Objective
Actually after project's finish, two iteration slopes have been successfully performed. Within the first, a cavity to be tested in praxis has been built after selection the CMB technology variant "material feed via wire and laser welding using a high power diode laser" has been chosen as appropriate. Based on the partners' input a geometry was constructed which could be generated successfully. Concerning process stability and building strategy large improvements have been achieved, especially regarding the build up of vertical walls, which provide certain special difficulties. The mold testing was also a success, the estimated tool life is up to 200 000 shots.
In the second slope a geometry was chosen to implement much more complex features into the process. As the first one was just a "test geometry", the second one came directly from a partner's daily business, containing lots of features which represent difficulties in tool making. Examples for those are small grooves and slits, free-form surfaces, small inner corner radii, domes etc. The mold has been successfully manufactured and tested in practice with results, which can be in many aspects called quite comparable to those of serial molds. There are, however, still some weak points regarding welding process and data generation, which have to be solved in future, work to gain a widespread use of CMB technology. The overall outcome compared to that expected before project's start can be called fully met, in terms of accuracy or tool life even better.
During the examination there was also stated that possible applications of CMB do not only restrict to "Rapid Tooling" of injection molding tools, but also to die casting and sheet metal forming as well as for the use in serial tool making and for repair or modification purposes. The last field has in some cases already been successfully stepped on, the others; however, have also to be further examined.
The European machine tool and mould building industry is beset by fierce intenational competitive pressure. With over 250,000 workplaces and a turnover in excess of 10.000.000.000 ECU in Europe, this industry is of major importance in the bid to address social problems in Europe. Price and speed have become more important in deciding which company to place an order with than the location of the manufacturer. The machine tool and mould builders are clamouring for a technology which will enable them to manufacture prototype and pre series tools on the basis of CAD data rapidly, costeffectively and, if possible, overnight. The technologies previously commercially available or under development do not meet the needs of this key sector: The material characteristics are unsatisfactory, levels of surface quality, form and dimensional accuracy fall short of requirements. The CMB technology to be optimised within this project is a process in which 3D laser deposition welding and high speed milling are combined in one machine. The principle innovation is that the edge sharpness as well as the form and dimensional accuracy of the layers produced are achieved in each layer. The minimum protrusion length of the milling cutter permits inner corner radii of approx. 0.3 mm to be cut at the base of narrow, deep grooves. This was previously possible only when EDM technology was used. When this technology is exploited, it is possible to achieve not only significant improvements in quality (surface roughness of the tools < 10 m, form and dimensional accuracy 0.01 mm) but also time savings of 80 % and a cost saving of at least 50 % . Companies using this technology can react flexibly to customer requirements. The consortium represents the European sector of the machine tool and mould building industry: Albrecht Roders GmbH (DE), which will implement this technology in a product on conclusion of the project and distribute it, the companies BL Verktyg AB (SE), Mareco b.v. (NL), Modell und Formenbau Gerg (DE) and Horst Klein GmbH (DE) who will apply this technology either by producing machine tools or sell pre series plastic parts. These companies currently serve similar customers in different European markets. The users, who come from a variety of sectors throughout Europe are the key to this project and ensure that the technology meets the demands of the market exactly. The aim of the users is to cooperate fully with one another to increase their potential to gain a competitive advantage over the international, but particularly over the competition from the Far East. The Fraunhofer IPT, who developed the CMB technology to its current position as state of the art, have the expertise required to optimise and refine this technology.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology social issues
- natural sciences mathematics pure mathematics geometry
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Coordinator
29614 Soltau
Germany
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