Industry

The additive manufacturing of cutting materials enables the development of more efficient cutting tools. Ceramics are an excellent alternative to carbide cutting materials, especially for high-speed turning. In their application, the insert is inserted into a clamping turning holder and fixed in place by holding down with a finger and tightening the screw.

Compared to conventionally manufactured parts for this application, the component optimized for LCM printing achieved a significant material saving thanks to a reduced wall thickness of < 4.4mm, offering a significant savings potential in series production.

The project was developed within the framework of AddiZwerk (Additive Manufacturing of Cutting Tools), financed by M-ERA.NET and FFG. Design by PTW (Institute for Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools) at TU Darmstadt.

Read the full paper here.

This horizontal bearing, produced by US-based AM ceramics specialist CeramcoAdditive for a customer from the textile industry, was manufactured using the alumina material LithaLox HP 500 via a Lithoz CeraFab System S65 industrial printer. The pillow block-type bearing would be used as a rod holder for any linear motion, with the highest possible precision and low friction being the critical properties for the required machine automation application. The intricate helical internal veins in the inside diameter of the part would not be achievable with a ceramic material by any other method than additive manufacturing.

LithaLox HP 500 exhibits excellent 4-point bonding strength and exceptional surface finish. This special purpose alumina material was specifically developed for extremely friction-sensitive applications such as thread guides in textile technology, high-performance substrates for the electrical industry or protective materials in thermal processes.

These needles were printed with LithaLox 360 and are excellent proof of just how precisely and efficiently Lithoz LCM technology is able to work. The clear objective of the project realized together with Bosch Advanced Ceramics was to maximise the loading of the CeraFab S65 platform filled with identical complex parts with fine structures.

Thanks to pinpoint precise dosage of the ceramic slurry and the use of the highest optical precision on the market, the CeraFab System printers could realize ultra-precise exposure at any point of the print platform, making it possible to build up extremely delicate parts and intricate inner structures without any mechanical pressure on the Z-axis. As a result, the proven stability of the system secures linear scalability to industrial mass production. 

This tube, produced by Steinbach AG in full-size industrial scale of 12,000 units per year, features a completely new geometry with a sharp bend and inner contours, minimal wall thicknesses of 200 μm, and perfectly smooth surfaces with roughness values of Ramax = 0.4, at the required extremely narrow tolerance of +20 μm . The total diameter of the tube was determined by the construction of the robot arm, into which the tube had to fit.

Prior to the use of ceramic additive manufacturing, 3D-printed metal was considered by the customer, but the glass fibre strings introduced tore apart because of the insufficient surface roughness of the inner guiding channels quality.

With a specific target for the manufacturing cost and a deadline of six months to begin serial production successfully met, this application impressively shows the CeraFab System S65’s talent to scale-up the production of ultra-precise parts to industrial mass production.

This functional part was designed and 3D printed by Steinbach AG from the flexible alumina material LithaLox 360. It was part of a joint development project to optimize the cleaning of the highly complex structures that can be achieved with this newly developed alumina slurry, which is able to create the thinnest channels, narrowest lattice structures and finest holes in miniaturized components.

The heat exchanger’s characteristic features are its narrowly positioned cooling fins of only 0.45 mm edge widths at a depth of 3.5 mm measured from the fin’s edges to the tube’s structure. The diameter of the inner tube forming the axis is only 2 mm, whilst the connected central struts have a thickness of a mere 0.45 mm.

This high-pressure nozzle with ultra-narrow outlet is printed from alumina and was manufactured by Steinbach AG for a customer in the automobile industry. The original application consisted of several single metal components which consequently led to considerably higher weight and a massive 50 mm cross-section.

Steinbach AG redesigned and optimized the entire component to make use of the LCM technology’s full potential in precision and material strength. By achieving significantly more intricate inner structures, an extremely narrow outlet and much smoother surfaces in one single 3D-printed piece, the entire construction could be miniaturized by 60 %. Thanks to the excellent corrosion resistance, the alumina part showed much less wear than the previous metal component, too.

Silicon nitride turbocharger rotors are used to enhance the response of an engine. Using ceramic rotors instead of metal reduces their inertia and thus reduces deceleration. In addition, these rotors are exposed to very hot gas and so must be durable even under these extreme conditions. Until now, complicated components made of silicon nitride could not be manufactured due to the limitations of conventional machining processes. Thanks to their powerful LCM technology, Lithoz CeraFab 3D printers enable the production of complex-shaped rotors to improve the performance of microturbines.

Watch a video on thermal shock resistance testing for a 3D-printed silicon nitride component.

Thanks to its many years of experience, Bosch Advanced Ceramics is one of the world's top names in the series additive manufacturing of technical ceramics. Together with BASF and KIT, the company developed a microreactor made of aluminum oxide whose internal flow channels had a diameter of just 0.5 mm. The filigree webs of this application, which can be used in basic chemical research for example, measured 0.3 mm.

Das erzielte Ergebnis deckt die speziellen Anforderungen des geplanten Einsatzes bestens ab: die hervorragende Wärmeleitfähigkeit garantiert stabile Temperaturkontrolle und die geringe thermische Ausdehnung stellt sicher, dass es auch bei großen Temperaturschwankungen zu geringen Verzügen im Reaktor kommt. Die niedrige elektrische Leitfähigkeit und die Transluzenz des keramischen Bauteils ermöglichen darüber hinaus auch Messverfahren, die beim Einsatz von Metall nicht realisierbar sind. Bosch Advanced Ceramics 

Alumina Systems GmbH produces customized ceramic and metal-on-ceramic components for the semiconductor and medical industries. In addition to using conventional technologies, the company also uses LCM to accelerate product innovation. Through a function-oriented design, Alumina Systems GmbH has developed a ceramic distribution ring for semiconductor chip deposition that triples chip production volume compared to conventional solutions.

Demand for value-based applications is steadily increasing. Learn more about how 3D printing is enabling companies to develop revenue-generating, value-added products for their customers. Read more.

The LCM 3D printing process for ceramics enables the production of applications with the finest of details and highly complex internal structures while maintaining excellent surface quality. Some examples are micronozzles and valves with flow-optimized paths, miniature rotors and micro milling tools, electronic applications such as complex and precise substrates and medical sensors, instruments and surgical tools.

The industrial series production of complex ceramic components with microstructures requires a technology that meets every demand for high repeatability. Where conventional methods such as milling, drilling, grinding and ceramic injection molding clearly reach their limits, CeraFab printers offer scalable series production of parts with features as low as 100 µm.