The Xaar 1003 printhead allows 3D printing manufacturer dp polar GmbH’s AM polar i2 to produce parts on an industrial scale through additive manufacturing (AM).

The AMpolar i2’s AM process uses various Xaar 1003 printheads to jet parts at volume at significantly reduced costs compared to traditional 3D printing machines.

Productive, single-pass printing delivers build volumes up to 700L across its continuously rotating print platform. The Xaar 1003 can speedily, reliably jet fluids with various viscosities to ensure a suitable fit for a wide range of AM applications.

dp polar GmbH

Xaar

Metal 3D printing service adds stainless steels

ExOne’s updated Quick Ship metal 3D printing service features a new digital quoting tool and materials.

Stainless steels 316L and 17-4PH are available in the list of materials offered through instant quoting, with delivery times of 10 to 15 days, depending on number of units requested, part size, and other requirements.

A Quick Ship online dashboard allows customers to upload a qualifying digital design file for an instant quote and purchase, as well as create an account to track projects. More than 30 file types are accepted including STL and STP.

ExOne

Microwave plasma systems produce AM powders

6K Additive has commissioned the first two commercial UniMelt systems in its new 40,000ft2 state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania.

6K is proceeding through internal product qualification and third-party printing and will begin customer sampling in August 2020 for its Onyx In718 material followed shortly by Onyx Ti64. 6K’s process can convert certified-chemistry machined millings, turnings, and other recycled feedstock sources into premium AM-ready metal powders.

The UniMelt system uses microwave production-scale plasma with a highly uniform and precise plasma zone with zero contamination capable of high throughput production of advanced materials including Onyx In718 and Onyx Ti64 AM powders. UniMelt technology can also spheroidize ferrous alloys including SS17-4PH, SS316; other nickel superalloys including Inconel 625; HX, cobalt-base alloys such as CoCr; refractory metals Mo, W, Re; reactive alloys such as Ti-6-4; TiAl; Al alloys; and high-temperature ceramics such as MY and YSZ.

6K Inc.

3D TPU grades

Three Estane 3D thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) grades for fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printing applications are now available in the Ultimaker Marketplace. Added grades include Estane 3D TPU F94A-055 OR HH PL, Estane 3DP TPU 98A, and Estane 3DP TPU F70D.

Ultimaker, a global leader in desktop 3D printing, offers a material library called Marketplace in Ultimaker Cura which allows partner raw material suppliers to upload profiles that are compatible with Ultimaker printers. The 3D TPU grades fill demands from Ultimaker’s customers printing FFF applications for industrial jigs and fixtures, prototypes, end-use parts, and flexible parts such as orthopedic insoles.

Lubrizol Corp.

Ultimaker

Image by Shutterstock/Ricardo Reitmeyer

Acooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) between the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the Raytheon Technologies Research Center will allow researchers to use high-performance computing and machine-learning algorithms to reduce the computational expense of fluid dynamics models that examine coolant flow mixing and heat transfer in turbine engines, improving functionality.

“The overarching goal of this project is optimizing the combustor and turbine cooling designs for modern engines,” says Argonne research scientist Pinaki Pal, who leads the project with co-investigators Prithwish Kundu and postdoctoral appointee Opeoluwa Owoyele.

“Typically, aircraft engines operate at very high pressures with small-sized engine cores, and this tends to bring a lot of hot gases closer to the walls and increase the heat loads on combustor liner and turbine blades. This then requires a focus on thermal management,” says Michael Joly, principal investigator and research engineer at the Raytheon Technologies Research Center. “Design improvements to reduce the cooling air flow requirements can increase the engine’s thermal efficiency.”

To optimize cooling designs, researchers must consider how the cooling air is injected by selecting cooling hole angles and arrangement. Highly resolved computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations can achieve great accuracy but require tremendous computational expense – particularly in the boundary regions near the walls. Or researchers could use under-resolved simulations with models applied to capture near-wall flow dynamics, producing a less-accurate solution more quickly.

“The problem with the simulations that are computationally cheaper is that the wall models are not able to capture the rich flow physics prevalent in practical configurations,” Pal says.

By leveraging the power of advanced CFD modeling, high-performance computing, and deep learning, Pal and his colleagues along with industry partners from Raytheon Technologies intend to merge both approaches.

First, they’ll perform wall-resolved simulations of several engine configurations, using a massively parallel CFD code called Nek5000, recently enhanced for engine flow and combustion modeling. Researchers will use Argonne supercomputing resources, including the Theta system at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE Office of Science User Facility.

Then, they will take the high-fidelity data generated from these simulations to train a faster and less computationally expensive deep learning-based spatial emulator to capture near-wall heat transfer. The surrogate models will realize many of the accuracy benefits of a high-fidelity simulation, while performing computations at a fraction of its cost, according to Kundu.

Pal says, “We are creating physics-informed deep learning models that can be trained on a wide range of initial conditions to solve problems much more efficiently without sacrificing predictive capability.”

Argonne National Laboratory

Raytheon Technologies

In 1936, Oren S. Cole founded Cole Carbide Industries with a vision: apply family values, innovative manufacturing, and advanced quality assurance to produce custom carbide products. Now, 84 years and four generations later, President John Cole carries on his great-grandfather’s legacy serving the aerospace, medical, automotive, oil & gas, and heavy equipment industries. Cole Carbide has built a worldwide reputation as a progressive and reliable provider of high quality, close tolerance, made-to-print carbide cutting tools, tool systems, and engineering services.

