Light-weighting can add cost and complexity to a part when using standard manufacturing methods like die casting, molding and machining. An advantage to additive manufacturing is its capability to avoid these issues.
In the video above, we learn about what other advantages industrial 3D printing has to offer with Patrick Dunne, VP of advanced application development at 3D Systems.
“The value proposition of additive manufacturing starts with design,” Dunne said. “Traditionally, what we call ‘design for manufacturing’ is about compromising functionality to make an object economical to produce using a traditional technique. With additive manufacturing, because there’s almost no correlation between cost and product complexity, you can design from scratch with pure functionality in mind.”
In the video above, Dunne illustrates how light-weighting with additive manufacturing is currently benefiting the aerospace industry. Two intake manifolds are compared – one made with traditional manufacturing techniques, weighing in at 968g, versus an additive clone weighing in at only 417.2g.
“The additive part is half the weight and has significant levels of component consolidation or part count reduction,” Dunne explained. “Traditionally, the subtractive casting would be combined with four or five other components in an assembly process with opportunities for error, requiring more labor and weighing twice as much. With additive manufacturing, in this case using DMP320 in titanium, we have a part that weighs 50 percent of the original and is a single structure.”
Like traditionally manufactured parts however, additively manufactured parts still require some post-processing in most cases.
Build envelopes for direct metal printing, using high energy fiber lasers and selectively melting cross-sections of materials, have a bounding box of 45cm to 50cm, Dunne said.
“With casting workflows, the constraint is on the size of an object you can cast. This is not so much limited by 3D printing itself, but how much metal a factory can melt and pour. We have examples of single pour castings that were made from assembled casting patterns. This is what we call “indirect 3D printing,” where you’re printing a sacrificial pattern that has all of the complexity and design optimization of an additively manufactured part, but tapping into a traditional workflow.”
For more information about how 3D Systems is working to eliminate complexity and cost in additive manufacturing, visit the 3D Systems website.