The 4th HyProCell Technical Committee Meeting took place on the 30th and 31th of October 2018 and was hosted by HyProCell partner Autodesk in Birmingham, UK.
The project partners presented progress updates on the planning and execution of their pilot facilities. A highlight of the meeting was the analysis of the results from the first trials with the LMD pilot, which resulted in nozzle rings. The results demonstrate the viability of the additive manufacturing (AM) hybrid technology and the proposed serial process competes against conventional approaches (precision casting and/or MIM). A new business case for the production of a turbine blisk is under way.
The Technical Committee also reviewed the progress on integrating new machines in the LBM pilot cell located in the facilities of Poly-Shape and Ramem. The programme of work also covered industry developments and planning for the representation of HyProCell at the Formnext 2018 exhibition, taking place during 13–16 November 2018 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
The participants took the opportunity to explore Autodesk’s Technology Center, one of the four in the world (see video for a quick tour). With its advanced manufacturing facilities it contains a large range of tools from subtractive to additive and robotic platforms. The Autodesk team outlined their projects and activities in getting manufacturers and engineers to look at both design and manufacturing as a whole in order to take full advantage of the advanced technologies available. Numerous impressive parts and complete products made available to inspect.
The next Technical Committee Meeting is scheduled to take place in March 2019 and hosted by Ramem in Madrid, Spain.
