Boeing invests in Digital Alloys. This US company is developing additive manufacturing systems that allow parts to be printed into metal at high speed. Remarkably, the technology allows components to be printed from multiple types of metal so that different properties can be combined.
Digital Alloys announces it has raised $12.9 million during an investment round. Several investors put money into the company, including investment firms G20 Ventures and Khosla Ventures, Boeing's investment arm Boeing HorizonX Ventures and manufacturer of welding equipment and robotic systems Lincoln Electric, among others. Digital Alloys has developed a technology called Joule Printing. This technology allows parts of a component to be printed in different types of metal, allowing thermal, electrical, magnetic and mechanical properties of different materials to be combined. Consider the possibility of combining lightweight titanium with alloys that can withstand high temperatures.
'3D printing in metal is rarely used in manufacturing'
"Despite much attention, the use of additive manufacturing in metal in manufacturing applications has been limited by high production costs, slow print speeds, complexity and quality issues. Current methods take too long to be practical or use hazardous materials, specialised hardware and multiple complex completion steps with software to compensate for material shrinkage, chemical baths and furnaces. Look beyond the hype around 3D metal printing and you will see that it is rarely used in production," Digital Alloys writes on its website.
With Joule Printing, the company aims to eliminate these limitations. The technology uses common wires as the raw material. This is in contrast to many other additive manufacturing systems for metal, which typically use relatively expensive powders as the raw material. Digital Alloys reports that Joule Printing is suitable for any type of metal available in wire form.
What does the printing process look like?
The printing process proceeds as follows:
- The tip of the wire is guided by the system to the desired position;
- Once the wire is positioned, the system conducts electric current through the wire, the workpiece being printed and the print bed to heat it up. This electric current causes the tip of the wire to melt through a process called resistance heating. In this process, heat is developed by passing an electric current through a resistor;
- This process is repeated continuously as the print head moves, depositing small droplets of metal by melting together to form a metal part.
Digital Alloys points out that wire positioning and melting are done simultaneously in a single step. This eliminates a variety of steps that other technologies for 3D printing in metal do require, such as sintering and spreading metal powder on the print bed. As a result, the approach lowers production costs, saves time and increases the repeatability of the process.
Non-destructive quality control
During the printing process, process data is stored for each voxel printed. This makes it possible to accurately trace this process after the printing process is completed, allowing quality checks to be carried out in a non-destructive manner. Here too, Joule Printing differs from many other 3D printing processes for metal, where quality control is often actually carried out in a destructive way and thus printed parts have to be destroyed to check their quality.
"Our investment in Digital Alloys will help Boeing produce aerospace metal structural parts faster and in higher volumes than previously possible," explains Brian Schettler, managing director of Boeing HorizonX Ventures. "By investing in companies with emerging additive manufacturing technologies, we aim to strengthen Boeing's expertise and accelerate both the design and production of 3D printed parts to transform manufacturing systems and products."
Faster, more cost-effective and reliable
"Our new Joule Printing process is faster, more cost-effective and more reliable than other methods," said Duncan McCallum, CEO of Digital Alloys. "Working with Boeing makes us a smarter and stronger company. We are committed to enabling Boeing and other leading manufacturers to produce valuable new products quickly and at lower cost by integrating 3D metal printing into their manufacturing process."
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: Boeing
Source: Digital Alloys (pictured)
