In 2019, Volkswagen announced that it would work with GKN and HP to produce 10,000 metal parts on the HP Metal Jet system, thus reiterating its commitment to automotive metal.3D printingPromise of. The HP Metal Jet system is based on a binder jetting processindirectMetal3D printingequipment.According to market observations from 3D Science Valley, GKN is cooperating with Hewlett-Packard on the Metal Jet system and adhesive injection3D printingThe process is optimized, and the optimization work focuses on the entire value chain of the technology, including: optimizing the binder spraying metal powderMaterial, Additive manufacturing for this processdesign,PrintCraftsmanship,Powder removalCraftsmanship, and after printingsinteringCraftsmanship, and will improve theDigital workflow, To provide support for the production of repeatable quality parts.
As a result, this indirect metal based on binder spray3D printingTechnology is transitioning to mass production and industrial application.
Binder sprayed metal3D printingTechnology complete value chain. Source: GKN Powder Metallurgy
Optimize indirect metals3D printingEvery link of
I Powder modification to increase the density of parts
Today, there are two main technologies for producing powders for additive manufacturing:
One uses gas atomization technology to produce highly spherical powders with good spreadability. These powders are expensive to manufacture and are limited in scalability. The other is the use of water atomization to produce powder materials, which is a cost-effective and scalable process that can produce more irregular powder particles.
Source: GKN Powder Metallurgy
GKN cooperated with Hewlett-Packard to propose the powder mixture method and the bimodal powder distribution method to bridge the gap between gas atomized powder and water atomized powder.
The powder mixture method is to mix gas and water atomized powder to increase the fluidity and productivity of the powder, while reducing costs; the bimodal powder distribution method refers to the combination of two sizes of powder, due to smaller particles Fills the gaps between the larger particles, thus resulting in a higher packing density.
Using the bimodal method can improve binder jetting3D printingPartsGreen density, Which can produce a higher sintered density. If the powder material can be spread evenly through a stable process, the density of the part will always remain high.
In addition, the work that needs to be optimized in terms of materials also includes rich binder injection3D printingMetal powders, such as materials developed for the manufacture of structural parts.
I Optimal design
Each manufacturing process has its own special part design constraints and design criteria. Binder injection3D printingTechnology is no exception.GKN is accumulating facing this3D printingTechnical design expertise.When facing industrial users, it is important to make them aware of the adhesive injection3D printingThe value that technology can bring to part design optimization.
Source: GKN Powder Metallurgy
The HP Metal Jet equipment used by GKN can achieve a part wall thickness between 1.3-30 mm (the upper limit is due to the need to burn off the binder). Due to the use of fine powder, the surface quality of the parts achieved by this technology can reach Rz (maximum profile height) 45 microns. The tolerance level of this technology is IT12-14. With the development of technology, this value will decrease. Parts manufactured by this technology have mechanical properties that meet the MPIF 35 standard.
I 3D printingUp to 50 times the productivity
The third part of the value chain is the printing process itself. HP Metal Jet 3D printingTechnology is a binder process. During printing, the device spreads a layer of metal powder on the printing bed, then deposits the binder to form the first layer of the part, and then repeats this process until the complete part is created.
Source: GKN Powder Metallurgy
According to GKN, the Metal Jet process will produce up to 50 times the productivity, suitable for mass production of up to 50,000.
I Automated powder removal process
The next step in the value chain is to remove printing powder.So far, most of the3D printingThe work of the powder is manual, but if the binder is sprayed3D printingTechnology is invested in the production of auto parts and other fields to produce thousands of parts, so manual powder removal is not a sustainable solution.
Source: GKN Powder Metallurgy
In this link, GKN believes that the room for improvement is the realization of automated powder and parts processing. GKN will cooperate with HP to carry out this optimization work.
I Full-scale control during the sintering process
GKN is a manufacturer in the field of powder metallurgy, and sintering technology is part of its business. At present, GKN has two sintering furnaces: batch furnace and continuous furnace.
Batch furnaces have many advantages, including material flexibility, good temperature and atmosphere control. Continuous furnaces also have their advantages, such as high productivity and good temperature control. From an industrial point of view, the sintering process is very mature, and GKN’s furnace meets the standards of the automotive industry and has been verified.
Characteristics after sintering: Due to the different placement positions, after sintering, the test parts show multiple layers and different mechanical properties. Source: GKN Powder Metallurgy
GKN found that the sintered binder sprayed metal3D printingParts are higher in density than metal injection molding (MIM) parts, but there is still room for improvement in terms of dimensional changes. The current dimensional change rate during the construction and sintering process is 2-3%. GKN hopes to be more powerful The printing and sintering workflow of the company achieves dimensional accuracy equivalent to that of metal injection molding.
I Catalyst for Industrialization-Digital Workflow
3D printingAs a typical digital manufacturing technology, technology is inseparable from the support of digital workflow in order to realize the application of industrialized production. In the digital workflow, GKN believes that it is necessary to establish a digital twin system for operations, and realize the digitization of the entire process from powder production to part production. Through digital twin technology, process control is enhanced and the quality is completely repeatable. .
Additive manufacturing digital twin system. Source: GKN Powder Metallurgy
GKN has targeted powder bed laser melting3D printingThe process has established a digital twin system, which can produce many synergistic effects and realize the digitization of the whole process from powder production to parts production.
3D Science Valley Review
The development of any new manufacturing technology is inseparable from the soil of application.And speaking of binder spray metal3D printingThe application of technology in production, we can turn the topic back to the cooperation between Volkswagen, HP and GKN. Take the automotive industry as an example to look at the industrial application prospects of this technology.
Volkswagen will apply HP Metal Jet in three phases 3D printingTechnology.
Initially, in order to strengthen the public’s3D printingAttention, Volkswagen passed the HP Metal Jet 3D printingThe system produces a miniature model of its new ID.3 electric vehicle for marketing purposes.
The next step is to carry out mass customization and the manufacture of decorative parts, and plan to install Metal Jet as soon as possible.3D printingofStructural partsIntegrate into next-generation vehicles and focus on the ever-increasing component sizes and technical requirements.
The future goal is to produce 50,000 to 100,000 football-sized parts every year.These3D printingComponents may include shift levers and rearview mirror brackets. Additive manufacturing will be deployed in the growing field of electric vehicle production with its advantages in lightweight. HP expects to produce metal parts that have undergone a complete safety certification process in the near future.
Passed 20193D printingMachine shipments, we can also see indirect metal3D printingTechnology development.According to 3D Science Valley’s partner CONTEXT, in the second quarter of 2019, metal3D printingThe top five manufacturers of equipment shipments (according to the number of units) are: GE, EOS, Markforged, Desktop Metal, and TRUMPF.In the first half of 2019, shipments of industrial printers on the domestic market in China were particularly strong, while new types of indirect metals such as Desktop Metal and Markforged3D printingThe solution has also been favored by the market.
(Editor in charge: admin)
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