometries can be adopted at the design stage because molding limitations no longer exist. For example, while high pressure die casting requires consideration of draft angles, parting line locations, wall thickness, aspect ratio, fillet corners, it does not.
If you want to produce with Additive Manufacturing and benefit from our Design Service for Additive Manufacturing, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Why do we use Metal 3D Printer?
If you are interested in Additive Manufacturing and if you need to produce your products at lower costs with less material waste more effectively, Metal 3D Printers will provide you many benefits. Here are the things you can do and the benefits you can get using 3D Metal Printers:
- Supply chain management
- Easy assembling
- Cost Savings
- Weight Reduction and Material Savings
- Saving Production Time
- Complex Geometries
- Series Special Production
- Easy and Quick Changes
Benefits of Metal Additive Manufacturing Technologies:
- Higher design freedom compared to traditional production methods
- Obtaining lighter structures with lattice structure designs
- Obtaining assembled parts in one go
- Up to 25 times less raw material consumption than conventional manufacturing
- Possibility of faster production depending on geometry
- Reducing extra operations by obtaining complex parts in a single step
- Ability to use different materials in the same production
For more information about us, our products, and our services, please contact us.