Selective laser sintering on the way to industrial application: A holistic approach for a digitized demonstration factory.

At present, additive manufacturing with polymers already allows the economical production of components in individual pieces or small quantities with good application-specific properties and a high degree of individualization and complexity. However, additive manufacturing processes are still associated with many manual post-processing steps and thus high costs. Consequently, series applications for additively manufactured parts fail today in most cases due to the high process costs as well as the lack of quality assurance tools. For the economic use of additive series production, the above-mentioned hurdles must be overcome. In order to be able to investigate powder-based additive manufacturing processes comprehensively up to the depowdered component, the research institution Neue Materialien Bayreuth GmbH (Germany) is currently setting up a demonstration factory for selective laser sintering (SLS) with polymers. This article presents the concept of this unique research environment. The demonstration factory represents the entire processing chain including automated de-powdering, surface cleaning, part identification and inline quality assurance. All subcomponents are connected to a central IOT platform. In addition to the parts workflow, the closed powder circuit is also the subject of consideration. With detailed in-line and at-line analytics along the process chain, the entire SLS process can be evaluated, potential problems during processing can be identified, process stability can be improved, and part properties can be precisely assigned. This paper presents the relevant methods. End-to-end digitization enables a transparent visualization of all media and material flows as well as a part-related life cycle assessment. The research infrastructure described here offers the optimal prerequisites for the establishment of robust manufacturing strategies and thus an economical use of SLS technology for series components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]