New automotive collaboration focuses on the 3D printing of steel inserts for two aluminium casting die components.
Metal additive manufacturing provider Amaero has signed an agreement with an unnamed automotive company for the co-development of 3D printed tooling.
The Australian company specialises in the manufacture of complex, large format metal components using laser-based additive manufacturing with machines from GE Additive Concept Laser, EOS and TRUMPF on its production floor. In a press release, the company said this new collaboration would apply to the steel inserts for two aluminium casting die components.
Amaero CEO Barrie Finnin, said: "This agreement reinforces Amaero's growth strategy in the most difficult of economic circumstances. We can print the tool steel inserts with complex internal cooling channels that presently cannot be undertaken using conventional techniques."
Amaero said the inclusion of AM inserts would seek to decrease the risk of any manufacturing defects (e.g. leakers) by adding conformal cooling channels to the design, while the cost benefits in reducing any rejects associated with casting, subsequent machining and assembly would be significant.
While Amaero has previous experience in AM tooling, having first manufactured tooling inserts four years ago, the company says this particular application area has only recently become a strategic focus. Finnin said the design, manufacture and testing of the inserts, combined with the subsequently-manufactured components, would inform a case study aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of conformal cooling in the aluminium die-casting process.
Finnin added: "Hopefully the case study will pave the way for these tooling components to be implemented into full-scale manufacturing.
"These tooling inserts are common to die-casting tools globally, and once this AM process is proven, there would be scope for significant global opportunities."
