PowderCleanse - Automated powder recycling and quality assurance for enhanced additive manufacturing material reuse

PowderCleanse - 自动粉末回收和质量保证，以增强增材制造材料的再利用

• 批准号: 103278
• 金额: $ 86.76万
• 依托单位: L.P.W. TECHNOLOGY LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=103278
• 关键词: PowderCleanse; Automated; powder; recycling; quality

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) is often billed as the future of manufacturing, providing unlimited possibilities in terms of part design and complexity, minimal material wastage and the ability to manufacture parts anywhere in the world through the internet. An aspect of AM that receives relatively limited attention, yet underpins the foundation that AM relies upon, is powder management. Powder bed AM processes typically use up to 20 kg of powder for each 1 kg of manufactured part. This means that AM users must be able to effectively handle and recycle vast amounts of powder during the process. In the current generation of AM machines the powder handling equipment provide a potential risk to both powder traceability and powder quality. This is largely driven by exposure of the powder to the environment and the use of non-optimal equipment. The PowderCleanse project will develop and demonstrate an effective solution for powder management which utilises digital connectivity to both monitor and control every aspect of the process. Key innovations will be developed for; metal powder sieving, online process monitoring, foreign body contamination detection and fully enclosed powder handling environments. The PowderCleanse system will be directly driven by the needs of end user through the formation of an industrial advisory board (IAB). The IAB will act as both the voice of end-users and as a beta test group.

金属增材制造（AM）通常被称为制造业的未来，在零件设计和复杂性方面提供了无限的可能性，最小的材料浪费以及通过互联网在世界任何地方制造零件的能力。增材制造的一个方面受到的关注相对有限，但却支撑了增材制造所依赖的基础，这就是粉末管理。粉末床增材制造工艺通常每制造1 kg零件使用高达20 kg的粉末。这意味着增材制造用户必须能够在生产过程中有效地处理和回收大量粉末。在当前一代AM机器中，粉末处理设备对粉末可追溯性和粉末质量都存在潜在风险。这主要是由于粉末暴露于环境和使用非最佳设备。PowderCleanse项目将开发和展示一种有效的粉末管理解决方案，该解决方案利用数字连接来监控和控制工艺的各个方面。主要创新将开发用于：金属粉末筛分、在线过程监控、异物污染检测和全封闭粉末处理环境。PowderCleanse系统将通过成立工业咨询委员会（IAB）直接由最终用户的需求驱动。IAB将作为最终用户的声音和beta测试组。