Additive Blog

Elevate Your Production Processes with Carpenter Additive’s Webinar: Best Practices in Metal Powder Management

Carpenter Additive — Mon, 13 May 2024 04:00:00 GMT

In today's fast-paced manufacturing landscape, staying ahead of the curve is imperative for companies striving for operational excellence and innovation. Amidst the myriad of strategies and methodologies, one often overlooked yet critical aspect is material management. To shed light on this essential component of production optimization, Carpenter Additive is hosting an insightful webinar titled, 'Best Practices to Differentiate Value in Metal Powder Management', on Wednesday June 5th at 11am (ET).

This online event is set to be a game-changer for industry professionals seeking to elevate their production processes. Led by Caitlin Oswald, Business Development & Applications at Carpenter Additive, the webinar promises to delve deep into emerging material trends shaping modern production environments.

The webinar highlights a refreshing approach to material management, taking a step back from the intricacies of material engineering to explore how leading companies strategically shift their focus to material as a cornerstone of continuous improvement initiatives. Attendees can expect to gain invaluable insights into optimizing material selection, streamlining powder management processes, and harnessing the power of materials to drive operational efficiency and innovation.

Whether you're a seasoned industry professional or a newcomer eager to stay ahead of the curve, this webinar offers something for everyone. It promises to provide valuable perspectives and practical approaches to elevate your organization's performance in today's evolving landscape of material management.

By attending this webinar, you'll:

Gain insights into emerging material trends shaping modern production environments.
Explore how industry leaders are leveraging materials as a strategic cornerstone for continuous improvement initiatives, propelling their organizations towards enhanced efficiency and innovation.
Discover actionable strategies to optimize material selection and streamline powder management processes.
Harness the power of materials to drive operational efficiency and innovation in your organization.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to gain invaluable knowledge and stay ahead of the competition. Register now for Carpenter Additive's webinar, and take the first step towards transforming your production processes. Join us as we navigate through the evolving landscape of material management and uncover actionable strategies to propel your organization to new heights of success.

Meet the Speaker

Caitlin Oswald, Business Development and Applications Manager.

Caitlin is an experienced applications & business development leader in the additive manufacturing industry. She has a diverse background in technology and applications development from prototyping into production. Her knowledge has been gathered through the last decade working at Aerospace & Defense OEM Primes, Tier II suppliers for contract manufacturing, and in the raw material supply chain, all focused on additive manufacturing. Caitlin was responsible for the development and execution of standard work and best practices leading to the world’s first Additive Manufacturing NADCAP accreditation at a contract manufacturer and holds multiple patents on design and powder removal techniques when utilizing additive manufacturing powder bed technologies. She has led multi-million-dollar material and manufacturing characterization efforts, participated in numerous AFRL and America Makes programs, and executed her master’s degree study focus on Powder Recycling utilizing the EB-PBF technology with Ti 6-4 material. Caitlin holds Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut and has been recognized by the Manufacturing Institute for the STEP Ahead award, and by Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business (2015).

Powder Handling Best Practices & Industry Impact | Carpenter Additive

Carpenter Additive — Tue, 07 May 2024 04:00:00 GMT

In this concluding blog, we underscore the paramount importance of mastering powder handling within additive manufacturing. Carpenter Additive's steadfast commitment is not merely to provide solutions but to deliver sustainable, productionized alternatives that set new industry benchmarks.

Our dedication to innovation goes beyond conventional solutions. We recognize that efficient powder handling is not just a requirement; it's a transformative force shaping the future of additive manufacturing. Carpenter Additive stands as a beacon, leading the way with a commitment to sustainable and production-ready alternatives that redefine how industries approach powder handling challenges.

Image 1: The Hopper has landed

The Impact of Efficient Powder Handling

Efficiency in powder handling isn't just about optimizing processes, it's about minimizing waste. Carpenter Additive’s Hoppers are not just containers, they are sustainable solutions designed to reduce waste, contributing to a more environmentally conscious additive manufacturing process. By embracing these productionized solutions, industries align with global initiatives aimed at a reduced environmental footprint.

In the controlled, closed-loop environment facilitated by Carpenter Additive’s Hoppers, safety and traceability are paramount. Beyond the technical specifications, our Hoppers prioritize the well-being of those involved in the manufacturing process. Simultaneously, the closed-loop design ensures traceability, fostering transparency and accountability in the workflow—a cornerstone of quality assurance.

Embracing the Circular Economy

Carpenter Additive is committed to fostering a circular economy within additive manufacturing. Our Next-Gen Hoppers are not only designed for efficiency and sustainability during use but also for longevity and reusability. As part of our commitment to sustainability, we offer a seamless process for returning and refilling Hoppers, minimizing waste and maximizing resource utilization. By closing the loop in powder handling, we contribute to the circular economy model, where materials are reused and recycled, reducing the environmental impact of additive manufacturing. This initiative aligns with our core values of innovation and sustainability, ensuring that our solutions are not only cutting-edge but also environmentally responsible.

