Sigma Labs Inc (SASI)

[stockmama22]

More "dots"!!!!

My favorite part-

Challenges of the Additive Technologies

While additive manufacturing is often referred to as the next industrial revolution there are other challenges being addressed across the globe:

4.***Process monitoring and control***- many parts or batches of parts will require days or weeks in current layered machines. The key technology gap today is the ability to adequately sense each cubic mm of the build to insure part quality at the end versus costly post-build inspections

Partial article follows-
GE Aviation Vision for Additive Manufacturing

Laser Editorials|By MichelleonSeptember 3rd, 2014
By Todd Rockstroh

GE Aviation (GEA) has launched production of their first additively manufactured engine component, the fuel nozzle for the LEAP gas turbine (Fig.1). This part will see combustion flame and gas temperatures and highly stressed thermal cycles. There are 19 per engine and the LEAP volume will require over 45,000 fuel circuits to be additively fabricated annually starting in 2018. Our designers exploited additive enabled features to gain: a) 5x life improvement, b) 20 parts consolidated into one, and c) a cost reduction.
Powder bed or layered manufacturing is only one additive technology. A second GEA application is a hybrid additive – conventional process to fabricate the metal leading edge (MLE) of a composite fan blade (Fig. 2). The MLE is there to protect the leading edge of a composite fan blade from foreign object damage and small particle erosion. MLEs are currently fabricated via subtractive processes and creep forming. The newer generation engines and new generation composite materials require harder to machine/form materials and GEA launched additive technologies to overcome these limitations. Layered manufacturing has enabled unique features to be incorporated internally that cannot be otherwise machined.
To attend an updated presentation of this article, register for LME 2014 (Sept. 23-24, Schaumburg, IL) at www.laserevent.org.

Dr. Todd Rockstroh is a Consulting Engineer for GE Aviation.

http://www.lia.org/blog/2014/09/ge-aviation-vision-for-additive-manufacturing/