Public Funding for Alt Laser Limited

The use of additive manufactured (AM) components is increasing rapidly throughout key global industries. Many industrial applications for Additive Manufacturing have been developed over the last five years or so. Industries such as aerospace, automotive and medical are embracing the advantages of AM and implementing the technology successfully. AM projected value, including products and services, is valued at £5 billion in 2015 are forecasted to be £13 billion by 2021. Despite the huge potential that additive manufacturing offers, it is currently limited due to inaccuracy in manufacturing of parts,varying shape and different materials. Slow processing time and cost of post processing hinders the wider adoption of Additive Manufacturing for various industrial sectors including aviation. ADD-CAD will offer a software/Add-on solution for laser blown deposition additive manufacturing that will ultimately improve the design accuracy by 90% and will reduce the post machining and processing time and will help to prevent material waste, save up to 8% on materials costs, energy use and carbon emissions, preventing product recalls for manufacturers, facilitating market growth and generate new AM manufacturing sector jobs. ADD-CAD will be created through a powerful supply chain of 1 key AM systems and service provider SME, 2 innovative product manufacturer SMEs and 2 research organisations.

Additive manufacturing (AM) using laser cladding has the potential to replace many conventional manufacturing processes. Engineering parts are created by repeatedly adding and fusing thin layers of materials to a surface. Complex 3D shapes can be achieved with low component distortion and minimum heat input. However major drawbacks include a high wastage of the expensive powder and the erosion of the powder head. This is a key barrier to the wider adoption of AM to a broader range of applications particularly for large components. Advanced Laser Technology (ALT) have noted these limitations and will address them by developing a novel hybrid gas and ultrasonic powder delivery system.

There is an increasing demand for high performance materials most of which are not compactable with conventional cleaning techniques. Cleaning of these materials is essential to exploit their enhanced properties as surface contaminants can initiate premature part failure. The most widely employed cleaning method for engineering parts is acid etching which will be restricted to a large extent under the REACH legislation. In this project a novel adaptive laser cleaning system will be developed which can achieve right-first-time cleaning on most engineering materials.

Rising environmental concerns are encouraging industries such as aerospace, marine and automotive to improve their assembly weights by using lightweight materials. In Europe, the average emissions of all vehicles sold by an OEM in one year need to decrease from 140g/km to less than 75g/km by 2025 (McKinsey & Co). Corrugation has proven to produce lightweight, high strength structures. However metal sheets that are suitable for corrugation are thin, well below 1mm, and therefore vulnerable to destructive melting and warping when welded to a substrate. ALT will utilise the principles of thin foil welding of steel to eliminate these problems by processing a continuous laser weld. This will lead to the production of laser welded corrugated thin metal sheets that can form lightweight, high strength metal sheets to replace, heavier, plate steel sheeting

Additive manufacturing (AM) has the potential to replace many conventional manufacturing processes. Laser cladding (LC) is an AM technique for creating large engineering parts by repeatedly adding and fusing thin layers of materials to a surface. Complex 3D shapes and near shape parts can be achieved with low component distortion and minimum heat input. In LC, the supply of the additive material in one of the key factors controlling the process. The most advantageous and widely used method is powder injection. Current LC techniques are based on the gas delivery of metallic powders to the laser generated melt pool. A major drawback of this is that wastage of the expensive powder is high with efficiencies as low as 30 to 70%. This is a key barrier to the wider adoption of AM to a broader range of applications. The business opportunity for Advanced Laser Technology (ALT) is to develop a novel hybrid gas and ultrasonic powder delivery system for LC. There are clear benefits including 100% powder efficiency, increased system reliability and a cleaner and safer work environment.

In the Speed-Cut project advanced manufacturing techniques, developed within the aerospace sector, will be used to enable a high performance food processing unit to be developed. The new process will optimise component design and use of lightweight materials (titanium alloy) which will reduce the weight of processing heads whilst also offering prelonged life using advanced functionally graded materials. These assemblies will operate at far higher speeds and last considerably longer between service intervals than existing products. In addition to higher throughput, the new heads will process food with significantly reduced energy and commodity waste. This new flexible approach will allow customisation for optimised performance in different applications.

To develop a laser applied surface cladding technique using a sol gel that will help to decrease the manufacturing process to one stage as compared to traditional laser cladding technique; saving on time, energy, and material use to create less waste, and minimise storage. The process can be applied to a number of parts, without impacting on their dimensions, it can be applied to complex shapes and vertical surfaces without extra consideration of planning and manufacturing times.

Feasibility into a fully integated multi technology repair system based around laser deposition for heavy engineering industries where repair, refurbishment or re-manufacturing of heavy engineering components can be undertaken on-site rather than shipped out to remote workshops

The additive manufacturing (AM) market is a potentially growing market in every manufacturing sector. Estimated at $1.8 billion in 2012, it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.5% to reach $3.4 billion by 2017. Additive manufacturing (AM) has the potential to replace many conventional manufacturing processes. Laser cladding is an AM technology which is used to deposit a thin layer onto the surface of a material, e.g. to improve wear or corrosion resistance. The cladding material is usually in the form or wire or powder. With laser cladding, complex 3D shapes can be achieved while delivering a small heat zone, rapid solidification, increased cleanness and lower dilution. Wire-feeding laser cladding provide clear advantages over powder feeding or traditional solution such as arc welding including: 100% utilisation of filler material, reduced cost and energy savings. However, the technique is still mostly used on manual system limiting its wider adoption within industry. Compared with a powder cladding procedure, the laser wire cladding option offers better energy efficiency, full material efficiency (100% utilisation of filler material vs 30-70%), improved operational safety and health protection (no dust). The business opportunity for Advanced Laser Technology (ALT) is to develop a novel coaxial wire feeding laser additive manufacturing system for depositing or printing liquid metal droplets.

Advanced Laser Technology is seeking to develop a novel high speed laser cladding system to clad large vessels or metal plates to a standard of zero porosity for maximum resistance to corrosion. Existing cladding methods are time consuming and expensive. The challenge is to decrease manufacturing time while ensuring the component lasts significantly longer. Laser cladding has been used for several decades, however it is unsuitable for large areas as its typical deposition rate of ~1 kg/h is too slow to make the process economically advantageous There is a clear requirement for a high-speed process which can achieve deposition rates in excess of 15 kg/h, to provide a coating with zero porosity with reduced environmental impacts.