Image 2: The New and Improved Hoppers

Carpenter Additive's Experience and Collaboration

With a daily production exceeding 30 metric ton, Carpenter Additive brings not just capability but invaluable expertise. Our experience in moving metal powder at such a scale is a testament to the reliability and efficiency of our solutions. It's a daily commitment to excellence that positions us as leaders in the industry.

Additive manufacturing is a complex ecosystem, and Carpenter Additive acknowledges the need for a holistic approach. Our collaboration with ancillary solution providers goes beyond powder handling, ensuring that our customers receive comprehensive support. From powder handling to broader additive manufacturing challenges, this collaborative effort provides a full spectrum of solutions.

Image 3: Improving Efficiency in the Powder Handling Process

In closing, Carpenter Additive's Next-Gen Hoppers represent more than containers—they signify a paradigm shift in additive manufacturing. This series has traced the evolution from conventional methods to robust, production-ready solutions, addressing challenges and setting new standards for the industry. As we navigate the future of additive manufacturing, Carpenter Additive remains committed to advancing innovation, sustainability, and excellence in powder handling.

How Particle Size Distribution Impacts GRCop-42 Performance

Carpenter Additive — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 05:00:00 GMT

Unlocking the superiority of GRCop-42: The role of particle size distribution in flowability and spreadability

Copper-based alloys are becoming ever more essential for additive manufacturing (AM) because of their unique combination of thermal and electrical properties, corrosion resistance, and durability. GRCop-42 is a prime example: a high-conductivity, high-strength copper-based alloy developed by NASA for use in high heat flux applications.

Carpenter Additive produces GRCop-42 AM powder for the aerospace industry and has quickly become the industry standard for additively manufacturing components for liquid rocket engines and other combustion devices. When tested against competitor AM powder, Carpenter Additive’s GRCop-42 stands out for its well-defined, narrow particle size distribution, which has a direct and positive impact on alloy performance.

Understanding GRCop-42 properties

GRCop-42 is a copper-chromium-niobium alloy with high thermal conductivity, excellent creep resistance, low-cycle fatigue life, and strength retention at elevated temperatures. It is the ideal material for parts such as combustion chamber liners, where:

High conductivity allows heat to dissipate
Creep resistance and high strength at extreme operating temperatures provides structural integrity
Low cycle fatigue life ensures part longevity and use case safety

NASA developed GRCop-42 with the goal of increasing the number of AM materials available for use in harsh environments. To achieve this goal, the alloy wouldn’t just need to be available — it would have to be designed for additive manufacturing. Powder manufacturers would need to produce high-quality metal powder with the correct mechanical properties as well as the correct particle size distribution for optimal flowability, spreadability, and printability.

The science behind particle size distribution

Particle size distribution (PSD) defines the relative number of particles by size in a powder sample. It shows the range of particle sizes and their relative quantities, typically in a distribution curve format.

A narrow, uni-modal PSD has a single peak and indicates a uniformity of particle size.

A wide PSD shows that particles of many different sizes are present, including much smaller particles called fines <15 µm.

A bi-modal PSD has two distinct peaks and indicates that particles are divided across two main size ranges.

For AM materials, being able to select and control PSD is critical to the material’s performance. A narrow, uni-modal particle size distribution means powder particles are uniform in size, which enables:

Flowability: The smooth flow of material during 3D printing. Powder flows consistently, creating uniform layer thickness and excellent surface finish for superior parts. Clogs, part defects, and build failures are prevented.
Spreadability: The even spread of material over a previous layer. Spreadability ensures a controlled flow and strong adhesion between layers, creating structural integrity and dimensional accuracy.
Uniform distribution of niobium and chromium: The even spread of niobium and chromium across the powder sample, resulting in better mechanical properties and performance.
Optimized material use: The Goldilocks zone of using exactly the right amount of powder. No underuse, resulting in failed prints or part imperfections. No overuse, resulting in wasted material and/or unsafe powder residue.
The ultimate goal: Successful, repeatable builds.

Optimizing GRCop-42 with PSD control

Carpenter Additive’s proprietary AM powder manufacturing processes allow for the control of PSD in GRCop-42 production, ensuring its superior quality and proven AM results. Powder particles <2 µm are removed from our powder, which means there is no safety risk from superfine particles. Our GRCop-42 powder has the most stable, unimodal particle size distribution available with the least fines, best flow, and most uniform niobium and chromium distribution. No wonder it’s the aerospace industry standard.

Learn more about GRCop-42

PM-HIP near net shape manufacturing for the energy industry

Carpenter Additive — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 04:00:00 GMT

Manufacturing near net shape powder metal (PM) components by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) has been an important manufacturing technology for stainless steel alloys since around 1985. The manufacturing process involves inert gas atomization of powder, 3D CAD capsule design, sheet metal capsule fabrication, and densification by HIP in very large pressure vessels.

