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Fraunhofer ILT: Making Tungsten Carbide-Cobalt Cutting Tools with LPBF 3D Printing

Obviously, the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT does a lot of work with lasers, and, in the same vein, with metal 3D printing processes that use lasers. Now, it’s teaming up with scientists from the Institute for Materials Applications in Mechanical Engineering IWM and the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering WZL, both at RWTH Aachen University, to investigate laser processes for the 3D printing of cutting tools made of tungsten carbide-cobalt (WC-Co).

The new AiF project – “Additive Manufacturing of Machining Tools out of WC-Co – AM of WC-Co” – began on October 1st 2019 and will last for 30 months; funding is provided by the Otto von Guericke e.V. working group of industrial research associations.

Cutting tools made of WC-Co are very heat- and wear-resistant, which is what one generally wants in this type of application, but it’s not easy to use conventional methods of manufacturing to create them. Complex sintering processes are currently used, but it’s not ideal, as only a restricted amount of geometrical freedom is possible, and it’s expensive and difficult to introduce complex cooling structures into the tools as well.

The process development aims to generate a homogeneous, almost dense structure of the WC-Co-composite, as shown here in this SEM measurement. [Image: Institute for Materials Applications in Mechanical Engineering IWM, RWTH Aachen University]

One of the project goals is to create cutting tools with integrated complex cooling geometries in order to ensure longer tool life. That’s why the Aachen researchers are looking into Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) 3D printing for WC-Co cutting tool fabrication, which offers near-net-shape production for generation of cooling structures within these tools, and far more design freedom. This technology requires users to carefully choose their process and material parameters in order to create components with strength that’s comparable to what could be achieved with conventional manufacturing methods.

For the past few years, Fraunhofer ILT scientists have been researching a major problem in the LPBF process – temperature distribution in the part. Conventional systems slow down the cooling process with a heated base plate, but with LPBF, the metal powder is melted where the laser touches it and cools down quickly, which can cause cracks and tension.

Fraunhofer ILT has been working with adphos Innovative Technologies GmbH on this issue, and together the two created a system which uses a near-infrared (NIR) emitter to heat the component from above to over 800°C. This system is what Fraunhofer ILT and its fellow Aachen researchers are using to process tungsten carbide-cobalt material for cutting tools in the “AM of WC-Co” project.

Under the scope of the project, the researchers are investigating the process route all the way from powder formation and 3D printing to post-processing and testing the components. Together, they will qualify the materials and processes that will replace complex sintering processes in fabricating these cutting tools.

Preheating the machining plane with the NIR module significantly reduces stresses in the laser-manufactured component. [Image: Fraunhofer ILT]

3D printed WC-Co cutting tools will have a hardness comparable to those made with conventional manufacturing methods, but because of the cooling structures that the LPBF process can be used to create, they will have a longer service life. Additionally, the NIR emitter system developed by Fraunhofer ILT and adphos can lay the groundwork for processing refractory alloy systems in the future.

At formnext 2019, in Frankfurt from November 19-22, you can stop by the Fraunhofer Additive Manufacturing Alliance booth D51 in Hall 11 to learn more about the collaborative “AM of Wc-CO” project.

Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below. 

[Source: Fraunhofer ILT]

The post Fraunhofer ILT: Making Tungsten Carbide-Cobalt Cutting Tools with LPBF 3D Printing appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

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New 3D printing jobs and future opportunities: ExOne, Uniformity Labs, Evonik, Fraunhofer ILT

New 3D printing jobs are currently open to applications. In this update, we have the latest vacancies from leading 3D printer provider ExOne, and an opening from East Bay startup Uniformity Labs. In addition, we cover the latest personnel movements and facility openings from across the industry, indicative of new potential opportunities and activities across the […]
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Fraunhofer ILT Heads Up AddSteel: Development of New Materials for the Steel Industry through Additive Manufacturing

The North Rhine-Westphalia Leitmarkt project AddSteel has just been announced, targeting digitalization of the steel industry. This project launch marks the beginning of a three-year project headed up by SMS group GmbH, a plant engineering company headquartered in Mönchengladbach.

The AddSteel project team has already met with success in one of their initial projects, developing the first case-hardening and heat-treatable steel powders designed specifically for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) applications. Now, a main focus of AddSteel will be to qualify developed materials for metallic LPBF processes at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen.

