The term 'Rapid Manufacturing' (RM) has been coined to describe the manufacture of end-use parts and components by additive layer technologies such as Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Stereolithography (SLA) and the most recent process Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), perhaps more accurately described as 'Laser Melting'. The principal advantage of making production parts directly using DMLS, is that there is no tooling required, and only a modest amount of machining and finishing. 98% of the powder not used to make the part is recycled and so the process is economical and environmentally friendly. There are, however, many more benefits from the process.
One notable feature of DMLS is that it is possible to create a part that has both external and internal complexity in one go. Not only does this mean that you can create highly functional parts, but you can potentially combine what would have been several parts into one, saving manufacture cost, reducing assembly time and increasing reliability.
Parts can be labeled directly using DMLS, building a number or other identifier directly into the part, an important attribute for traceability.
Because DMLS parts do not require tooling to make them, not only do you save on the tooling cost, but you can have as many or as few parts at a time as you want, saving on WIP inventory. You can even have small design variations for every single part and the DMLS process will treat them all in the same way. In effect, DMLS enables 'Mass Customisation'. For example, each of us is very different, but we could all have individually fitted replacement joints based on a single generic design, but manufactured to suit our own sizes and shapes.
There are many more advantages to DMLS, but what are the disadvantages? Whereas the DMLS process can make a vast range of complex forms, it cannot yet make absolutely any geometry. The melting process means that certain geometries need to be supported, causing some challenges to surface finish and requiring some post-finishing. These difficulties can be minimised by the skill of the manufacturer. There is a size limitation of about 220mm x 220mm x 200m high. If the part is particularly solid, then there can be some distortion due to residual stresses. Again, these can be minimised by a skilful operator. Overall however, the process has very many more upsides to downsides, offering enormous benefits for low volume production parts.
 |
 |
Rapid Manufacturing example: bed of Aerospace parts built using DMLS |
|
 |
|
Example of a finished Aerospace part |
|
- Email us your data for an instant quote.
 |
