Additive manufacturing (AM) is starting to revolutionize production technology on a worldwide scale. The AM sector has shifted from prototyping tools to overall manufacturing of varied products and enhancing product quality. Companies are installing more AM machines to raised control of the move from development learning projects to full production of AM parts.
A Sneak Peek into the Market Trends
Being involved in metal AM, we've focused specifically on selective laser melting (SLM), also referred to as direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) or laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). We feel the resolution and part quality from this process is best fitted to Moog’s applications. At Moog, we've been experiencing challenges in three particular aspects of metal AM—design, trust, and cost. From the planning perspective, the important difficulty lies within the lack of industry-accepted AM material standards to style too. As metal AM technology is new and still immature, the trust issue arises with the repeatability of manufacturing an equivalent quality metal with every layer of each build of each part. We aim to supply reliable products to the aerospace, where we are primarily driving metal AM technology. Further, we discover it challenging to lower the value of metal AM processes thanks to the shortage of appropriate cost-effective inspection methods.
One of the positive trends within the metal AM sector is that AM machine manufacturers are introducing machines with more lasers and therefore the ability to melt thicker layers which will help lower the value of AM. the planning and analysis tools are maturing also. it's seen that a number of the prominent players within the AM industry that produce current CAD and analysis tools are now creating technology specific to metal AM. This technology helps AM designers save time because the new CAD tools can create complex AM geometry faster.
We, at Moog, try to require advantage of AM by designing products that will have weight savings and performance gains in aerospace applications. Relative to our competitors, we expect we are better positioned to leverage additive manufacturing to its fullest capacity due to our in-depth experience with the technology. We also check out technology as a chance to supply more value within the final product application for our customers.