Metal Additive Manufacturing, often known as metal 3D printing, provides unrivaled creative freedom by allowing parts to be made from a variety of materials. Components that would have been impossible to manufacture just a few years ago can now be produced to high standards utilizing a variety of metal powders. Additive Manufacturing is no longer only a prototyping technique; it’s currently being utilized to produce series components for the most demanding applications. Additive Manufacturing, often known as 3D Printing, is a technique for creating three-dimensional parts layer by layer from a polymer or metal-based substance.
Additive Manufacturing is becoming increasingly popular, to the point that it’s difficult to discuss manufacturing process possibilities without mentioning it. It can be characterizedas producing a melt pool and adding material to an existing component, such as welding two components together, at a high abstract level, which isn’t particularly fascinating. However, in ded additive manufacturing DED is meant to be used today is novel since the idea is to the process, fine-tune it, and do far more than simply weld two components together.
Additive manufacturing process:
- CAD- The initial stage in the additive manufacturing process is to create a digital model. Computer-aided design is the most frequent way of creating a digital model. Metal additive manufacturing machines are compatible with a wide range of free and professional CAD systems. Through 3D scanning, reverse engineering can also be employed to create a digital model. When designing for additive manufacturing, there are various design factors to consider. These vary by technology and often focus on feature geometry limits and support or escape hole requirements.
- Printing- Because 3D printers generally have a large number of small and delicate elements, proper maintenance and calibration are essential for generating accurate prints. The print material is also loaded into the printer at this point. The raw ingredients used in additive manufacturing frequently have a short shelf life and must be handled with care. While some techniques allow for the recycling of excess building materials, if not replaced regularly, frequent reuse can cause material qualities to deteriorate. After the print has started, most additive manufacturing equipment doesn’t need to be watched.
- Print removal- In some additive manufacturing processes, detaching the printed part from the build platform is all that is required to remove the print. The removal of a print from other more industrial 3D printing processes is a highly technical operation that requires careful extraction of the print while it is still encased in the build substance or attached to the build plate. Complicated removal procedures, highly qualified machine operators, as well as safety equipment and regulated settings, are all required for these methods.
- Post-processing – The techniques for post-processing differ depending on the printing technology. SLA requires a component to cure under UV light before handling, metal parts frequently require stress relief in an oven, and FDM parts can be handled immediately. This is also eliminated at the post-processing stage for technologies that use support. To prepare a print for end-use, most 3D printing materials may be sanded, and additional post-processing procedures such as tumbling, high-pressure air cleaning, polishing, and colouring can be used.
