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3 The Additive Manufacturing Process Chain and Machines for Additive Manufacturing

Andreas Gebhardt
Julia Kessler
Laura Thurn

3D Printing

Understanding Additive Manufacturing

2nd Edition

The authors:

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Gebhardt
Managing Director, CP – Center of Prototyping GmbH, Erkelenz/Düsseldorf, Germany Professor at the FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Germany Subject specialty: high-performance methodology for production engineering and Additive Manufacturing

Dr. Julia Kessler
Managing Director, IwF GmbH, Institute for Toolless Fabrication, Aachen, Germany Subject specialty: high-performance methodology for production engineering and Additive Manufacturing

Laura Thurn, M. Eng.
Doctoral student at the FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Germany Subject specialty: high-performance methodology for production engineering and Additive Manufacturing

Cover picture: the chair for Digital Additive Production (DAP) of the RWTH Aachen University in cooperation with the Ford Motors Company designed and manufactured an improved cooling concept of a cylinder head by the use of additive manufacturing.

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Additive manufacturing (AM), 3D printing, desktop manufacturing, and some others are identical terms for the technology of layer-based manufacturing and its application.

The different terms describe these new manufacturing processes, from which the establishment of another industrial revolution is expected. They are suitable for acceleration of product development by production of complex prototypes quickly and with improved quality. But they also allow production of final parts, independent from the size of the lot.

Thus, they indeed mark a revolution in manufacturing techniques: the change from a production technology for the manufacture of large series of identical parts to a mixed series production of different parts, even down to one-of-a-kind parts.

3D printing is applicable in all branches of industry. Anybody engaged in engineering design and production, but also in strategic product planning, should know at least the basics of AM in order to perform a qualified evaluation and selection of the best applicable technology.

This book, 3D Printing, is a new edition of Understanding Additive Manufacturing, which was originally published in 2011. It has been extensively updated and expanded to reflect the major new developments in the field that have taken place since then.

Suitable for the practitioner, this book imparts a basic knowledge of the processes and thoroughly demonstrates exemplary applications. Almost all currently available machines are presented in a systematic way that also allows the classification and evaluation of future systems. The large and fast-growing variety of different machines for additive manufacturing processes is also classified.

Besides processes, also discussed are new working strategies that result from the digital, mixed production, allowing a decentralized manufacture that could thoroughly change the organization of today’s production.

A glossary is provided to clarify common terms and abbreviations used in 3D printing, and so to assist a quick approach into AM.

Aachen, November 2018 Andreas Gebhardt, Julia Kessler, and Laura Thurn

The interdisciplinary character of additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing and the enormous developmental speed of AM worldwide make it almost impossible for an individual to portray this discipline completely and correctly.

Therefore, we are very thankful for the diverse assistance we have received.

Many thanks to the specialists of the center of prototyping (CP-GmbH), Erkelenz, Germany, mainly for providing the insights into practice. Special thanks go to Mrs. Besima Sümer, Mr. Christoph Schwarz, and Mr. Michael Wolf.

Thanks to the members of the “GoetheLab for Additive Manufacturing”, the AM Lab of the FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences, for their useful contributions. In particular we thank Alexander Schwarz (now at IWF-GmbH), Prasanna Rajaratnam, Karim Abbas, Dawid Ziebura (now at FhG-ILT), Dr. Miranda Fateri (now at DLR), Mirjam Henkel (now at LMI-GmbH), Max Kunkel (now at Siemens), and Stefan Thümmler (now at CP-GmbH).

We are very grateful for the diverse support we received from Bob Bond in terms of conception as well as regarding interpretation. Bob was the longtime Director of the Industry Grid of the Tshwane University (TUT), Pretoria, RSA, and since the late 1980s he was an early adopter of the AM technology in South Africa. For this, he was awarded the “Big Five Award of Additive Manufacturing” in 2017.

Special thanks go to the publishing house Hanser, particularly to our editor Mrs. Monika Stüve.

Andreas Gebhardt, Julia Kessler, and Laura Thurn

Andreas Gebhardt, born in 1953, studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University Aachen (RWTH), Germany, with the main emphasis on engine and turbine design and construction. In 1986 he passed his doctoral exam (Dr.-Ing.) at the same university with a thesis on the “Simulation of the Transient Behavior of Conventional Power Plants”. From 1986 to 1991 he was general manager of a company that specialized in engine refurbishment and the manufacturing of special engines and engine parts.

