Rapid manufacturing- state of the art, analysis and future perspectives

Layer based manufacturing system often referred to as Rapid Prototyping (RP) have been in existence for 22 years, in the past 5 years Rapid Manufacturing (RM) has emerged from these RP systems to produce functional and structural customer focused end use components and products. This keynote paper will review the current range of technologies for metallic systems, it will also evaluate the operating principles, features, potential and limitations of current commercially available systems. Rapid Manufacture is increasingly being used for high value difficult to manufacture components with a new set of design rules required to fully exploit the RM systems inherent characteristics. A case studies approach will be used to show the benefits and pitfalls this new design freedom can provide designers

Rapid Prototyping of PEM Fuel Cell Bi-Polar Plates using 3D Printing and Thermal Spray Deposition

This article presents the results of exploratory research on novel methods for the fabrication of functional, metallic, gas flow, bi polar plates (BPP) for use in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). Low cost, high speed, additive manufacturing methods that combine 3D printing (3DP) and thermal spray (TS) technologies are described. Functional flow plates were manufactured by creating 3DP patterns and then depositing, and releasing, dense metals with TS methods. The new method yields dense metal plates, with interesting options for material choices and complex designs.Mechanical Engineerin

A Review of Layer Based Manufacturing Processes for Metals

The metal layered manufacturing processes have provided industries with a fast method to build functional parts directly from CAD models. This paper compares current metal layered manufacturing technologies from including powder based metal deposition, selective laser sinstering (SLS), wire feed deposition etc. The characteristics of each process, including its industrial applications, advantages/disadvantages, costs etc are discussed. In addition, the comparison between each process in terms of build rate, suitable metal etc. is presented in this paper.Mechanical Engineerin

The potential of additive manufacturing in the smart factory industrial 4.0: A review

Additive manufacturing (AM) or three-dimensional (3D) printing has introduced a novel production method in design, manufacturing, and distribution to end-users. This technology has provided great freedom in design for creating complex components, highly customizable products, and efficient waste minimization. The last industrial revolution, namely industry 4.0, employs the integration of smart manufacturing systems and developed information technologies. Accordingly, AM plays a principal role in industry 4.0 thanks to numerous benefits, such as time and material saving, rapid prototyping, high efficiency, and decentralized production methods. This review paper is to organize a comprehensive study on AM technology and present the latest achievements and industrial applications. Besides that, this paper investigates the sustainability dimensions of the AM process and the added values in economic, social, and environment sections. Finally, the paper concludes by pointing out the future trend of AM in technology, applications, and materials aspects that have the potential to come up with new ideas for the future of AM explorations

Micro-manufacturing : research, technology outcomes and development issues

Besides continuing effort in developing MEMS-based manufacturing techniques, latest effort in Micro-manufacturing is also in Non-MEMS-based manufacturing. Research and technological development (RTD) in this field is encouraged by the increased demand on micro-components as well as promised development in the scaling down of the traditional macro-manufacturing processes for micro-length-scale manufacturing. This paper highlights some EU funded research activities in micro/nano-manufacturing, and gives examples of the latest development in micro-manufacturing methods/techniques, process chains, hybrid-processes, manufacturing equipment and supporting technologies/device, etc., which is followed by a summary of the achievements of the EU MASMICRO project. Finally, concluding remarks are given, which raise several issues concerning further development in micro-manufacturing

Advanced composite airframe program: Today's technology

The Advanced Composite Airframe Program (ACAP) was undertaken to demonstrate the advantages of the application of advanced composite materials and structural design concepts to the airframe structure on helicopters designed to stringent military requirements. The primary goals of the program were the reduction of airframe production costs and airframe weight by 17 and 22 percent respectively. The ACAP effort consisted of a preliminary design phase, detail design, and design support testing, full-scale fabrication, laboratory testing, and a ground/flight test demonstration. Since the completion of the flight test demonstration programs follow-on efforts were initiated to more fully evaluate a variety of military characteristics of the composite airframe structures developed under the original ACAP advanced development contracts. An overview of the ACAP program is provided and some of the design features, design support testing, manufacturing approaches, and the results of the flight test evaluation, as well as, an overview of Militarization Test and Evaluation efforts are described

ARMD Workshop on Materials and Methods for Rapid Manufacturing for Commercial and Urban Aviation

This report documents the goals, organization and outcomes of the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorates (ARMD) Materials and Methods for Rapid Manufacturing for Commercial and Urban Aviation Workshop. The workshop began with a series of plenary presentations by leaders in the field of structures and materials, followed by concurrent symposia focused on forecasting the future of various technologies related to rapid manufacturing of metallic materials and polymeric matrix composites, referred to herein as composites. Shortly after the workshop, questionnaires were sent to key workshop participants from the aerospace industry with requests to rank the importance of a series of potential investment areas identified during the workshop. Outcomes from the workshop and subsequent questionnaires are being used as guidance for NASA investments in this important technology area

Octree-based production of near net shape components

Near net shape (NNS) manufacturing refers to the production of products that require a finishing operation of some kind. NNS manufacturing is important because it enables a significant reduction in: machining work, raw material usage, production time, and energy consumption. This paper presents an integrated system for the production of near net shape components based on the Octree decomposition of 3-D models. The Octree representation is used to automatically decompose and approximate the 3-D models, and to generate the robot instructions required to create assemblies of blocks secured by adhesive. Not only is the system capable of producing shapes of variable precision and complexity (including overhanging or reentrant shapes) from a variety of materials, but it also requires no production tooling (e.g., molds, dies, jigs, or fixtures). This paper details how a number of well-known Octree algorithms for subdivision, neighbor findings, and tree traversal have been modified to support this novel application. This paper ends by reporting the construction of two mechanical components in the prototype cell, and discussing the overall feasibility of the system

Micro Thin Film Sensor Embedding in Metal Structures for Rapid Production of Miniature Smart Metal Tooling

In-situ monitoring and control of temperature and strain is important to improve product quality for numerous mesoscale manufacturing processes. However, it is difficult for conventional sensors to provide measurements with a high spatial and temporal resolution at critical locations. This paper studies the fabrication and calibration of micro thin film sensors embedded in metal structures for miniature tooling applications. Micro thin film sensors have been successfully fabricated on various metal substrates and advanced embedding techniques have been developed to ensure sensor function inside metal structures. Specifically, multilayer dielectric/metal thin film micro sensors were embedded into layered metal structures by ultrasonic welding (USW). These embedded sensors provided superior spatial and temporal resolutions. Smart tooling technique will improve safety and reliability significantly for manufacturing processes.Mechanical Engineerin

Survey on Additive Manufacturing, Cloud 3D Printing and Services

Cloud Manufacturing (CM) is the concept of using manufacturing resources in a service oriented way over the Internet. Recent developments in Additive Manufacturing (AM) are making it possible to utilise resources ad-hoc as replacement for traditional manufacturing resources in case of spontaneous problems in the established manufacturing processes. In order to be of use in these scenarios the AM resources must adhere to a strict principle of transparency and service composition in adherence to the Cloud Computing (CC) paradigm. With this review we provide an overview over CM, AM and relevant domains as well as present the historical development of scientific research in these fields, starting from 2002. Part of this work is also a meta-review on the domain to further detail its development and structure