One impetus behind this project is declining sales for steelmakers in Germany—specifically in North Rhine-Westphalia. With progressive materials and technology, steelmakers will have the opportunity for a new advantage in the economy overall; however, this means meeting a wide range of demands for customers who may be involved in complex endeavors, requiring complex products that are lightweight, can be made more efficiently, and may be more affordable too (a good example would be crash-resistant parts for cars).

Metallic 3D printing allows users to take manufacturing to the next level, creating high-performance components with better functionality—and increased sustainability for the steel industry. The AddSteel project ties in with the work scientists have been involved in at Fraunhofer ILT for the past few years, beginning with a prototyping method for LPBF which has now evolved into a comprehensive industrial process for fabrication of complex geometries in low batch volume. Using digital data also helps to improve part performance.

In the NRW Leitmarkt project AddSteel, powders for metallic 3D printing using the LPBF process are produced from special, adapted alloys.

Currently, LPBF is being used in applications like aerospace and medicine to make complex parts, but there are still limitations in producing case-hardening and heat-treatable steel, with a lack of qualified, suitable materials. Development of new steel materials is a serious undertaking, however, as it requires more than just refinement of technique and hardware. Researchers must possess all the correct elements in just the right combination, along with the help and resourcefulness of metallurgists.

“The AddSteel project partners have chosen to develop alloys in an iterative process, combined with systematic adjustments to the LPBF process and equipment,” states the Fraunhofer ILT team in their latest press release. “This will be followed by the construction of technology demonstrators for fabricating new components and spare parts that will be used to test and validate performance and cost-efficiency.”

AddSteel was created to solve these issues, with support from North Rhine-Westphalia’s Leitmarkt funding program, and the following partners:

  • SMS group GmbH (Mönchengladbach)
  • Deutsche Edelstahlwerke Specialty Steel GmbH & Co. KG (Krefeld)
  • Aconity GmbH (Herzogenrath)
  • Fraunhofer ILT (Aachen)

“A plant has already been built at SMS group that can nozzle suitable metal powders,” reports Andreas Vogelpoth, a member of the Laser Powder Bed Fusion Group and head of the AddSteel project at Fraunhofer ILT. “Deutsche Edelstahlwerke Specialty Steel is now supplying the new alloys that Fraunhofer ILT will soon be testing on its LPBF system, after the alloys have been converted into powder form.”

Find out more about the project at formnext 2019 in Frankfurt, Germany, from November 19th – 22nd, at the Fraunhofer joint booth D51 in Hall 11.

Fraunhofer ILT is a huge contributor to the realm of additive manufacturing processes, bringing forth so many other projects too—from sensor technology, to new techniques in the medical field, better precision and speed in 3D printers, lasers, and far more. What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

For new, tailor-made steels, the AddSteel project partners combine the elements cobalt, carbon, molybdenum, vanadium and tungsten, among others, and vary the corresponding alloy constituents.

[Source / Images:  Fraunhofer ILT]

The post Fraunhofer ILT Heads Up AddSteel: Development of New Materials for the Steel Industry through Additive Manufacturing appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

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Fraunhofer ILT to Unveil Bidirectional Sensor Technology at LASER World

Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (ILT) is set to show off their latest innovation, this time with bidirectional sensor technology, for laser material deposition—to be used in commercial optics applications. The Fraunhofer ILT team will be demonstrating the benefits of this new process at LASER World of PHOTONICS 2019  (booth A2.431), running from June 24-27.

This technology is not exactly new as Fraunhofer ILT explains in their latest press release, but rather their »bd-1« sensor technology is proven, due to ten years of research and development centered around production measurement technology. The »bd-1« sensors have been tested in measuring metal strip thickness:

“Since the process operates bidirectionally, the laser measuring radiation takes the same path back and forth. Transmitter and receiver do not have to be aligned with each other; therefore, the measuring radiation can also be guided via scanner mirrors or other deflection devices. For this reason, the »bd-1« measurement technology can be combined very well with laser beams used for laser deposition, for example,” states the Fraunhofer ILT team.

Circulating measuring spot for inline measurements of LMD track heights.

Originally used with an in-house optical system at the Fraunhofer ILT facility, the measurement technology works with standard commercial optics, offering easy solutions for industrial users due to the compact design of the accompanying »bd-1« measuring heads which can be ‘easily integrated’ into optics systems.

“In order to measure applied track heights independently of direction, the measuring radiation is coupled coaxially to the processing radiation and deflected around the application point via mirrors,” states the Fraunhofer ILT team.