In 1991 Mr. Gebhardt moved to be general manager at the LBBZ-NRW, a service center in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia for the application of laser-supported material processing, where from 1992 he started working on rapid prototyping.

In 1997 the CP-GmbH (Center of Prototyping GmbH) was founded in Erkelenz/Düsseldorf, Germany, to which Andreas Gebhardt transferred as general manager. CP-GmbH is a rapid prototyping service company and manufactures prototypes from plastics and metals as one-of-a-kind or in small series. Starting with 3D CAD via additive production units to tool fabrication, CP-GmbH has at its disposal all elements of a fully closed additive manufacturing chain.

The practical experience with CP-GmbH forms the professional backbone for the subject matter of this book.

In the summer term of 2000 Andreas Gebhardt was appointed Professor for “Additive Fabrication Technology and Rapid Prototyping” at the University of Applied Sciences in Aachen, Germany. There he managed, in the framework of the “GoetheLab for Additive Manufacturing”, a group of researchers, working on laser sintering of metals (SLM process), polymer printing, 3D printing (powder-binder process), the extrusion process (FDM), and applications of various fabbers. To the GoetheLab also belongs the worldwide first “Technology Bus”, a rolling laboratory in a double-decker bus, called the “FabBus”.

Since the winter term 2000 Andreas Gebhardt has been guest professor at the city college of the City University of New York. In autumn 2014 he was appointed “Professor Extraordinaire” at the Tshwane University of Technology, TUT, in Pretoria, South Africa.

Since 2004 Andreas Gebhardt has been editor of the RTeJournal (www.rtejournal.de), an “open access peer review” online journal on rapid technology.

Dr. Julia Kessler graduated as Bachelor for Bio-Medical Technology and as Master for Product Development at the University of Applied Sciences, Aachen, Germany.

From 2012 to 2015 she worked as research associate of the research group “GoetheLab for Additive Manufacturing” of the University of Applied Sciences, Aachen. Between 2015 and 2017 she was the head of the GoetheLab team that works on additive manufacturing of metals, plastics, and ceramics. Julia Kessler worked intensively on the concept of a study course for digital dental technology and a research project for jawbone augmentation by using additive manufacturing.

In cooperation with Laura Thurn she initiated and realized the project “FabBus”, a mobile 3D printing laboratory. Also, the realization of the online module “Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing” was mutually developed by Julia Kessler and Laura Thurn. Within the framework of her doctorate, Mrs. Kessler worked on the structural optimization and the additive manufacturing of bionic lattice structures made from titanium and stainless steel, as well as new areas of application for these design elements.

In October 2017 she successfully passed her doctoral exam. In 2015 Julia Kessler was appointed general manager of IwF GmbH (Institute for Toolless Fabrication), which is affiliated with the University of Applied Sciences, Aachen. IwF GmbH supports industrial partners, particularly in optimization and design of the total process chain regarding additive manufacturing. Customer-oriented research and development, practice related training, and individual consulting are among the core competencies of IwF GmbH.

Laura Thurn, M. Eng. studied at the University of Applied Sciences, Aachen, Germany and gained a bachelor degree in industrial engineering with the main emphasis on mechanical engineering and a master degree in product development.

As project engineer at the “Institute of Toolless Fabrication (IwF)” she worked on the study “Generative Fertigungsverfahren in Deutschland” (GENFER; Additive Manufacturing in Germany), which investigated the potentials and challenges, and the consequences and perspectives, of the 3D printing technology in Germany.

Laura Thurn has worked since 2014 as research associate in the research group “GoetheLab for Additive Manufacturing” at the University of Applied Sciences, Aachen. She is head of the department “Plastics for AM”, which, among other things, deals with the design, development, and optimization of personal printers. The activities of her group also include metallurgical investigations regarding the workability of extrusion materials and the mechanical-technological behavior of printed parts regarding their usability as products. Mrs. Thurn has dealt intensively with issues of training and further education in the field of 3D printing and conceives courses in the field of AM for different target groups. In cooperation with Julia Kessler she developed among other things the online module “Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing”. Laura Thurn is one of the initiators of the rolling 3D printing laboratory “FabBus”. She was co-responsible for the realization of the idea, conceives the courses in cooperation with Julia Kessler, and both mutually organize the operation.

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