Almost 100 participants attended the Workshop on Serial Additive Manufacturing held on September 20th, 2017, to bring themselves up-to-date about the state-of-the-art in research, and to learn more about its use in industry. The workshop was organized by both the Institut Institut für Produktentwicklung und Gerätebau (IPeG) of the Leibniz Universität Hannover, and the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH).
“The future is not so far away, in 2020 serial additive manufacturing will be state-of-the-art,” predicted Detlef Scholz, EOS GmbH, in his lecture on the factory of the future.
Further lectures were on the potential of the technology and suitable materials, including how production times and costs can be determined during construction using mathematical fractals. In terms of quality assurance, the focus was on the strength and stiffness of the manufactured components, depending on the process. A further topic was how the components can be validated, and to what degree simulation models can predict the behavior of the components.
Additionally, the lecturers presented the state-of-the-art of laser safety, layer coating and hybrid processes. The topics whether and how additive manufacturing can be used for the repair of components, and which additive manufacturing processes will arise in the future, were also covered.
“Additive manufacturing makes it possible to generate components in a completely new design and with innovative features, such as actuator elements. Serial additive manufacturing is the logical continuation of this revolutionary technology,” is how Prof. Ludger Overmeyer, Executive Director of the LZH, summarized the potential.
During the lunch break, the participants visited different stations in the experimental area of the LZH to inform themselves about the various additive manufacturing processes.
The presentations of this workshop will be published in cooperation with the Springer Vieweg Verlag.