Engineering news
The world’s first additive manufacturing machine that can make plastic parts as quickly and as cheaply as traditional manufacturing is to be built by the University of Sheffield as part of a £1 million project.
The machine will build parts up to three times larger and 100 times faster than current comparable additive manufacturing (AM) machines, making it capable of challenging conventional injection moulding for high volume production.
The process, called high speed sintering (HSS), selectively fuses polymer powder layer by layer, similar to other AM processes. However, instead of using lasers, HSS prints infra-red-absorbing ink onto a powder bed. Once a layer has been printed it is exposed to infra-red light, which heats the powder covered by the ink, causing it to fuse, while the rest of the powder remains cool.
The new machine will be able to make parts up to 1m3 – which is three times bigger than existing machines. The speed will depend on the size of the product, but the team estimate that small components will be built at a rate of less than one second per part, allowing AM to compete with injection moulding for high volume manufacturing.
The machine is based on a technology developed by the University of Sheffield’s Faculty of Engineering Professor Neil Hopkinson, who originally filed patents on the process as lead inventor at Loughborough University. The technology for HSS is being licensed to industrial machine manufacturers on a non-exclusive basis, with new machines being expected on the market from 2017/18.
Professor Hopkinson said: “With additive manufacturing you can make more complex parts and make each part unique. You can also make the parts where they are needed, which reduces transport costs. Additive manufacture also limits the risks involved. With injection moulding, you have to make tools, which is expensive and has to be done in advance. With AM, you miss out that stage, moving straight from design to manufacture.
“Additive manufacturing is already being used to make tens of thousands of a product – such as iPhone covers – and 10 years ago that volume was unthinkable. This machine will enable serious production of volumes over one million, which is currently inconceivable. I believe history will repeat itself and in 10 years’ time, producing volumes over a million using additive manufacturing will be commonplace.”
The machine will be built in the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) before installation in the University’s Centre for Advanced Additive Manufacturing (AdAM), of which Professor Hopkinson is director.