2023-06-13 08:22:12
The German supplier Toolcraft has received the Big Five Award at Rapid.Tech 3D. In fact, the award went to Christoph Hauck, board member, for his efforts to industrialize additive manufacturing. The most recent step in this is the development of a system to automatically remove support structures. Toolcraft wants to market this patented system by the end of this year.
Originally, Toolcraft is a typical machine tool. Of the 70 million euro turnover, the vast majority comes from the production of milling complex components on some 60 CNC machining centers. However, Christoph Hauck recognized the value of additive manufacturing early on. “A visit to Rapid.Tech 3D in 2005 was the trigger,” he said following presenting the award at the opening session of the 19e edition of the AM event in Erfurt. In 2012, a new hall was built for the AM activities. Meanwhile, there are 12 laser powder bed metal printers and two DED systems that work with metal powders. EUR 10 million of the turnover comes from the AM activities, including the supply of AM parts to the semiconductor industry in both the Netherlands and Germany. Hauck calls the AM activities a nice part of the overall company. These activities will continue to grow.
Expertise hele process
During the conference in Erfurt, Uwe Schulmeister, Head of Metal Laser Melting, presented the path the supplier has taken to get the AM business to where it is today. Both he and Christoph Hauck point to the expertise of the machining process as the key to successful additive manufacturing applications. “We have the entire process in-house, which made it easier for us to get on board,” says Schulmeister. Digitization and automation, sometimes in reverse order, have been two other key factors. As early as 2017, the company started with process monitoring and storing data for process analysis. Monitoring prevents process errors, says Schulmeister.
Adaptive machining process
Toolcraft tries to automate as much as possible in the machining, also when it comes to editing the AM components. In PTC they have made a tool for the best fit of the AM parts, which are never completely identical. Together with Janus Engineering and BCT Steuerungs- und DV-Systeme, an interface has been developed to use openARMS (open Adaptive Repair and Manufacturing Software) in Siemens NX. This allows the measurement points that the engineer defines in Siemens NX to be transferred directly to openARMS, which then generates the adaptive milling process. These are milling paths for machining free-form surfaces. Programming is done with ‘soll’ values, the software calculates the paths on the ‘ist’ values of the printed workpiece. Uwe Schulmeister: “This is really necessary for industrialization,”
Remove support structures
What is also needed is to automate support removal. Support is an issue with 3D metal printing, because on the one hand it is necessary to remove the heat from the workpiece, on the other hand because support structures drive up costs, especially because removal is often done manually. Toolcraft has recently registered its own system for patent that automatically removes support quickly and process-reliably. Ice blasting is used for this. This technique is not new in itself, but Toolcraft has redesigned the nozzle that is used and adapted it in such a way that you remove support structures with the ice pellets. The time Toolcraft needed for a certain part has decreased from 2 hours to 20 minutes. It’s not just regarding this time saving, though. “We are concerned with a stable process, in which we always remove support with the same quality, regardless of employees.” Toolcraft, which also builds robot solutions for customers, is now further refining and automating the system for a robot. It is planned to market this to other companies at the end of this year or early next year.
Consultancy in AMbitious
Toolcraft is very open regarding the AM activities. Through its subsidiary AMbitious, consultancy and training are offered. The training platform, IHK certified, is used for both own employees and those of other companies. Because, Christoph Hauck indicated at the award ceremony: it is important that Germany stays on the ball when it comes to additive manufacturing. “Other countries are catching up quickly.” According to him, the next step in the industrialization of AM lies in further digitization on the design side: adding features to the 3D model so that you can give the part different properties from one material when you 3D print it.
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