Growing demand from manufacturers for an easy way to train employees in the basics of additive manufacturing (AM) has led 180 Skills to add five new courses that introduce AM technology.

Customers can assign courses individually to team members and new hires or incorporate them into learning paths designed to upskill or reskill employees.

“Manufacturers were already facing a shortage of skilled workers when the labor market entered its current, highly competitive stage,” says Joe Kitterman, CEO of 180 Skills. “For our customers, we are a lifeline, helping them upskill any individual to become a productive employee and allowing them to easily build paths to advancement that make current employees less likely to leave.”

Photo courtesy of 180 Skills

The 180 Skills platform currently offers nearly 800 courses organized into four broad categories: Technical, Quality, Risk Management & Compliance, and Workplace & Soft Skills. Customers can administer these courses via the learning management system (LMS), or through their own LMS.

180 Skills

6K Additive launches refractory metal powders for AM

6K Additive recently announced the commercial availability of refractory metal powders for additive manufacturing (AM). Production scale of high-value materials such as tungsten and rhenium enable advanced application capabilities in aerospace, defense, and medical industries.

Huntsville, Alabama-based Quadrus Corp. recently used 6K Additive’s services for making spherical tungsten-rhenium they subsequently used to produce a non- eroding rocket motor throat insert.

“We have a focus on propulsion applications that require high-temperature, high-strength materials used in modern rocket nozzle applications. Our tungsten/rhenium powder spheroidized by 6K processed exceptionally well in our selective laser melting machines,” explains Joe Sims, director of the Quadrus Advanced Manufacturing Division. “Having a reliable, trusted supply chain partner like 6K Additive for refractory materials is critical to our business and to our defense customers. Our powder quality requirements are extremely high and 6K Additive easily cleared that hurdle for us.”

6K Additive

Photo courtesy of Virginia Tech

De-icing a plane at the airport prior to takeoff is familiar to winter travelers, but planes also experience plummeting temperatures and rapid ice formation in flight. Once ice forms on the wings, it can inhibit a pilot’s ability to safely operate the aircraft by disrupting airflow over lifting surfaces. Researchers believe equipping planes to remove ice while flying at altitudes from 35,000ft to 42,000ft would provide a better way to maintain safety.

Jonathan Boreyko, associate professor in Virginia Tech’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, is leading a team working with Collins Aerospace to use ice to control ice formation on airplane wings.

In a study published in Physical Review Letters, Boreyko’s team leveraged Cassie’s Law, which shows air can be trapped under water drops if the drops are suspended atop a structure that’s bumpy and water-repellent. With a structure that could trap air underwater, the researchers seek to make ice form in a layer with less surface adhesion.

Making a surface water-repellent typically requires a chemical coating that must be periodically replenished, and the bumpy surface also wears. The team took an approach that doesn’t require fragile chemical coatings or ultra-fine bumps, opting for a simple, durable structure of millimeter-sized aluminum pillars.

Pedestals 1mm tall by 0.5mm wide were machined into a pattern, set 1mm apart. As the temperature dropped, frost preferentially grew on the pillar tops, producing elevated frost tips. As more water was added, it was absorbed into the porous frost layer. When water drops subsequently impacted the surface, they were caught on the frost pedestals.

Lead author Hyunggon Park says the freezing drops created tiny ice bridges that sealed air gaps in valleys between the frost-tipped pillars.

“The water drops were being caught by the frost tips and building ice bridges to trap air pockets underneath,” Park notes. In time, a continuous and air-trapping ice canopy formed over the frost-tipped pillars.

Other de-icing methods may still allow a sheet of ice to adhere more directly to a large surface, but these trapped air gaps suspend the sheet, lowering the adhesion ice has to the surface.

“By using larger pillars in place of nanostructures, and frost tips in place of a hydrophobic coating, we found we can get the same benefit of trapping air underneath the forming ice while avoiding the durability concerns,” Boreyko says. “This should make our approach practical for enhancing de-icing on aircraft or heat exchangers.”

With a weaker bond, it’s possible to use the air pockets to then push ice away. This will be the next step in the researchers’ process, as Boreyko’s team continues to develop their method.

Virginia Tech College of Engineering Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

While we’re known for turning solutions, we also specialize in flexible, integrated automated solutions where you can “make it, move it, store it, and service it” throughout your entire supply chain.

Make it

Combining high-speed precision Fiber laser cutting and accurate forming and tapping, the first-of-its-kind Advanced Hybrid Fiber Laser LS3015HL has a flying optics system for laser cutting and servo drives for forming, reducing the steps to completed products. With repeat accuracy of ±0.001" and a fast traverse speed of 6,692.9ipm, it’s ideal for prototypes, large-volume runs, short-run stamping, sample parts production, and varied geometries.

