LIA’s Laser Additive Manufacturing Workshop (LAM) was held in Orlando for the first time in it's seven year existence. Hundreds of participants received both a close up and bird's eye view of the benefits, pitfalls, and the future of industrial laser additive manufacturing.
Speakers and presenters from companies and institutions such as BMW, Siemens, GE Global Research and the Fraunhofer Institute, illustrated an interesting trend: powder suppliers, laser manufacturers, job shops and national initiatives are crossing paths and cooperating to advance AM applications in a growing number of industries. From localized, decentralized examples of job shops working together, to future visions of 3D printing human tissue and organs that haven't quite rendered yet, attendees were given a broad overview and an ability to zoom in on specifics on March 4 and 5th of this year. Participants were given the latest techniques to eliminate cracking, clad large parts and build high-value components from a cadre of industrial AM experts.
Keynote speaker Christoph Leyens of Fraunhofer IWS illustrated the potential material and cost savings or near net shape additive manufacturing — a great example was when he showed how the potential reduction of up to 5,000 euros per part when producing a strongly twisted titanium alloy leading edge for an aviation fan blade with AM vs. conventional machining techniques.
Next, Wolfgang Thiele demonstrated how BMW uses additive manufacturing to produce more than 100,000 parts a year for its consumer vehicles. Beyond consumer vehicles, BMW has AM to produce more than 600 parts for its motor sports division using aluminum alloy as well as the ReaLizer 250 machine for a complex engine component which required undercuts.
LAM co-chair Jim Sears of GE Global Research made an interesting point about encouraging engineers and designers to incorporate 3D printing into their processes by giving 100 desktop 3D printers to 1,000 members of an in-house makers’ guild extending to GE’s aviation, corporate, health-care, oil and gas, power and water, appliances and lighting divisions.
President Wayne Penn of Platinum Sponsor Alabama Laser highlighted cladding applications,
going into detail about the unique laser material deposition procedure they use to repair water wall panels. The panels are made up of multiple boiler tubes welded together and ranging from 10 to 40 feet long and up to 5 feet wide. Alabama Laser developed a patent-pending flying-optic system which will replace the process of moving the part to clad these undulating 3D surfaces with a fixed beam.
The next subject was higher speed multibeam additive manufacturing. Henner Schöneborn of SLM Solutions discussed their Quad Laser Technology, which uses four 400- to 700-watt fiber lasers. Max Schniedenharn of Fraunhofer ILT described a selective laser melting approach which uses a line of five diode lasers that can be switched on and off to compensate for difficult part geometries.
LAM General Chair Ingomar Kelbassa said, “We tried to address the entire process chain on the first day, from the raw material and design through additive manufacturing (AM) processes to adaptive finishing operations like five-axis milling. On the second day, we talked about what creates more awareness and visibility of laser-based additive manufacturing."
Kelbassa is an adjunct professor at Australia’s RMIT University, and he hoped that the stories shared at LAM 2015 would help both veterans and newcomers “get motivated for additive manufacturing in the future.”
LAM returns next year to Orlando on March 2-3, 2016, when past general chair Paul Denney of Lincoln Electric returns to oversee the event.