3Dprintingweb.jpg

Here at Corrotherm we like to keep one eye on the future, ensuring that we’re always up to date with new and innovative industry products and processes.

‘3D printing’ has been a buzzword for a while now, conjuring up space-age visions of creating items from thin air. However, additive manufacturing, to give 3D printing its technical name, is offering a promising solution in the manufacturing industry with a range of real-world applications right now.

Additive manufacturing, a process by which parts are built directly from 3D CAD data through Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), has the potential to offer cost-effective, fast and accurate production – so we can certainly see its appeal. While it currently remains a high-end and expensive process, the method is starting to show signs of development in industries such as aerospace and automotive. We think that it’s definitely a process to watch as it becomes more prominent over the next few years.

Always one to be leading the industry, our founder and CEO Jan Ward has a particular interest in 3D printing and how it could revolutionise production methods. In a recent article for specialist magazine title 3D fab+print (January/February 2016), Jan took the time to explain how different alloy grades are being used within additive manufacturing for different markets – hoping to inspire the engineers of tomorrow with the exciting potential of this technology.

DMLS uses high-grade fine powders to build up the parts, and different alloys have different applications. For example, Nickel Alloy INCONEL 625 offers heat and corrosion resistance, and could be used for seawater applications. Nickel Alloy INCONEL 718has good tensile, fatigue, creep and rupture strength at extremely high temperatures, which means that it has great potential for a wide range of applications, such as aero- and land-based turbine engine parts; rocket and space components; chemical and process industry parts; and oil well, petroleum and natural gas parts.

AM-X is widely used for gas turbine engine components, thanks to its strength and oxidation resistance up to 2,000°F. This key characteristic makes it a good option for combustion liners, turbine exhaust components, aircraft cabin heaters and transition ducts. Titanium grades are also popular in this 3D printing environment, in particular to manufacture parts for high-performance engineering applications, for example in aerospace or motor racing, thanks to it being both light and corrosion resistant.

Jan’s in-depth article is a really good read, going into more detail about the properties, characteristics and applications of these grades, as well as the others currently being developed to be used within the DMLS process.
For all the potential future applications, it is the advances that have already been happening that really get us excited. In 2013, Elon Musk tweeted a picture of a SuperDraco rocket engine chamber emerging from a 3D printer, a part composed of Inconel. This was followed SpaceX’s 2014 announcement of a flight-qualified version of the SuperDraco engine – the first fully printed rocket engine. We can’t wait to see what comes next!

We’re confident that 3D printing is going to have a huge impact in the industrial sector over the coming years and we’ll certainly be watching it unfold with interest.

Topics: Corrotherm News

Sign up for our blog