Renishaw shows new metal AM hardware and software solutions at fomnext powered by tct.
In the whirlwind of press conferences and product launches which manifested at formnext powered by tct last week, metal additive manufacturing (AM) and metrology leader, Renishaw, had several interesting developments to show including a new quad-laser metal 3D printer and advanced software solutions.
When I met with Robin Weston, Marketing Manager at Renishaw to find out what was new for the company this year, he said with so many new developments to talk about, it was difficult to pick a “star of the show” on the company's booth. With some stiff competition from shiny new hardware and smart monitoring software, for me the highlight was seeing a metal 3D printed part that was produced on its new RenAM 500Q system, to be used on the system itself - just the kind of validation the technology needs, a real industrial part being applied in a real industrial setting.
This new four-laser system almost quadruples the speed of printing for small and medium sized parts, like the one printed for the system itself (pictured below) which can be completed in 19 hours at 60 microns, with a substantial reduction in cost per part but the same level of quality. On the software side, Renishaw showed some intelligent solutions for monitoring the metal 3D printing process. Its new InfiniAM Central and InfiniAM Spectral products were running live on the booth and monitoring a build on the RenAM 500 system in real-time which Robin and David Ewing, Technical Marketing Engineer at Renishaw gave me a tour of.
Part printed ON the RenAM 500Q FOR the RenAM 500Q.
InfiniAM Spectral is an AM process monitoring and planning system that works alongside Renishaw’s LaserVIEW and MeltVIEW hardware. The tool provides feedback on the energy input and melt pool emissions by monitoring the signals coming from the melt pool and the laser energy going into the process. Contrary to traditional manufacturing where batch manufacturing is most common, the single or one-off nature of AM means there is often no model to benchmark a part against for subsequent builds, so this software has been developed to give engineers an alternative way to verify the process.
“It's very precisely spatially aligned so when you get that signal you know exactly where it has come from in three dimensions,” Robin explained. “So we look at the energy input, we measure that on the way in and then we look at the signals coming out of the melt pool and if those two graphs look pretty similar and follow each other along, you've got a stable process.”
In response to customer feedback, the company has taken steps to ensure that this is an easy-to-use tool that allows users to utilise data and feed that back into designing better parts, tweaking the process or adjusting their machine settings.
Comparing the software with current monitoring solutions, David commented during a demonstration: “Data comes off as a stream of ones and zeros, which is great if you're doing a PhD in data analysis but we want to make this a software tool that enables people to make decisions on their data really quickly, really simply.”
Renishaw is currently engineering the RenAM 500Q to be ready for the software but we also saw another update to Renishaw’s hardware in the form of automation which allows the machine to begin de-build operations and get the part ready before the operator comes into work. It’s not yet available to buy and was brought to formnext this year solely to put the feelers out but it’s a good indication of how automation is being incorporated into AM. Compared to the concepts of spotless automated factory floors, manned by robotics we saw from many vendors last year, most of which are yet to materialise, it was encouraging to see a more tangible and accessible idea of automation at this year’s show (also seen in Trumpf's latest machine model) which gave a truer picture of where the industry is up to.
Robin commented: “We wanted to get some feedback on that to see whether it would be good enough as it stands, whether we need to do some more work on it and whether it's something that will be part of the next generation of products that comes along.”
In addition to these latest products, Renishaw also announced a collaboration with Identify3D to offer an end-to-end, secure digital manufacturing process. Identify3D will provide data protection coupled with contractual and manufacturing licensing from design to production to enable users of Renishaw systems to protect their digital intellectual property, enforce production rules and provide traceability in the digital supply chain. This will be particularly beneficial in areas such as automotive and aerospace and defence where protection of data in the digital thread is vital. The two companies are currently working together on pilot projects for several manufacturing customers.
There was more to see at formnext last week than in any previous year (around 30 press conferences in total!) but Renishaw shied away from anything too theatrical, concentrating on the small steps it is taking to bring AM to mainstream production. One such subtle innovation which didn’t warrant a curtain drop but was significant nonetheless, was a high-temperature build showing the ability to heat the build plate to 500 °C up from the standard 200 °C. Renishaw is still in the early stages of experimentation into the benefits of this temperature differential but initial results show it could prove effective in broadening the metal AM material portfolio for materials that build up stress quickly, often cracking under pressure.
At a time when more low-cost metal machines are moving into the market making what was once a niche landscape, increasingly competitive, these seemingly small but significant progressions are more valuable than ever and exemplify the ever-increasing maturity level of the AM industry.
“Overriding themes are broadening the range of applications by making the systems more productive and actually allowing people who have already committed to additive manufacturing to do more with their assets, do more with the space in the factory, turn more parts out more quickly and bring the cost per part down,” Robin added. “I don't know what we're going to do next year!”
We will just have to keep looking a little closer, and wait and see.