The main applications of PM-HIP are found in the energy sector, particularly in offshore oil and gas applications, but also industrial and nuclear power generation. A significant growth for PM-HIP is anticipated in the nuclear industry in the years ahead. The advantages of PM-HIP manufacturing over traditional forging and welding are significant:

Microstructural cleanliness
Material homogeneity / uniform structure
Isotropic properties, no longitudinal/transverse direction
Ultrasonic inspectability due to the fine grain size
Parts are produced near net shape
Less machining and welding needed during final assembly and repair

Due to these advancements in PM-HIP manufacturing, high-quality parts have shorter delivery times, give engineers greater design flexibility, and are more economical to manufacture.

Advanced materials for advanced manufacturing

Mechanical properties and corrosion resistance is largely dependent on chemical composition and microstructure. Gas atomized and HIP’d material has a different composition and microstructure than cast and forged material. Precision production and quality control is key.

Carpenter Additive’s cutting-edge facility in Torshälla, Sweden, has been producing metal powder for HIP’d near net shaped parts since the 1990s. From the beginning, powder production was focused on different types of austenitic stainless steels. This in-depth stainless steel knowledge made creating metal powders for near net shape manufacturing a natural next step. Today, our duplex family is dominant for the oil and gas industry.

Over the years, Carpenter Additive has developed more and more advanced austenitic, duplex, and super duplex stainless steels to withstand the most extreme conditions — from deepwater drilling to CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Over the years, we have consistently delivered substantial quantities of high-quality Austenitic and Duplex-family steels to fuel HIP-NNS solutions, contributing significantly to the industry's success.

Micro-Melt 316LN

Austenitic stainless steel Micro-Melt 316LN was developed for building the end covers of the CERN LHC. A new process had to be developed and implemented to reach the material properties needed at below 5 kelvin. An equally significant development stage had to be performed for the test production of larger PM-HIP components for the ITER magnetic fusion device’s development stage.

Micro-Melt 2505 Super Duplex Stainless

Super duplex stainless steel Micro-Melt 2505 is our most produced grade for near net shape applications. Our propriety production process and optimized chemical composition ensures the correct microstructure, phase balance, mechanical properties, and impact strength.

Carpenter Additive has an extensive portfolio of metal powders engineered for HIP’d near net shaped parts.

Unlocking the Potential of GRCop-42 | Carpenter Additive

Carpenter Additive — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 04:00:00 GMT

Join Carpenter Additive's Caitlin Oswald for an on-demand webinar on GRCop-42, the preferred alloy for spaceflight companies in the production of components for liquid rocket engines and other combustion devices.

Explore the history and origins of GRCop-42 as we delve into its development and real-world applications across various industries. In this webinar, we will cover the chemistry behind PowderRange® GRCop-42 and its exceptional properties, as well as the intricate processes of atomizing and printing GRCop-42, along with the challenges that come with producing this material.

Meet the Speaker

Caitlin Oswald, Business Development & Applications Engineer, at Carpenter Additive, is an experienced applications & business development leader in the additive manufacturing industry. She has a diverse background in technology and applications development from prototyping into production. Her knowledge has been gathered through the last decade working at Aerospace & Defense OEM Primes, Tier II suppliers for contract manufacturing, and in the raw material supply chain, all focused on additive manufacturing. Caitlin was responsible for the development and execution of standard work and best practices leading to the world’s first Additive Manufacturing NADCAP accreditation at a contract manufacturer and holds multiple patents on design and powder removal techniques when utilizing additive manufacturing powder bed technologies. She has led multi-million-dollar material and manufacturing characterization efforts, participated in numerous AFRL and America Makes programs, and executed her master’s degree study focus on Powder Recycling utilizing the EB-PBF technology with Ti64 material. Caitlin holds Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut and has been recognized by the Manufacturing Institute for the STEP Ahead award, and by Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business (2015).

About Carpenter Additive

Carpenter Additive is the market leader in the manufacture, development and processing of high-quality metal powders and solutions and services for the metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) industry.

We produce and process ultraclean metal powders specifically for AM, develop new AM alloys, provide expert application support, optimize part production, post processing and partner with you to create innovative end-to-end AM solutions. Carpenter Additive’s PowderRange® series of fully optimized, off-the-shelf powders for AM are supplied to quality management standards AS 9120, AS 9100, ISO 9001 and ISO 13485, and are dispatched within 24 hours of receipt of order.

