EOS, MTU partner for metal additive mfg. quality control

Munich, Germany – EOS, global manufacturer of high-end additive manufacturing (AM) solutions, and Germany's MTU Aero Engines, have an agreement to cooperate on quality assurance for metal engine components using AM. A first outcome is the optical tomography (OT) developed by MTU, a complement to the modular EOS monitoring portfolio. In addition to several sensors that monitor the general system status, the camera-based OT technology controls the exposure process and melting characteristics of the material at all times, thus ensuring optimum coating and exposure quality as well as a repeatable high component quality that is essential for serial production.

 

Dr. Adrian Keppler, head of sales and marketing (CMO) at EOS stresses: "The OT solution enables us to perform an even more holistic quality control of the metal additive manufacturing process – layer by layer and part by part. A lot of the quality control that previously took place downstream can now be performed during the manufacturing process, resulting in considerable cost savings for quality assurance. This in return satisfies a central customer requirement for serial production."

 

Thomas Dautl, head of production technologies at MTU in Munich adds: "By employing the quality assurance system developed by us for use in serial production, EOS is backing an industrially proven solution for its direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) process. Thus both companies are jointly furthering the qualified use of additive manufacturing in aerospace engineering."