Direct Metal Laser Sintering
Direct Metal Laser Sintering
(OP)
Has anyone used DMLS for production parts? I think I may have found an ideal application for this technology.
We do a lot of hydraulic manifolds, so they are low load (about 5000 PSI MAX) and have a complicated geometry. It would also change the way the manifolds are designed. It would make them more efficient and smaller. (because the connecting ports don't need to be drilled out, they connect where they need to)
I have not been able to find anyone that can support production runs. Everyone I have spoken to concentrates on prototyping but says the product is production ready.
We do a lot of hydraulic manifolds, so they are low load (about 5000 PSI MAX) and have a complicated geometry. It would also change the way the manifolds are designed. It would make them more efficient and smaller. (because the connecting ports don't need to be drilled out, they connect where they need to)
I have not been able to find anyone that can support production runs. Everyone I have spoken to concentrates on prototyping but says the product is production ready.





RE: Direct Metal Laser Sintering
RE: Direct Metal Laser Sintering
I would have thought the biggest problem for production was the cost; this is still an expensive process for any production parts. Having said all that the cost and quality keep improving with every new generation of machine.
I have no idea where in the world you are Jake but in the UK I doubt you would have any problems getting production runs done, basically they just want the machines running 24/7, maybe you should spread you search wider?
RE: Direct Metal Laser Sintering
Have no idea if the cost would be lower if the machine was brought in house.
RE: Direct Metal Laser Sintering
If you're looking at 316, I'll second Jabberwocky's comment that it will not be the same. Specifically your corrosion resistance will be significantly lower than wrought grade. There will be remnant porosity because you're not liquid phase sintering the product...I believe it's more akin to high temp sintering.
The cost to the process is prohibitive just because of the time it takes to "print" the prototype. It's used primarily for prototyping as it simulates the material and doesn't require us to build the mold tooling. I'm guessing that's why it hasn't gone mainstream yet. It's more of a sales tool than a production tool. Once prototyped, a multi-cavity mold and sintering furnace will outproduce the "printing" machine (for production quantity parts that is).
RE: Direct Metal Laser Sintering
Performance, however, particularly something that cannot be achieved otherwise, is a different matter. However, one can reasonably argue that someone who designs their part to not require the unique processing might have a cost advantage with little or no performance penalty.
TTFN
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RE: Direct Metal Laser Sintering
The idea was to take advantage of the build properties. Since it is build in layers you could have internal twists, turns, spirals, or what ever else you wanted but could never actually build using traditional machining methods.
I am under the impression that the DMLS process produces fully dense parts, unlike other metal RP prcesses.
I have spoken with several people that have used this process to build manifolds (prototype only, and did not take advantage of the unique build properties)
I got a couple of quotes as well as talked with a guy at my office that bought one of these machines for the last company he worked for and the only way it would work is if we actually bought a machine for ourselves. It would cost us the same as we spend now for machining and it would only work on the complicated manifolds. Simple manifolds would be cheaper to machine.
The problem is that hydraulic manifolds tend to be very large for this process. Maybe when the build time speeds up it would be more reasonable.
RE: Direct Metal Laser Sintering
They have an EOS DMLS machine.
RE: Direct Metal Laser Sintering
BK