Homogeneous Powder Microstructure Fuels GRCop-42 Performance

Carpenter Additive — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 04:00:00 GMT

Homogeneous powder microstructure fuels GRCop-42 performance

GRCop-42 is a copper-chromium-niobium alloy developed by NASA for high heat flux aerospace applications. The alloy is manufactured by Carpenter Additive in the United Kingdom and delivers:

High thermal conductivity
Excellent creep resistance
Low-cycle fatigue life
Strength retention at elevated temperatures

GRCop-42 is the preferred material for space flight companies in the production of combustion components for liquid rocket engines, including combustion chamber linings and fuel injector face plates.

GRCop-42, from Carpenter Additive, was recently put to the test against a competitor's GRCop-42 metal powder for additive manufacturing. In every category, GRCop-42 from Carpenter Additive outperformed the competition, thanks to its homogeneous powder microstructure.

Microstructure matters

Control over particle distribution and composition directly influences the quality, mechanical properties, and overall performance of additively manufactured components. A uniform microstructure ensures consistent melt pool behavior during 3D printing, which minimizes defects, such as porosity, cracks, and inclusions. The even distribution of elements and grain sizes enhances the material's mechanical integrity, resulting in improved tensile strength, fatigue resistance, and thermal conductivity.

Advanced manufacturing

Achieving a uniform powder microstructure for GRCop-42 is no small task. Copper melts at 1085°C, while niobium melts at 2477°C. This wide difference of temperatures makes it challenging to get a homogeneous melt for the copper-chromium-niobium alloy. Additionally, copper is reactive with oxygen, so that interaction must be managed carefully. Copper is also very ductile, making it challenging to manufacture highly spherical powder particles.

To address these manufacturing challenges, Carpenter Additive’s atomizers have a range of sensors and control systems that allow us to monitor temperature and pressures, and ultimately control microstructure. Our propriety processes does a superior job:

Dispersing niobium in GRCop-42 powder particles
Controlling oxygen content to minimize copper reactivity
Achieving unimodality of particle size distribution

The resulting high-performance additive manufacturing powder not only meets but exceeds industry standards, solidifying Carpenter Additive as the trusted choice for leading companies in the space industry. With our unmatched control over microstructure and quality, we set the bar for excellence in aerospace applications.

Emerging Technology Center & Nickel-Based Superalloys

Carpenter Additive — Thu, 04 Aug 2022 04:00:00 GMT

Spotlight on the Emerging Technology Center

The materials, expertise, and infrastructure to advance innovation

Superior performance at high temperature make nickel-based superalloys ideal for aerospace, automotive, industrial, and energy applications. The market has started to take notice, with more and more engineers and product designers specifying these high-strength metal powders for their additive manufacturing (AM) operations. Carpenter Technology leads the way, with industry-leading nickel-based superalloys produced at our Emerging Technology Center in Athens, Alabama.

PowderRange 718 is known as the workhorse of this category — an age-hardenable alloy designed to display exceptionally high yield, tensile, and creep-rupture properties at temperatures up to 1300°F (704°C). Its slow age-hardening response allows for highly customizable heat treatments and mechanical properties for different applications. 718 is also resistant to chlorides, stress corrosion, and sulfide stress cracking.

PowderRange 625 is a non-magnetic nickel-based superalloy with outstanding strength and toughness from cryogenic temperatures to 2000°F (1093°C). It has excellent fatigue strength and is resistant to corrosion, oxidation, chloride ions, and stress-corrosion cracking. 625 has excellent weldability in laser and electron-beam additive manufacturing processes.

Agile material and process development

With 130+ years of alloy and production expertise, we understand that every use case is unique. The application engineers and metallurgists at the Emerging Technology Center are on hand to help you customize alloy solutions. We consider ourselves an extension of your team, offering full value stream material and process optimization:

AM powder characteristics: From R&D through production atomization processes, we can tweak alloy chemistries and powder characteristics to your specifications, and transfer them to full-rate production.
AM powder specifications: Our team processes parameter development on in-house additive manufacturing equipment as well as externally with partners.
Material and process specifications: We perform extensive DOEs to optimize microstructure, surface finish, density, and more.
AM powder reuse: Our processes, analytics, and certifications allow you to reuse metal powder with confidence.

In conjunction with our sister Carpenter Technology facility in Athens, we are constantly driving toward next-generation, industrial-scale additive manufacturing. We have the applications expertise and in-depth knowledge of materials to take your AM production to the next level — improving part performance, increasing yields, and creating efficiencies and cost savings.

50,000 square feet of possibilities

The Emerging Technology Center drives the commercialization of new technologies with a whopping 50,000 square feet of world-class production and innovation space. We have the equipment, infrastructure, and expertise to create, collaborate, and demonstrate scaled-up application development, material traceability, and certification.

We look forward to seeing you at the Emerging Technology Center.

3D Printing Business Models - PowderHeads | Carpenter Additive

Carpenter Additive — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 05:00:00 GMT

Carpenter Technology sits down with Carl Dekker, President of Met-L-Flo, a service center for additive manufacturing in Sugar Grove, Illinois. Carl also serves as president of AMUG, the additive manufacturing users’ group.