With the »bd-1« sensor technology, users can look forward to invaluable mechanisms that allow for much better surveillance, performance and QA in real-time manufacturing with powder- and coaxial wire-based LMD processes. The sensors can also be used for monitoring other applications like laser drilling and laser microstructuring.

Laser processing optics with »bd-1« sensor and compact measuring beam deflection for inline geometry measurements.

This new technology is just evidence of one of many different research and development projects happening at Fraunhofer ILT where they create and test a variety of different applications for laser plant technology, modeling and simulation, metrology, and a variety of processes like cutting and drilling, welding, soldering, microprocessing, and additive manufacturing.

With headquarters in Aachen, Germany, Fraunhofer ILT employs more than 540 individuals and maintains over 19,500 m² net floor space for R&D activities. They also make up just one portion of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft—comprised of 72 different institutes.

As 3D printing and electronics continue to grow together with countless innovations, many industrial users are also pointing the benefits toward sensor technology from embedded sensors to strain sensors to biomedical and robotic also.

What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

[Source / Images: Press release from Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT]

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Fraunhofer ILT scientists to develop SLA Multi-Photon Polymerization 3D printer

Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Germany are developing a 3D printer integrating both stereolithography (SLA) and multi-photon polymerization (MPP) for the speedy production of high-precision polymer structures. The project “High Productivity and Detail in Additive Manufacturing through the Combination of UV Polymerization and Multi-Photon Polymerization – HoPro-3D”, ultimately aims to […]
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Results of Daimler and BMW AutoAdd Project Show that 3D Printing for Mass Production in Automotive Industry is Possible

[Image: Fraunhofer ILT]

Within the framework of the “Photonic Process Chains” funding initiative by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), several partners – two research institutes and five companies, to be exact – are focusing on 3D printing in the automotive industry. The “Integration of Additive Manufacturing Processes in Automobile Series Production – AutoAdd” research project is coordinated by Daimler AG, and its findings show that by holistically integrating the metallic laser powder bed fusion process (LPBF), also known as SLM and DMLS, developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (ILT) into automotive series production, unit costs can go way down.

The BMBF has been working on several projects in order to promote the intelligent linking of photon-based manufacturing processes, like metal 3D printing, as a means to produce complex or individualized products. Its aim is to create flexible, conceptual hybrid manufacturing designs, which can then be used for production purposes. But, out of all 14 joint projects in the funding initiative, which began in 2015 and ended in May, AutoAdd should make it easier to use 3D printing in the automotive industry within just three years.

In addition to Fraunhofer ILT and Daimler, the AutoAdd project partners include:

  • BMW
  • GKN Sinter Metals Engineering GmbH
  • Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
  • Netfabb GmbH
  • TRUMPF Laser- und Systemtechnik GmbH

[Image: TRUMPF]

These partners are working to lower unit costs by integrating the LPBF process chain into the automotive mass production environment, in order to develop a new hybrid process chain. Daimler and the BMW Group worked together to define the necessary requirements for the new additive process chain, and then Fraunhofer ILT and TRUMPF used the chain to create a variety of plant and finishing conceptual designs for 3D printing.

In addition to a modular system architecture that allows for the use of an “interchangeable cylinder principle” and multiple beam sources, potentially production-ready optical designs were created. The AutoAdd partners also analyzed GKN’s novel scalable materials, as well as created some promising post-processing concepts that could be automated, such as support structure removal.

KIT was the partner which ended up evaluating these new factory designs.

According to a Fraunhofer ILT press release, “Using a simulation model, the engineers of the wbk Institute for Production Science visualized an exemplary, conventional process chain, in which they were able to design various possible LPBF plant concepts. With methods such as cost or benchmark analyzes, they were able to compare the new approaches from a technical and economic point of view with previous ones.”

Long-term recording of the contour exposure during 3D printing of a grinding wheel. [Image: MTU Aero Engines AG]

There were several positive effects stemming from the €3.37 million project, at least in terms of academics. There was enough useful content from AutoAdd to fuel four separate dissertations, and this knowledge can also be used for lectures in the future. Next year, a new project, partially based on the AutoAdd results, will launch that’s focused on line-integration of 3D printing to “implement the designed additive process chain.”

The joint project results are interesting and impressive, showing that it is indeed possible to achieve additive mass manufacturing. For instance, the whole process chain can be automated, making it more efficient and cost-effective, as the team discovered that modular cylinders and wet-chemical immersion baths are effective ways to remove, batchwise, components during post-processing. In addition, common metrics for evaluating LPBF manufacturing equipment were developed by the AutoAdd project partners, which can be used to identify popular equipment manufacturers for a large-scale benchmarking exercise.

