3D4MEC
3D4MEC and Fraunhofer collaborate on 3D4BRASS
Italian additive manufacturing company 3D4MEC is working with the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Additive Manufacturing Technologies IAPT on an in-situ optical monitoring system for its 3D4BRASS 3D printer.
The machine is thought to be the only AM system on the market capable of printing with brass, and the project aims to improve the stability and reliability, with real-time monitoring and corrections, for printing of such complex materials.
Testing specialist Thetascan GmbH is also on board the project and will provide an optical system to support further exploration into the capabilities of advanced 3D Optical Tomography (3D-OT).
Fabrizio Marino Corsini, Managing Director of 3D4MEC said: "The collaboration with Fraunhofer IAPT and Thetascan is a tremendous opportunity for 3D4MEC to strengthen our commitment to research and development, an area in which we have heavily invested over the past years. With this synergy, we aim to develop customised additive manufacturing solutions for special materials, meeting the specific needs of our clients and the market."
The resulting in-situ monitoring system is designed to be capable of detecting real-time defects during the selective laser melting process, and in turn, aims to reduce the amount of waste from production processes.
Dennis Jutkuhn, scientific assistant for In-situ Monitoring & Process Control in L-PBF of Fraunhofer IAPT added: "In 3D4MEC, we have found an excellent partner to move on and advance the further development of optical tomography technology beyond the state of the art by means of extended sensor integration and fusion of multiple sensing technologies for a data-based quality control in Laser Powder Bed Fusion. The project will also profit from our previous investigations into optical tomography with Thetascan."
The news follows similar collaborations centred around quality control solutions for additive manufacturing in recent months, such as Additive Industries's team up with Additive Assurance to enhance the process monitoring of metal 3D printed parts, and EOS's integration of Oqton’s Build Quality suite to deliver improved full end-to-end traceability of 3D printed parts.