PowderHeads Podcast Ep 2 - Carl Dekker Met-L-Flo

This episode covers Carl's journey as a business owner and his views on 3D printing business models.

Listen to the full podcast here, or read through the overview below:

3D Printing Business Models and Use Cases

While most people think 3D printing is a new industry, rapid manufacturing prototyping is an earlier form of this technology that's been around for decades. When Carl Dekker found himself without a job after working in stereolithography and casting tech, he started the Met-L-Flo contract manufacturing facility.

Initially, it was a supplementary service provider for OEMs that provided parts for companies like Motorola, Abbott, and Baxter, but as time went on, Met-L-Flo found a market providing full turnkey CAD to deliverable products under one roof. From there, they moved toward becoming a contract manufacturer, bringing on new tech and competencies so they could utilize ISO 9,000 standards and eventually get into additives.

The flexibility of additive is that it opens doors to make so many things without a massive factory and specific machines for each job.

As Dekker worked more with the SME to get the word out, he realized that the lack of standards needed to be addressed. ASTM agreed to pick up the charge of creating standards for this robust manufacturing process with Met-L-Flo in 2008 and formed the Committee F42 on Additive Manufacturing Technologies in 2009. Dekker and his team are now helping develop these ongoing standards and parameters for equipment manufacturers in the additive space so that companies in the aerospace and similar industries can be assured their parts will be safe and meet requirements.

Dekker is also President of the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG), an amazing group run by those who want to help make the technology successful by identifying problems and controlling them so that they don't become catastrophic issues. Every technology has its limitations, but managing limitations can ensure the reputation of the technology isn't damaged in the long term. The collaborative nature of the AMUG ensures best practices (minus any proprietary information) are shared for the success of the whole group and industry.

3D printing was put in the spotlight during COVID, as people came together to quickly implement solutions for first responders, such as police, fire crews, and healthcare workers. There was unity in the 3D printing world.

One of the education pieces Dekker has emphasized is that 3D printing with an additive isn't like pushing the button on a regular printer. When people who admire 3D printing have additive requests that don't make sense, such as for a part initially designed for conventional manufacturing, a cost study will show additive failing almost every time in these cases. But those who do a top biology optimization, part count consolidation, structural and loan distribution analysis may find it works, especially for a geometry that couldn't be made with another manufacturing process.

Another important point is that just because you can print something, should you? Dekker is part of an assembly of national academics to create a report for Congress on 3D printing to address things like liability when someone prints an item. An example would be a bicycle helmet printed at home. If an injury occurs, who is at fault? Is it the consumer who printed it, the materials, or the designer? Liability concerns could keep people from embracing the technology, and so these legal standards are being addressed.

By having so many experts from different areas working together and sharing collective knowledge, solutions happen, and technology is advanced.

For more information, you can listen to our podcast episode here! You can also get in touch with the Carpenter Additive experts with any questions below!

SPEE3D is Revolutionizing Metal 3D Printing - PowderHeads | Carpenter Additive

Carpenter Additive — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 04:00:00 GMT

Carpenter Technology's Director of R&D, Will Herbert, sits down with Byron Kennedy, CEO and Founder of SPEE3D, an organization that enables the most affordable metal additive manufacturing process in the world. They're making metal parts the fastest way possible by leveraging metal cold spray technology to produce industrial quality metal parts in just minutes, rather than days or weeks.

PowderHeads Podcast Ep 8 - Byron Kennedy SPEE3D

In this episode, we cover solar car racing and electric vehicles, 3D printing visions for full-scale manufacturing, and interesting future technologies, including 3D scanning.

Listen to the full podcast here or read through the overview below:

Revolutionizing Metal 3D Printing

Although laser-based metal additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have many applications, the process is too slow and expensive to meet most industrial criteria. Moreover, they're often not reliable enough to support full-scale production.

To solve these challenges, Australia-based SPEE3D has introduced an AM method that doesn't rely on laser technology in the production of metal parts. The company uses a deposition (printing) technology called Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing, in which metal pellet powders are fired at supersonic speed (about 1,000 meters per second.) When the powders hit a surface, they stick to it and create a full-density component.

U.S. military has been using this technology for part repairs, and SPEE3D adapted it to meet manufacturing needs. Instead of reinventing the wheel, SPEE3D created a solution that pairs various robust, proven technologies (e.g., off-the-shelf six-axis robots, pneumatic systems) with innovative software. While the hardware platform is unique, durable, and reliable, it's the software that differentiates the solution from its competitors. In fact, SPEE3D considers itself an industrial software company.

SPEE3D's approach is the opposite of traditional metal 3D printing, in which very sophisticated hardware is paired with relatively simple software. When an upgrade is introduced to such conventional solutions, manufactures often need to purchase new expensive hardware.

