Additive manufacturing
Saving with metal printing
In the newly opened 3D printing laboratory for metals and structural materials at the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst Mach Institute, EMI, researchers have investigated how resource-efficient the manufacturing process is when lightweight aluminum components are additively manufactured. The result: even small savings in material and resources per component result in high cost savings in series production. The combination of additive manufacturing and intelligent lightweight design is crucial for resource-efficient production.
A wheel carrier was manufactured as a component for the test. "We were able to quantify how lightweight construction and, in particular, the use of structural optimization methods affect the resources used during the manufacturing process using SLM," says Klaus Hoschke, scientist and group leader at Fraunhofer EMI. The focus was on the power and material requirements, production time andCO2 emissions associated with the small series production of 12 wheel carriers.
The numerically optimized version of the wheel carrier saved 15 percent of the energy required for the additive process compared to the conventional design. The conventional design required 12 kilowatt hours of electricity, while the numerically optimized design only required 10 kilowatt hours - the measured value in each case relates to a component in series production. Production time was reduced by 14 percent andCO2 emissions by 19 percent. At 28 percent, the material savings were even greater. cs
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