Additive Optimized

Desktop engineering is gradually being transformed into desktop manufacturing (or almost desktop) with Renishaw additive systems that can laser melt titanium, Inconel and aluminum powders to create fully dense, custom orthopaedic implants and complex parts that could only be imagined a few years ago. And that’s just one of the disruptive technologies from the UK engineering leader that have optimized manufacturing process control, unmanned systems, spatial measurement, precision part measurement and motion control, to name just a few.

Renishaw has used additive manufacturing in its own engineering and production for more than 10 years, continuing to refine the process and its application. The additive metal systems it has commercialized are already producing parts that could never be manufactured by conventional processes, such as mold inserts, automotive and aerospace parts with internal structural lattices or conformal cooling channels. Renishaw breakthroughs include additive melting systems that are 98 percent efficient in utilization of metal powders.

Today, the company’s high-speed SPRINT^TM measurement probe is the enabling technology behind the convergence of additive manufacturing and conventional subtractive metalworking in a single machine tool. The SPRINT 3D contact scanning probe allows a machine to locate a part and determine its form and dimensions for adaptive processing with additive and subtractive operations. The new hybrid process is ideal for repairing complex forms, such as turbine blades. The SPRINT probe allows a single machine to automatically tailor an additive build and cutting tool paths to repair blade edges and blend the roots. It enables a single machine to make repairs – traditionally a manual process – by precisely adding material where needed, then machining it flush and measuring the final product, all in one setup. It’s a completely new manufacturing paradigm, but neither the first nor the last you’ll see utilizing Renishaw technology.

For more information visit: www.renishaw.com