On the other hand, SPEE3D's software-driven solution means you simply need to update the software with minimal cost and no disruption to the production process. Manufacturers can keep using the same hardware for years while staying up-to-date with the latest development in AM through regular software upgrades.

Additionally, the hardware can withstand extreme conditions. The company's CEO, Bryon Kennedy, has taken a machine into the Australian Bush in conjunction with the Australian army. It performed flawlessly under 40 degrees Celsius and 90% humidity, proving that the hardware can print parts on demand (almost) anywhere on Earth.

SPEE3D's machine can create replacement parts on the spot for expensive infrastructure. The company has worked with the military to produce complex components when and where they're needed to avoid the high cost of shipping parts to remote locations while dramatically reducing the downtime associated with broken parts. Such an application is also very relevant to the oil and gas industry, the mining industry, and the rail industry.

Another hurdle that prevents the widespread adoption of AM solutions is cost, which needs to be under $100 per kg for large-scale production to be feasible. Today, laser technology costs as much as $5,000 per kg, but SPEE3D technologies can bring it down to $20-$50 per kg.

Currently, SPEE3D is working on integrating a 3D scanner directly into the printer to add full reverse engineering capabilities for rebuilding components. This can be a very valuable feature for manufacturers in heavy industries where it's often hard to procure parts designed decades ago. SPEE3D's vision is to take its technology to the level of "true production" — having the ability to manufacture a single product at 10 to 20 tons per year, which is not feasible using today's laser AM technologies.

To get more information, you can listen to our podcast episode here! You can also get in touch with the Carpenter Additive experts with any AM questions below!

Jason Jones, Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies | Podcast Ep 9

Carpenter Additive — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 04:00:00 GMT

Ben Ferrar, VP and General Manager at Carpenter Additive sits down with Jason Jones, CEO, and Co-Founder at Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies to discuss all things additive. This episode covers a range of topics, from Jason's additive journey starting in the UK, to printing with polymer and metal, and the use of gaming technologies in additive manufacturing.

Listen to the full podcast here or read through the transcription below:

Transcript: PowderHeads Podcast Ep 9 - Jason Jones CEO, and Co-Founder at Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies

Hi everyone and welcome back to PowderHeads a Carpenter Additive podcast. With each episode of PowderHeads, we bring you the minds of industry experts and delve into topics that are defining how additive manufacturing is making an impact on our world. We've got a great one for you today, Ben Ferrar, Vice President at Carpenter Additive sits down with Jason Jones, CEO and Co-Founder at Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies. I think the best PowderHeads discussions are ones where the people talking know one another and this one doesn't disappoint. Jason's an old school powder head in an industry that's still quite young following his journey to additive that began in the world of subtractive is an interesting ride. Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.

Ben Ferrar:

Jason, welcome to PowderHeads. It's a privilege to have you on the show. We've obviously known each other a while. It will be good for our listeners if you give them a bit of an explanation of how you got into AM, and talk to talk them through your journey.

Jason Jones:

Perfect. Thanks, it's great to be here. I'm honored to be a part of this first season and thank you for the invitation. My entry point into additive really came from subtractive. I was studying my undergrad and needed a job. I'd worked various jobs, eventually found CNC machining and was a part-time machinist while I was studying. And then as I got a full-time job also in CNC machining, we added laser cutting and 3d printing to our product lineup. And that was my first intro to 3D printing really.

Ben Farrar:

It's crazy really, there's so many people in the industry that have such good experience with additive. Yet such a big part of the challenge with making additive parts is around the machining and the subtractive element of it, which somehow gets glossed over or missed at some point.

Jason Jones:

For sure. And I think people are becoming more aware of it and are willing to talk about it, but, you know, there's the phrase that well begun is half done. And from my perspective, when you talk about additive manufacturing, the printing portion of it is only half of it typically. And so I'm really pleased to see more and more coming to light. And, you know, just the acknowledgement that this tends to be quite a process chain as virtually all at, you know, types of manufacturing are.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah. Great. So talk us through your journey then, because we obviously met well over 10 years ago, probably in the lab at the Montfort University. So tell us, talk us through the journey and some of the projects and, how you ended up where you are now.

Jason Jones:

Yeah, perfect. So after my undergrad, I moved to London, England, with my wife and had a phenomenal experience there, I got engaged with industrial work. And that's the point at which 3D printing really entered from the center. I was technical manager for a company out of London and we took on multiple lines of 3D printers. This was the early 2000s. And while the potential was super clear and I could hear the music, right. It was just so tangible, it's so tantalizing and amazing yet what we delivered to customers sometimes fell short and I was the guy who ended up apologizing for it. I was, you know, they pulled me in when it was a big mess and I'd come in and I'd use my I'm sorry. I just felt really bad for them, frankly. And often it was out of my hands and I got tired of apologizing. There are some skills you only want to progress so far. And I got to the point where I was like, let's, let's deal with this some other way. So we connected with a local University, DeMontford, and started a R&D project collaboratively where we could hopefully solve some of these issues before they ended up on the customer floor. And eventually I actually transferred to the university full-time as senior research fellow. And that's when you and I met.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah. Great. I remember that, the days in the lab with the old SLP machine, are you willing to give people an explanation of that technology that we were working on then?

