Research Focus: Where is additive manufacturing heading?

Axel Wolf, from the Faculty of Engineering Sciences, will give a presentation as part of the ‘Medical Technology’ session on the topic ‘Slicer developments using an innovative rotary printer for medical prostheses’. As part of the research group led by Professors Jörg Hübler and Jörg Matthes, a proprietary 3D printer with a rotating print bed and four extruders is being used to integrate sensors into head prostheses.

In 3D Printing, a slicer is the software used to generate toolpaths, which converts the specific requirements of the workpiece being produced into instructions for the printer. Commercially available slicers operate within a Cartesian coordinate system. The newly developed printer, with its circular, rotating platform, requires commands to be calculated and output in a polar coordinate system. Furthermore, the positioning of specific components, such as sensors, is important right from the slicing process, as this information is also communicated to the printer via user-defined commands.

The application scenarios are diverse; the current project focuses on the production of head orthoses for young children. During the printing process, sensors can also be integrated directly to monitor wearing characteristics such as temperature and pressure.

Martin Erler from the Laser Institute at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences will give his closing plenary lecture on the topic: ‘Macro-SLM: A new process for the rapid additive manufacturing of large-volume metal components’. The aim of the process is to produce bespoke metal components in cubic-metre dimensions at a significantly higher build rate. This combines several new approaches: on the one hand, it utilises a powder bed that builds upwards; on the other, it employs laser powers in the multi-kW range and cost-effective metal granules to dramatically increase build rates and reduce manufacturing costs. By increasing the laser power, spot diameter, layer thickness and powder grain size, structural resolutions in the millimetre range are achieved, along with extremely high build rates of up to 10 kg/h. Macro-SLM thus represents a genuine alternative to metal casting and milling.