Muratec’s MT Series CNC twin spindle lathe and integrated gantry loader is the ideal job-shop-in-a box. Designed for multi-tasking, it increases throughput while producing superior quality and industry leading reliability. It combines turning and milling capabilities, with Y-axis and live tools standard on each turret.

Move it

Cooperation between automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) and automated guided vehicles (AGV) increases productivity and lights-out capabilities by safely automating manual, repetitive material handling and transportation processes. AGVs streamline layout and workflow automation, allowing for adjustments, quality checks, and operational flexibility that reduce labor needs, remove human errors, and improve working conditions.

Store it

Muratec’s sheet metal automation systems enable customers to overcome the efficiency challenges of large runs and variable demands. Engineered with advanced servo-control technology and flexible storage capacity, Muratec loader systems can improve process quality and achieve production increases compared to a standalone machine.

Automated storage and material transport solutions are ideal for facilities that manage high shipment volumes in addition to large quantities of raw materials.

Muratec automated storage & retrieval systems (AS/RS) accommodate a wide range of facility sizes, throughput speeds, and loads. Choose from unit load, mini load, high-rise, high-density pin extraction, and special 5-ton load systems.

Service it

All Muratec fabrication and turning systems are built for long life and low maintenance, but if ever there is a problem, Muratec’s support team and in-house staff stands ready 24/7 to provide on-site emergency care, regardless of the system’s age.

• Up close, personal support & service
• Phone support and on-site service & inspections
• Multimillion-dollar parts inventory with same-day shipping
• Locally based North America service
• Dedicated application & engineering staff
• Muratec Service Plans for peace of mind

Improve ROI

Muratec’s integrated systems are widely compatible, ready to integrate with your existing equipment and software to drive value and long-term ROI for your business. We can increase your system capacity, expand system functionality, and update controls and mechanical equipment to improve utilization.

Reliability

Muratec helps you accurately deploy the right automation, ensuring reliability across systems, maximizing space, and optimizing operations. Run faster, longer, and more efficiently.

To learn more, visit: www.muratec-usa.com

1) What are typical temperatures for creep flattening titanium parts?

Almost all the titanium products are creep flattened above 1,000°F. I would say creep flattening is usually performed between 1,250°F – 1,350°F but it’s alloy dependent. Temperatures and hold times will vary with composition. Typically, a two hour hold at temperature using work thermocouples is sufficient.

2) Can correcting or creep flattening titanium only be done in vacuum?

I wish, but no. We also do some jobs in our air atmosphere furnaces, but this is typically reserved for parts that have ample stock on them, such as rough machined parts, plates, blanks. Air furnaces allow customers some savings, but there must be enough stock to remove any surface contamination. For finished parts, it’s a different story. You need to bake out the vacuum furnace at 2,400°F prior to the run and ensure vacuum levels remain in the 10-5 Torr scale. Otherwise, you will see surface oxidation and the dreaded alpha case. Don’t forget to bake out the fixturing at a minimum of 150°F higher than the creep flatting temperature.

3) What type of fixturing should I consider when creep flattening? Can I also creep a shape or detail into the titanium?

I like graphite tooling to flatten or even develop a shape or detail into titanium parts. We know metals expand and contract during the thermal process. Graphite allows these materials to move in the desired direction with little friction. Plus, it prevents movement along dimensional axes that must be held constant. We’ve successfully used metallic fixtures in the past, but graphite is my go-to.

4) My titanium part is moving during machining, can creep flattening help?

Yes! This is very common. We perform in-process stress relieving to minimize movement typically seen during machining. Because creep flattening and stress relieving are often done at the same temperature, we can relieve the stress in a part while forming it back to the required shape for final machining. A lot of work takes place in the background to accomplish this, but it can be done successfully.

5) Will reheating titanium above 1,000°F affect my material certification?

Give your heat treater your material certifications. Many mills will certify to aerospace material specification AMS 2801, AMS 4905, AMS 4911, AMS-H-81200, etc. The material often can be re-annealed while simultaneously creep flattening. Know the specification and/or the original mill anneal parameters beforehand. Then you can work within required temperature ranges while creep flattening or shaping titanium parts. Also keep in mind, when stress relieving or creep flattening in deep vacuum, you’re extracting hydrogen at the same time for free. Stress-relieving, shaping, degassing - there is a great deal of value added with creep flattening in a vacuum furnace.

For more information: https://solaratm.com/vacuum-heat-treating/vacuum-creep-forming