Formnext 2024

Plasma polishing is a process with which any contours can be reworked. No pre-treatment or special cleaning is required. The process uses environmentally friendly electrolytes (salt solutions) and does not involve the use of environmentally harmful substances or highly concentrated acids. Furthermore, structured surfaces have a demonstrably positive influence on the cleaning result, which is advantageous for the food and pharmaceutical industries, among others.

Stream finishing is a variation of vibratory finishing and is used for surface processing. The process enables several parts to be processed simultaneously in batches and can be automated very easily. Depending on the requirements, many different processes can be used. The end result is very smooth to polished surfaces with Ra < 0.1 μm depending on the number of grinding processes and the previous surface.

Selective multi-color coating involves overspray-free painting without masking and without paint loss. First, the flexible component is roughly positioned in a cell. This is followed by laser scanning for position detection, whereby a point cloud of the component surface is recorded. The decor is then painted on without overspray.

Mass finishing plays a crucial role in the post-processing of metal parts produced by additive manufacturing, improving both appearance and performance. In this process, parts are placed in a vibratory finishing chamber along with abrasives, typically in the form of ceramic or plastic pellets. The chamber vibrates, causing the abrasives to repeatedly strike the surface of the parts, removing unwanted burrs, rounding off sharp edges and generally reducing surface roughness.

This surface refinement not only improves aesthetics; it is also essential for functional improvement. Mass finishing increases the fatigue resistance and overall durability of parts, making them more suitable for heavy-duty applications. It also creates a uniform finish that improves wear resistance and reduces friction in moving components. This process ensures consistent and precise surface quality, which is essential for meeting industrial standards and ensuring reliable, long-lasting performance. For industries that demand high precision, such as the automotive, aerospace and medical device industries, mass finishing is a crucial step in achieving the required level of component quality and functionality.

At the Fraunhofer IGCV, we are pioneers of a multi-material process in additive manufacturing that allows us to combine several materials in one component. This approach allows us to apply materials with different properties at the voxel level exactly where they are needed - be it for mechanical strength, thermal or electrical conductivity. The result is a component that is optimised for its application, offers improved performance and is manufactured in a single process. This powder bed-based manufacturing process works according to the characteristic layer-by-layer principle of additive manufacturing. After a fine layer of powder is applied, a laser selectively melts and solidifies the powder in the designated areas. The build plate is then lowered by one layer and the process is repeated. In the multi-material process, an additional material is introduced by first removing material A by suction, creating free areas into which material B can be introduced. This makes it possible to switch between two materials during production.

In laser beam structuring, a laser beam is coupled into the workpiece surface so that material is sublimated. Shielding gases such as argon are used as process media. After the process, the workpiece has a surface roughness of 0.25 < Ra < 0.4 µm, depending on the homogeneity of the material. The process is primarily intended for workpieces made of metals.

During milling, material is removed by relative movements of the rotating cutting edges of the milling tool with a geometrically defined cutting edge. The resulting process heat is dissipated to the environment by cooling lubricants (mixtures of oil and water) and chips. After the process, the workpiece has a surface roughness of 0.2 µm < Ra < 25 µm. The process can be used for workpieces made of e.g. aluminum, steel or titanium.

Plasma-assisted additive manufacturing enables plasma treatment of 3D-printed polymer surfaces. In addition, the free surface energy can be significantly improved as well as the adhesion of spray paint and epoxy adhesive on non-polar polymers.

Additive manufacturing technologies offer a high degree of geometric design freedom due to the process and stable production costs at the same time. However, they require support structures during the additive manufacturing process, which subsequently have to be laboriously (and largely manually) removed. In order to minimise this adaptation barrier, especially for industrial companies, a high degree of automation is required to optimise the process step.

Robot-assisted support structure removal can help to reduce not only costs and time, but also labour costs and the necessary safety requirements. Automated process monitoring and path planning for the robot movement are therefore important focal points for further process optimisation.

With mechanical support structure removal using a robot-based chisel process, it is possible to remove a large proportion of the externally accessible support structures from the component and significantly reduce the required labour costs. In series production in particular, support structures can always be removed from identical components using repetitive movements of the robot and the safety requirements can be significantly reduced due to the lack of manual labour.