Page 21 - 3D Metal Printing Fall 2019

AM Challenges 3D
Open-architecture AM machines at Mines, such as this metal printing equipment, enable students and researchers to adapt equipment for various research needs, including the addition of lasers, cameras and more.
be creating online courses focusing on optimization, lean manufacturing, lifecy- cle assessment, engineering statistics and more.”
The course development again speaks to the role of AM not as an isolated process, but part of the entire advanced- manufacturing landscape.
Brice and Blacklock expect to deliver most courses by the fall of 2020, with some debuting sooner as they become accred- ited. As the online course menu expands, Brice and Blacklock expect enough cours- es to comprise the online master’s degree within two years.
Beyond the online courses, Brice expects to encourage students to come on campus for intensive hands-on work in the Advanced Manufacturing Teaching Lab. The lab gives students the opportu- nity to work with metals, ceramics and biological materials while optimizing structural design, and capturing and inter- preting process data.
“Lecturing is fine, but the lab forces students to think like they would in a job: How am I going to make this part on this machine? That's really where they’ll learn the most.”
Wealth of AM Machines, Test Equipment on Hand
Via a tour with Brice, 3D Metal Printing learned more about Mines’ lab compo- nent, used both for instruction and for
ADAPT projects. First stop, the “Death Lab,” as Brice calls it, where test equip- ment rides parts and samples to failure. On one test stand sat a door bracket for an armored vehicle.
ADAPT had partnered with the U.S. Army, Air Force Research Lab and Ele- mentum 3D in a one-year program to redesign armored-vehicle door hinges that often failed in the field and took months to replace. Using data sets to predict qual- ity, the team designed new hinges con- siderably stronger and lighter than the legacy parts. Printed as a single piece was a direct, bolt-in replacement of what had been a six-part assembly.
The team “undertook a multi-step redesign and optimization to remove part weight,” Brice explains. “We integrated the hinge pin in a single build, then tested to failure to validate the new design. Inter- estingly, we used data sets from other materials and processes to predict the optimal configuration, as well as the machine settings to achieve optimal mate- rial properties.”
Back on the tour, Brice showed off various AM machines, including an old powder bed fusion unit refreshed with a new laser and sensor capability devel- oped by some members of Mines’ Physics department.
The lab currently is looking for equip- ment that enables synchronization of visu- al and thermal data during an AM build
The ‘Death Lab’ at Mines features equipment used to induce failure in parts, leading to more robust models that better characterize AM materials and processes.
in order to better measure material and other build properties. Comparing such data from various builds can result in machine-learning correlations, according to Brice, that “in the end, provides pre- dictive capability. We can predict different machine settings for different parts.”
A walk across the street on the Mines campus took us to another AM lab that includes Markforged, Stratasys, HP and other nonmetal (ceramic, nylon, polymer, etc.) machines, including units built by students for project credits. One student- built machine includes a high-speed cam- era that provides thousands of images per second, enabling users to view the AM process in great detail. Another, a laser powder machine, may be fitted with a blue-wave laser, which provides improved coupling on highly reflective materials such as copper, according to Brice.
“While it's great to have the profes- sional AM systems,” he says, “these stu- dent-built open platforms enable us to tinker, which is very valuable for the stu- dents and allows us to introduce unique capabilities into the equipment.” 3DMP
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