FRAUNHOFER INSTITUT E FOR LASER TECHNOLOGY ILT
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
November 13, 2014 || Page 1 | 2
Selective laser melting: New machine design and exposure concept
facilitates scalable productivity and building space
A this year’s EuroMold, which takes place in Frankfurt from November 25-28, 2014, the Fraunhofer
Institute for Laser Technology ILT will for the first time present its new SLM machine design and
exposure concept. This solution makes it easy to scale productivity and building space at
significantly lower cost than previous machine designs allowed.
Additive manufacturing via selective laser melting (SLM) has been successfully
used to make prototypes and small-series production runs of predominantly
compact components for a number of years now. But users want the ability to
increase productivity via higher build-up rates, and would like more flexibility in
terms of available building space. Beyond this, it remains vitally important for
series production on an industrial scale to have robust process engineering with
reproducible component quality and the ability to monitor processes.
Experts are currently pursuing several approaches to increasing productivity and
building space. Until now, productivity has mainly been boosted by using higher
laser power in combination with optics systems that allow operators to adjust the
beam diameter. Larger building spaces are currently achieved through the use of
a movable single optical system or multiple parallel beam sources and scanner
systems.
Systematic advantages of the new design
Scientists at Fraunhofer ILT used funding provided by the Cluster of Excellence
»Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries« to develop, design
and build a new machine concept at their site in Aachen. Their design dispenses
with scanner systems altogether and instead relies on a printer head featuring
several individually controllable diode lasers that is moved using linear axes. The
advantage of multi-spot processing is that it means the system’s build-up rate
can be increased significantly by adding a virtually unlimited number of beam
Editorial Notes
Dipl.-Phys. Axel Bauer | Head of Marketing and Communications | Phone +49 241 8906-194 | axel.bauer@ilt.fraunhofer.de
Petra Nolis M.A. | Leader Communications Group | Phone +49 241 8906-662 | petra.nolis@ilt.fraunhofer.de
Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT | Steinbachstraße 15 | 52074 Aachen, Germany | www.ilt.fraunhofer.de
Steinbachstraße 15 | 52074 Aachen, Germany | www.ilt.fraunhofer.de
FRAUNHOFER INSTITUT E FOR LASER TECHNOLOGY ILT
sources – with no need for modifications to the system design, exposure control
software or process parameters. The new plant design also makes it possible to
increase building space simply by extending the travel lengths of the axis system
and without changing the optical system. In addition, the processing head has a
local shielding gas flow system that guarantees a constant stream of shielding gas
at each processing point, regardless of the size of the installation space. This is
essential for achieving position-independent, reproducible component quality. The
new design also allows process monitoring systems to be incorporated into the
production system. These monitoring systems can also be set up in much simpler
form than current coaxial systems allow.
PRESS RELEASE
November 13, 2014 || Page 2 | 2
Fraunhofer ILT at EuroMold 2014
Experts from Fraunhofer ILT will use a laboratory demonstrator to present their
new SLM machine concept at the joint Fraunhofer booth C66 in Hall 11.
Picture:
Laboratory system: Processing head
for scalable SLM machine designs.
Picture source: Fraunhofer ILT,
Aachen.
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is the largest organization for applied research in Europe. Its research activities are conducted by 67
Fraunhofer Institutes at numerous locations throughout Germany. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft employs a staff of more than 23,000, who
work with an annual research budget totaling 2 billion euros. Of this sum, 1.7 billion euros is generated through contract research. More
than 70 percent of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s contract research revenue is derived from contracts with industry and from publicly
financed research projects. Affiliated research centers and representative offices around the world provide contact with regions of greatest
importance to present and future scientific progress and economic development.
Contact
M.Sc. Florian Eibl | Rapid Manufacturing Group | Telephone +49 241 8906-193 | florian.eibl@ilt.fraunhofer.de
Dr. Wilhelm Meiners | Head of Rapid Manufacturing Group | Telephone +49 241 8906-301 | wilhelm.meiners@ilt.fraunhofer.de
Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, Aachen, Germany | www.ilt.fraunhofer.de
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