Institut fuer Integrierte Produktion Hannover (Germany)

Tools for implementing a systematic quality management are necessary for the use of material extrusion as an additive manufacturing process for products with high quality requirements. Well-defined quality classes are crucial for ensuring that the requirements for a product can be communicated transparently and that the existing properties can be evaluated. Furthermore, there is a lack of capable measurement equipment for the acquisition of process data during the production process. To address these challenges, the present paper introduces an image processing system that determines quality indicators for individual layers in terms of imperfect surface percentages and the number of imperfections. The central element of the hardware is an adaptive darkfield illumination, which leads to high-contrast images. In addition, five types of layer subareas are identified in a segmentation step. Unsupervised machine learning methods are then used to detect imperfections in each layer subarea. In the segmentation, the current layer can be distinguished from irrelevant image background regions with an F-measure of 0.981. For the layer-wise measurement of the quality indicators, relative measurement errors with standard deviations of 25 to 76.1% are found. After evaluating the capabilities of the image processing system, a proposal for limits of quality classes is derived by monitoring several material extrusion processes. For this purpose, three quality classes for each of the five layer subareas are deduced from the process scatter measured by the image processing system. The results are an important contribution to the industrialization of material extrusion in safety–critical areas such as medical technology or the aerospace industry.

Abstract Die Resilienz von Lieferketten gewinnt für produzierende Unternehmen in Zeiten schwerer Störungen durch Krisen massiv an Bedeutung. Die Auswahl von Zulieferern ist ein zentraler Aspekt bei dem Aufbau einer resilienten Lieferkette. Aktuell fehlt jedoch eine ganzheitliche Methode zur Auswahl von Lieferanten unter Berücksichtigung der Resilienz. In diesem Beitrag wird daher ein Forschungsprojekt vorgestellt, das die Entwicklung eines Bewertungsmaßes für die Resilienz im Kontext der Zuliefererauswahl zum Ziel hat. Dabei sollen die vorhandene Resilienz aus der Sicht des Zuliefererunternehmens und die benötigte Resilienz aus der Sicht des auswählenden Unternehmens berücksichtigt werden.

Abstract Die Realisierung eines geplanten Layoutkonzepts stellt eine komplexe Teilaufgabe innerhalb der Fabrikplanung dar. Insbesondere die zeitliche Anordnung der notwendigen Umzugsschritte unter Berücksichtigung vorhandener Restriktionen wird nach aktuellem Stand meist manuell ausgeführt. Eine methodische Planungsunterstützung könnte zu einer entscheidenden Reduzierung des Aufwands der Realisierungsvorbereitung beitragen. Daher wurde in einem Forschungsprojekt eine einfach anwendbare Methode zur Planung eines Fabrikumzugs für Reorganisationsprojekte entwickelt, welche von Unternehmen im praktischen Kontext angewendet werden kann.

Forgings are produced in several process steps, the so-called forging sequence. The design of efficient forging sequences is a very complex and iterative development process. In order to automate this process and to reduce the development time, a method is presented here, which automatically generates multi-stage forging sequences for different forging geometries on the basis of the component geometry (STL file). The method was developed for closed die forging. The individual modules of this forging sequence design method (FSD method) as well as the functioning of the algorithm for the generation of the intermediate forms are presented. The method is applied to different forgings with different geometrical characteristics. The generated forging sequences are checked with FE simulations for the quality criteria form filling and freedom from folds. The simulation results show that the developed FSD method provides good approximate solutions for an initial design of forging sequences for closed die forging in a short time.

Abstract Geometry, design, and processing in addition to the thermoelectric material properties have a significant influence on the economic efficiency and performance of thermoelectric generators (TEGs). While conventional BULK TEGs are elaborate to manufacture and allow only limited variations in geometry, printed TEGs are often restricted in their application and processing temperature due to the use of organic materials. In this work, a proof‐of‐concept for fabricating modular, customizable, and temperature‐stable TEGs is demonstrated by applying an alternative laser process. For this purpose, low temperature cofired ceramics substrates were coated over a large area, freely structured and cut without masks by a laser and sintered to a solid structure in a single optimized thermal post‐processing. A scalable design with complex geometry and large cooling surface for application on a hot shaft was realized to prove feasibility. Investigations on sintering characteristics up to a peak temperature of 1173 K, thermoelectric material properties and temperature distribution were carried out for a Ca3Co4O9/Ag‐based prototype and evaluated using profilometer, XRD, and IR measurements. For a combined post‐processing, an optimal sintering profile could be determined at 1073 K peak temperature with a 20 min holding time. Temperature gradients of up to 100 K could be achieved along a thermocouple. A single TEG module consisting of 12 thermocouples achieved a maximum power of 0.224 μW and open‐circuit voltage of 134.41 mV at an average hot‐side temperature of 413.6 K and temperature difference of 106.7 K. Three of these modules combined into a common TEG with a total of 36 thermocouples reached a maximum power of 0.58 K and open‐circuit voltage of 319.28 mV with a lesser average hot‐side temperature of 387.8 K and temperature difference of 83.4 K.

Abstract The manufacturing technology of thermoelectric materials is laborious and expensive often including complex and time‐intensive preparation steps. In this work, a laser sintering process of the oxide‐based thermoelectric material Ca3Co4O9 is investigated. Samples based on spray‐coated Ca3Co4O9 were prepared and subsequently sintered under various laser parameters and investigated in terms of the microstructure and thermoelectric properties. Here, the combination of laser sintering and subsequent thermal sintering proved to be a promising concept for the preparation of thermoelectric films. Laser sintering can thus make a great contribution in improving the processing of thermoelectric materials, especially when films are applied that cannot be sintered under pressure.

Abstract In der Medizintechnik, in der komplexe und patientenindividuelle Produkte hergestellt werden, hat sich die Additive Fertigung etabliert. Da die Prozesse der Additiven Fertigung sensibel auf Veränderungen der Prozessparameter und Umgebungsbedingungen reagieren, sind Qualitätssicherungsmaßnahmen ein zentraler Faktor innerhalb der Produktion. In diesem Beitrag wird der Ansatz für eine In-situ-Prozessüberwachung in der additiven Materialextrusion vorgestellt.

The service life of rolling contacts is dependent on many factors. The choice of materials in particular has a major influence on when, for example, a ball bearing may fail. Within an exemplary process chain for the production of hybrid high-performance components through tailored forming, hybrid solid components made of at least two different steel alloys are investigated. The aim is to create parts that have improved properties compared to monolithic parts of the same geometry. In order to achieve this, several materials are joined prior to a forming operation. In this work, hybrid shafts created by either plasma (PTA) or laser metal deposition (LMD-W) welding are formed via cross-wedge rolling (CWR) to investigate the resulting thickness of the material deposited in the area of the bearing seat. Additionally, finite element analysis (FEA) simulations of the CWR process are compared with experimental CWR results to validate the coating thickness estimation done via simulation. This allows for more accurate predictions of the cladding material geometry after CWR, and the desired welding seam geometry can be selected by calculating the cladding thickness via CWR simulation.

LINKED CONTENTThis article is linked to Mecci et al paper. To view this article, visit https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15296.