“By using standardized benchmark jobs with different test specimens, industrial users can now calculate transferable key figures with which they will be able to find the most economical system for their purposes,” the press release noted.

One of the most, if not the most, important points the AutoAdd team needed in order to make 3D printing ready for series production was the ability to reproduce mechanical properties. The partners took an important fundamental step by demonstrating and evaluating this feature in multiple facilities – showing that it is possible to integrate an economic additive process chain in automotive mass production.

Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below. 

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Formnext 2018 – the 3D Printing Industry first look

3D Printing Industry took a morning run through what is set to be a record breaking event. Here are some of our first impressions of Formnext 2018. Our team will be in Frankfurt all week to bring you detailed coverage of the 4th edition of what has become the main event on a crowded additive […]
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Find Prodways, Farsoon, Stratasys, Sabic and more 3D printing at Formnext 2018

Inside floor 3.1 of formnext 2017. Photo by Beau Jackson of 3D Printing Industry Formnext, the largest additive manufacturing and 3D printing trade show in Europe will take place in three weeks time from the 13th through to the 16th November 2018. In the lead up to one of the most highly anticipated shows of the year, 3D Printing Industry is collecting all of the latest product release teasers […]
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Fraunhofer’s TwoCure technology realized in industry-ready 3D printer

TwoCure, an innovative SLA-based 3D printing method created at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Germany, has been developed into a prototype additive manufacturing system. First presented by the institute and its partner German prototyping specialist Rapid Shape GmbH, TwoCure technology seeks to eliminate challenges associated with post processing. Support-free 3D printing  Like […]
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VCSEL Process Developed by Fraunhofer ILT Reduces Stresses in Metal 3D Printed Components

The component preheated with VCSEL (right) has significantly less distortion than the component not preheated for the exposure process.

Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (Fraunhofer ILT) is responsible for a great deal of research into 3D printing. The institute has developed technology that addresses common problems in metal additive manufacturing, created large-scale 3D printing solutions, and introduced hybrid 3D printing processes, just to name a few of its accomplishments. Now, as formnext 2018 approaches, Fraunhofer ILT is debuting another new technology.

Internal stresses in metal 3D printed components produced by laser powder bed fusion are caused by temperature gradients. The part in the laser spot is heated to a temperature above the melting point, while the rest of the component cools rapidly. This can even lead to cracks in the part, depending on the geometry and material. To prevent this, the component is usually heated from below the build plate, but that isn’t always sufficient, especially with taller parts.

As part of the Digital Photonic Production DPP research campus, a funding initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Fraunhofer ILT has been working with its partner Philips Photonics to develop a better solution. In a project called DPP Nano, they have developed a process in which the component is heated from above.

In the new process, an array of six vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser bars (VCSEL), 400W each, is installed in the process chamber. With infrared radiation at 808 nm, the array can heat the component to several hundred degrees Celsius during the building process. The bars can also be individually controlled to produce different patterns. The whole process is monitored with an infrared camera.

In one experiment, engineers from Fraunhofer ILT 3D printed parts with Inconel 718, heating them up to 500°C. The parts showed significantly reduced distortion. The VCSEL heating reduces the thermal gradient and therefore the potential for stress, allowing taller components to be built. Fraunhofer ILT will soon be testing the process with more challenging materials, such as titanium alumides. These components will be heated to approximately 900ºC. Parts made from these materials are commonly used in the hot gas section of turbochargers.

The new process opens up possibilities for applications beyond turbomachinery, particularly in industrial sectors where thermally induced stresses have to be reduced.

Fraunhofer ILT is one of the most prominent institutions in the field of laser technology. It offers feasibility studies, process qualification and laser integration, and its activities include developing new laser beam sources and components, precise laser based metrology, testing technology and industrial laser processes. Founded more than 30 years ago, Fraunhofer ILT employs 500 people and has a net floor space of more than 19,500 meters squared.

Formnext is taking place in Frankfurt from November 13th to 16th, expecting 470 exhibitors and nearly 22,000 visitors. Fraunhofer ILT will be at Booth 370 and will be presenting and discussing the new VCSEL process. In addition, Fraunhofer’s Andreas Vogelpoth will give a presentation on “VCSEL-Based Preheating for LBPF” on November 15th at 3:00 PM.

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

[Source/Images: Fraunhofer ILT]