Titanium heat exchanger produced with Metal AM with a glass-bead-blasted finish.The threads are milled.
Belgian additive manufacturing (AM) leader, Materialise has announced a partnership with IT services company, HCL Technologies (HCL), to develop a platform that provides increased integration for hybrid manufacturing of metal parts.
Hybrid manufacturing combines the benefits of subtractive and additive manufacturing processes. The collaboration will see CAMWorks software from HCL powered by Materialise AM technology to leverage the design freedom of AM along with the speed and accuracy of CNC machining.
The integration of AM and CAM software in one platform will enable traceability of the production process while saving redundant manual work. Users of the new CAMWorks AM module Powered by Materialise, will be able to create support structures directly in CAMWorks and interface with the main metal printers via the Materialise Build Processor.
Expected to be available later this year, the partnership represents the first initiative to provide an integrated CAD/CAM solution for hybrid manufacturing in a SOLIDWORKS environment.
“The market space and applicability of the additive manufacturing technology has been growing dramatically in the past 5 years. Integration with current manufacturing systems is the next step to unlock digital transformations in manufacturing,” says Stefaan Motte, Vice President of Software at Materialise. “This requires in-depth understanding of both subtractive and additive processes. We are certain that companies adopting hybrid manufacturing will benefit greatly from this collaboration, which combines our 30 years of experience in AM with the CAM expertise of HCL.”
GH Rao, President of Engineering and R&D Services (ERS) at HCL Technologies added: “We are very excited with the new partnership and the potential hybrid manufacturing offers to the future of computer-aided design and manufacturing. By combining advanced integrated CAM technology from HCL with the innovative 3D printing technology from Materialise, we look forward to enabling companies to create innovative products which can be brought to the market faster and at a lower cost.”