Jason Jones:

Sure. Yeah. We laid the foundation for scaling up what you would call laser printing or electrophotography, essentially the same technology that that's in a Xerox copy machine, some of the work we did made its way eventually to Stratasys and now into evolve. So if you know, evolve additive, all of the foundational pieces for that Ben and I were very actively developing and understanding the fundamental physics. And we're thrilled that it's now spun out and become its own entity with the significant amount of funding. And we expect great things.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah. I mean, it's tricky- right. And add it in the additive space. There's so many similarities between the polymer and the metal, but yet there's so many differences as well. It means that, you know, that you find that there's some people that are metal only and I've fallen away from polymer over the years as well.

Jason Jones:

Yeah. And it is fun. I mean, we do both and it, to me, it's interesting what you learn from one that does apply to the other and sometimes what doesn't, but I think more often than not, as we understand super clearly one, then we know what to watch for in the other.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah, that's a really key point. So how are things at hybrid now?

Jason Jones:

They're good. We're thrilled to have a new year. Like everybody, 2020 was more exciting than we hoped for, and that drew out. And also, you know, all of us, I think experienced some degree of nervousness to say, I mean, when it first started with all this will blow past in two months and we'll be fine. And now here we are nearly a year later.

Ben Ferrar:

I remember thinking two weeks, I've got to stay at home for two weeks, you know, and one year down the line, right. You're, you're still, I mean, in Pennsylvania, we're still home, but, um, what's the, what's the situation being with the more broad machine tool market like the machining market is that, has that seen the same impact that we've seen in other markets?

Jason Jones:

Well, it depends on if you talk about the use of machines or the purchase of machines and as 2020, you know, as the reality unfolded, most people put a ban on all travel and capital spending. So machine tools saw a dip in purchases, and then after people realized, hey, we're still going to be making stuff. And especially here in the US as people tooled up to a lot of mold and dye work, especially to address the shortages, then those orders rose. And then at the end quarter four, as I understand, it had really quite an increase in capital purchasing.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah. Great. I mean, that's exactly what we need to, to get back on track. So you alluded a bit to, uh, to working on metals and polymer, what are you guys doing? What's the latest, the latest inventions, the latest applications that you guys are working on right now?

Jason Jones:

Well, you obviously know cause we've had a history, but we essentially modularized directed energy deposition to fit inside of a CNC machine. And we literally did it to where it's another tool in the carousel. So you can switch back and forth between adding and removing on the fly. We had a lot of requests for polymer in the same format. And so we essentially miniaturized what is sort of the bam technique, right? That Oak Ridge has refined and then worked with Cincinnati and Thermo and Ingersoll and others to perfect. So we've now got deposition heads that do that, that also fit in the machine tool. And so it's been really fun now that we've got both, we literally will do parts made of metal and polymer together in the same build, which is pretty unusual for additive.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah, it definitely is. So what applications does that open up?

Jason Jones:

So you have to look at it one direction or the other, if we talk about adding polymer to metal, often you're looking at over-molding or, you know, you think about almost every product you have this metal frequently, there are polymer parts with it or attached to it, or seal or other things embedded. This is an all-in-one setup that allows you to do all of it together. So that's exciting. And then in reverse, if you do metal onto polymer, you get some things that are still quite researching. And we've got a couple of partners who are exploring out, can you use it as a support material? Can you do other things with it? And the answer is in theory. Yes. And now we're trying to check if it will scale up. So I think that it's a super exciting future development that will become a thing.

Ben Ferrar:

I just would have thought the heat would have, would have caused some problems. Right.

Jason Jones:

Totally counter-intuitive right? But the thermal mass of what you deposit is small enough and focused enough and polymer doesn't transfer heat very well. And we've played with the polymers in some of the, uh, you know, essentially the chemistry of it to get to something where it does survive the interface. We don't know what to call the interface. And so you're still in an aspirational phase of, hey, we can do it in principle and does this really have industrial application? So it was just a for fun thing on the side. That's cool. And, um, sometimes they start fires too, which is kind of exciting when we first started doing it. You'd light the polymer on fire with a laser, and then you'd be trying to put it all out quickly and lots of fun stories.

Ben Ferrar:

So tell us one of those fun stories then, have you ever been really close to getting into trouble?

Jason Jones:

Well, all of our systems have inner locked doors, right. For safety. And so inevitably you've got doors locked and there's a timer that counts down so that it evacuates anything that's ash, you know, but if you've got a fire going on inside and you want to put it out, you're, you can't help, but bang on the door and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, it's pretty exciting.

