AMB 2018

•••29••• Innovationen Efficient use of resources How 3D printing of metals can save costs in manufacturing A dditive Manufacturing has es- tablished itself in many indus- trial sectors as a method for mak- ing plastic parts. The 3D printing of metals is on the road to becom- ing a similar success story. In the newly opened 3D-Printing Lab for Metals and Structural Materials at the Fraunhofer Institute for High- Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach- Institut (EMI) researchers have investigated how resource-effi- cient the manufacturing process is when lightweight aluminium components are manufactured using additive methods. They discovered that even margin- al reductions in the material and re- sources used per component yield high cost savings in series manu- facturing. The 3D-Printing Lab for Metals and Structural Materials at Fraunhofer EMI in Freiburg houses one of the largest commercially available 3D printers for metal cur- rently in existence. In the research sector, an apparatus of this size is unique. Using the selective laser melting technique, metal struc- tures with dimensions of up to 40 centimetres can be made by ad- ditive manufacturing. 3D printing offers completely new ways of designing components with high- ly complex shapes and optimizing their weight. But it is only by combining Addi- tive Manufacturing and intelli- gent lightweight design that you can maximize resource efficiency in manufacturing. Fraunhofer re- searchers in the 3D-Printing Lab have investigated just how eco- nomical the manufacturing pro- cess is in terms of resources, and whether material and operating costs can be minimized compared to conventional industrial meth- ods. To do this, they took a prac- tical, widespread component for their tests: a wheel carrier such as might be used in a lightweight ve- hicle. “We were able to quantify the effect lightweight construc- tion – and specifically the use of structural optimization methods – has on the resources used in the SLM manufacturing process,” says Klaus Hoschke, scientist and group leader at Fraunhofer EMI. The focus was on energy and ma- terial consumption, the manufac- turing time and the CO 2 emissions that arise during the small-scale production of twelve wheel bear- ings. After the researchers had used the numerical finite ele- ment method (FEM) to simulate and analyze a draft design and determine the right geometric shape with structural optimiza- tion methods, they constructed the wheel bearing in an optimized lightweight design. The result was a wheel bearing designed for the defined load scenarios and of- fering maximum performance. Because of their geometric com- plexity, structures produced in this way cannot be manufactured by conventional methods such as milling or turning. “With the lighter model, we were able to save hugely on resources during production, as less material has to be produced per component. If you multiply this by the number of units in a small-scale run, then you require less time, material and en- ergy for manufacturing. Reducing volume through the use of high- er-strength materials offers the greatest potential for energy sav- ings here,” says the researcher. Lattice cube with edge length of 40 centimetres, one of the largest metal structures manufactured using selective laser melting (SLM) Photo: Fraunhofer EMI CLEAN SWEEP -RM Die neue Generation Späneförderer Halle 8 Stand D61 BESUCHEN SIE UNS! MAYFRAN GMBH Krantzstraße 7 52070 Aachen DE +49 241 9387-20 +49 241 175080 info@mayfran.de www.mayfran.de