Defense manufacturer sees 20% increase in production speed
and associated production cost savings
Equispheres’ Precision line of aluminum powders solved one manufacturer’s problem with dimensional accuracy on thin-walled parts, while also boosting production speed and improving part consistency
Background
A large multinational manufacturer in the aerospace and defense sector was conducting R&D into additive manufacturing of an aluminum part used for thermal management. This part performs a cooling function by conducting heat away from other system components.
The part has thin aluminum fins and the company could not achieve the required dimensional accuracy using traditional aluminum powder. It investigated Equispheres’ material as a potential solution.
What was discovered
Experimentation conducted by the company demonstrated that Equispheres’ Precision powder provided a significant improvement in dimensional accuracy, which was the company’s key objective. The testing also showed that the mechanical properties achieved with Equispheres’ material exceeded those of the customary vendor’s powder. The new material also provided a superior degree of reliability and consistency in results. Moreover, it was evident that the powder could increase print speeds significantly while still achieving the above results.
Equispheres’ Precision line of aluminum powders solved one manufacturer’s problem with dimensional accuracy on thin-walled parts, while also boosting production speed and improving part consistency.
Summary of key results
Dimensional Accuracy
One important aspect to cooling components is to use heat conduction fins that are very thin to obtain a large surface area. The testing demonstrated Equispheres’ powder can produce thin-walled items that are more than 50% thinner and with 3 times the precision compared to those produced by a traditional powder on their AM machines.
Shown in the tables below are the smallest fin diameters producible by this process at an acceptable level of accuracy (i.e., less than 15% deviation from target diameter) and the average deviation across all feature sizes respectively.
| Equispheres’ powder | Powder from traditional supplier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| .014 in. (0.36 mm) | .030 in. (0.76 mm) | ~50% thinner fins |
| .001 in. (0.025 mm) | .003 in. (0.076 mm) | 3x improvement in precision of the feature |
Consistency of Mechanical Properties
Engineers need to know that a printed part will exhibit consistent mechanical properties to have the statistical confidence to optimize the design for demanding applications. The coefficient of variation measures the relative variability of sets of data. In the table below, coefficient of variation indicates the spread of test values, which provides an insight into the repeatability of the measured properties. The smaller the variance, the less ‘scatter’ and the more reliable the process. With better consistency, engineers do not need to over-design a bulky part to allow for large variance and they can confidently design and produce lighter parts.
As shown in the table below, parts built with Equispheres powder showed much less variation in mechanical properties.
| Â | Â | Yield* (MPa) | Ultimate Tensile Strength* (MPa) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Value | Equispheres | 186.5 | 293.7 |
| Traditional supplier | 182.0 | 290.2 | |
| Coefficient of Variation | Equispheres | 0.57% | 0.16% |
| Traditional supplier | 3.41% | 3.09% |
*After Stress Relief
Print speed
While conducting the analysis, it was discovered that 20% less laser energy was required to print the parts when using Equispheres’ powder. This translates to a 20% increase in production speed and associated production cost savings.
Why it mattersÂ
For producers in the aerospace and defense sector, part performance, part reliability and cost are critical factors.
Using Equispheres’ powder, this manufacturer confirmed it could reliably produce parts with higher dimensional accuracy and with superior mechanical properties.
