The market potential of AM has hugely grown in recent years, driven by the unique capability of depositing shapes impossible by conventional metal cutting. This trend is expected to continue in the future as well, as the usage of AM machines will increase in fields such as die & mold, semi-conductor electronics, medical and aerospace, while other related markets will expand as well, such the market for metal powder and deposited parts. In addition, the diversity of production methods causes more companies to shift towards high-mix low-volume production, which sparks the need for process integration of additive applications, such as coating and repairing, and subtractive applications.
LASERTEC 3000 DED hybrid combines turn-mill and AM technology to enable conventional metal cutting and DED*1 applications on just one machine. DED describes the process of applying metal powder through the powder nozzle in parallel to laser irradiation, in order to melt the metal powder and harden it again for deposition. LASERTEC 3000 DED hybrid offers fast deposition on large-size workpieces up to φ400 mm×1,321 mm*2. The powder feeder can switch between different types of metal powder, thus allowing the deposition of multiple powders in layers on one base material. Furthermore, different types of metal powder can be already mixed before application, in order to create composite materials and realize a diverse range of depositions, repair and coating processes.
LASERTEC 3000 DED hybrid is equipped with the AM head on the turning/milling spindle for simultaneous powder supply and laser irradiation, and also adds a B-axis for 5-axis DED application. The AM head is stored away during metal cutting processes; so also conventional machining doesn’t require any setup changes and can be conducted in one chucking. Additionally, AM Assistant*3 monitors the deposition status for consistent quality and prevention of production errors, as it automatically calibrates the powder flow and detect nozzle conditions.