While Cole remains a family business at its core, the company has continually expanded and adapted to meet ever-changing market conditions. In 2019, John Cole and his management team further defined and consolidated Cole’s diverse brands to reflect an evolution that began years ago. Cole’s corporate structure has been refined into two main entities: Cole Carbide Industries devoted to custom engineered products and threading systems for oil, gas, and water; Cole Tooling Systems (CTS) encompassing the prominent Millstar, Omnithread, and Indexa-V product lines.

“With operations more integrated, ordering is simplified. Customers can easily coordinate orders from our three CTS tooling lines to meet all their needs, with input from our expert staff,” says Sales Manager Todd Green. “It also maximizes efficiency across all operations so we can offer some of the most competitive pricing and best turnaround times in the industry.”

CTS for aerospace

Beyond high-level, collaborative customer service, CTS offers versatile capabilities ideally suited to aerospace manufacturing, which makes up as much as 30% of Cole’s business. CTS Vice President Ron Field says, “We offer a wide selection of standard tooling that can handle most aerospace operations, but we produce plenty of customs too.”

As key reasons why aerospace manufacturers seek out Cole, Field cites precision manufacturing to handle tight tolerances and its range of specialized tooling capabilities.

Cole’s Millstar line offers high-feed tooling that sets new standards for aerospace machining speed and efficiency. Sophisticated geometries on Millstar HFM4 and HFI4 solid carbide end mills provide a cutting edge free from tangent points that could induce wear. This accommodates heavy chip loads for high feed rates, decreases tool deflection, and quickly achieves net shape.

“You won’t find a comparable tool that can beat the efficiency of these end mills for roughing operations,” Field says. “They really allow machining at unheard-of speeds.”

CTS’ Millstar EIV5 end mill offers a unique combination of radial grind, variable helix, variable pitch, and radius preparation for maximum versatility and accuracy. This innovative design enables large step-overs with no bottom vibration, greater depth of cut with no side vibration, and extended machining without radius failure. Its exceptional, proven performance on high-temperature alloys such as titanium makes EIV5 a perfect choice for many aerospace applications.

Looking to the future

As a supplier to essential industries, CTS has remained steadfast in its commitment to support customers amid the widespread impact of COVID-19.

“Like many other manufacturers, we’re operating with reduced staff and with meticulous safety precautions to protect workers and customers,” Green says.

These unprecedented changes have been difficult at times, but adapting to a changing world is nothing new for Cole. It’s been part of their core philosophy for eight decades and will continue to be a guiding principle as Cole moves into the post-pandemic world of 2021 and beyond.

Cole Tooling Systems is a leading manufacturer of carbide inserts and wear parts, based in Orion Twp., Michigan. For more information, please call 877.645.5782 or visit http://www.coletooling.com.

Common features on aerospace parts, holes can provide simple weight reduction, component access, mechanical assembly/movement, or critical location alignment. Feature requirements – such as diameter tolerance, finish, positional tolerance, roundness, and cylindricity – also vary. Often one of the fastest material removal operations, hole making can present challenges due to the materials, machinery, and methods used.

1) Which drill to use; indexable carbide or solid carbide?

It depends on the specifics of the hole and application. For example, holes with very long length-to-drill-diameter ratios require the strength and rigidity provided by solid carbide drills. This is also true when the hole requires a tighter International Tolerance (IT) grade. Replaceable tipped carbide drills such as Iscar’s SumoCham and Logic3cham can provide IT8 hole tolerances while delivering high material removal rates.

If you cut a variety of materials, replaceable tip drills allow users to change drill head diameter and geometry to optimize specific applications by using ISO material group-specific heads such as the SumoCham ICP, ICM, ICN, and ICK drill heads.

2) What is the benefit of having material-specific drill heads?

Changing drill geometry by quickly removing and replacing the self-clamped head tailors the drill to the material – decreasing cycle time, improving tool life, and making the process more stable. This allows more spindle uptime and throughput. For example, a SumoCham ICP head cutting Inconel 718 may suffer from chipping on the cutting edge or the chisel point due to the shearing force of the material. Changing to the ICM provides a reinforced cutting edge to withstand the pressure to shear high nickel/super alloys.

3) What are some challenges for producing holes in different materials, and do indexable products for drilling and reaming address that?

Materials with low melting points, such as aluminum, present reaming challenges as the hole tends to close on the tool, increasing friction and heat that impact tool life and finish. Diamond coatings reduce this and an indexable reaming solution, such as Iscar’s Bayo T-Ream, make it easy to apply a different head with a diamond coating. High nickel content materials, such as Inconel and titanium, also exhibit the phenomenon, so material-specific heads for drilling, such as ICN and ICM for SumoCham drills, will not have large margins that create additional friction and heat.

4) What about solutions for composites?

Layered carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) and hybrid titanium laminates can fray or delaminate from heat and cutting pressure, and composite materials are very abrasive. Iscar’s SumoCham semi-standard ICF and ICF-Ti drilling heads are diamond coated with unique cutting geometry to direct cutting forces out radially instead of axially. Iscar also offers these geometries in solid carbide with diamond coating, brazed PCD wafers, and brazed solid PCD nibs (tips).

5) Are there solutions for automated drilling units (ADU)?

Power and available force limitations on portable drilling units indicate using high-speed steel (HSS) or cobalt solid tools. Advances in cutting tool geometry and materials that reduce cutting force and horsepower required have made indexable solutions viable. Iscar offers semi-standard items, from both SUMOCHAM indexable drilling and BAYO T-REAM product lines, which feature the required special shank connectors used in popular air-driven ADUs for in-station drilling, allowing for increased performance and decreased cycle times.

For more information: https://www.iscarusa.com