Ben Ferrar:

I mean, so when I think about what you just said in terms of supporting with polymer, you know, and you can burn out afterwards, it offers a huge, huge amount of opportunities in terms of tooling from DED, which typically you haven't been able to do. That was one of the major benefits of the layer based technologies over DED technology. But if you can, if you can get that to work successfully in jewel deposit, then that's a huge opportunity, right.

Jason Jones:

That's why we're doing it. And so I guess stay tuned. It's fun, right? It's aspirational, but yes, essentially powder bed has such a sweet spot in terms of internal complexity. We don't think we'll ever achieve quite the same resolution, but if we can scale up and be able to do bridge, you know, bridge over features and that kind of thing, it really opens up what DED is good for.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah, great. So in terms of other things going on in the additive industry that interests you at the moment, what's the most exciting thing that you've seen?

Jason Jones:

Well, I love electronics and embedding electronics and direct conformal printing of electronics. I love all that because it really, from, in my mind, there's three stages of industry applications. The first is prototyping everybody, you know, that's where the industry really cut its teeth. Next is production parts. And the third stage is really products that are multiple types of parts or materials that can be monolithic or not, but additives and assembly technique, you know, if you step way back, it's, uh, it can be used as an assembly solution. And the more we can embed almost like lab on a chip type mentality, but it obviously the larger scale, I think that bodes very well for our future of smart products and making it practical to achieve.

Ben Ferrar:

Totally agree. I think that you think about the functional component coming out of a printer is what we've been talking about for 20 years, right? Not, you know, we have parts that we're printing now where we print the part and it takes two, three days, right? The machines are pretty quick. 20 years ago that probably would have taken two weeks, three weeks to print. But then because of the geometries in the designs have got so, so much more complex, it still might take eight, eight weeks to machine, right? So you you're shortening such a, a small part of the process. And that's typically because you're mounting an additive part to probably a non additive part somewhere else where you have to hold those tolerances, tolerances and features to, to enable that connection. And like you say, if you can print a functional part with, you know, with more consolidated components in it, then that's an, that's an awesome opportunity.

Jason Jones:

Well, in our first hand experience, so, you know, we address multiple types of additive, but we're a consumer of several others and powder bed fusion. And we came to a point actually like 2013 or 2014, where we had to reduce the size of our heads to fit in CNC machines. And we strategically chose to 3D print the entire deposition head minus a few nozzle components. So that is a powder bed fusion part. We tried binder jetting. We couldn't get the internal passages to survive the defining process. We went through all that. So, but it's a, it's a titanium powder bed fusion part. And if you divide it, you know, piecewise, you, you have a build that's like, you know, about eight hours per piece or maybe a little less. And then it goes downstream. And the first time through it was about 90 hours of machining. Wow. Inside these heads, we have requirement for very high precision. We're moving optics, laser optics around at about 10 G. And so it's at a very extreme environment. And that number has now come down considerably less than half roughly, but still it's a revelation to people who don't realize when I think 3D printing is only half the job of additive manufacturing. In this case, the printing is an eight hour process and the machining is four or five times at least.

Ben Ferrar:

And what's stopping you from now changing the design to, instead of producing it by powder bed, producing it, using hybrid manufacturing technology?

Jason Jones:

From a DED perspective, getting high quality through channels is... we're getting closer. And when that happened, we said, that's what we want to do. We want to be able to produce, you know, those more complex internal things and our heads being a very extreme example of them, I would say. So the answer is just a little bit of time and resource.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah, I mean, you can totally see it, a robot printing a robot. Right. You know? Um, so I mean, I guess when I think about like the technology that you guys have developed and how integrated is, I think about the challenge of getting designers into the mindset in which they're doing these processes concurrently, right. Rather than one than the other. How are you guys addressing that? And what have you seen within the industry that's addressing that, that design challenge that, that makes you think we're going to get over these hurdles, right. And get mass adoption.

Jason Jones:

I want to switch sort of focus for a minute and I don't want to confuse listeners, but we've talked a lot about aspirationally. What are we on the edge of? What are we working on? Let me talk for a second about what we actually do, bread and butter. What we look for is an opportunity where we can do end to end manufacturer finished component. And that means so all the data pre-processing right, thanks to everybody who does software for additive. We appreciate you. We love you, right? We don't longer have problems with STL files and all this stuff that we really struggled with a decade ago. Right. That's all gone. But once you've done the pre-processing, we want to put feedstock into a machine and get a finished part out the other end. And usually we do that on lots of products where we don't actually print the entire thing, right.

Jason Jones:

To energy deposition. You don't have to often it's a, you know, a wear surface or corrosion resistance, or oxidation resistance that you need. And if you add it to a portion of the part, that may be all it requires. So if we can then print five or 10 or 15, or even 20% of a part, finish it with milling in situ and then come in and even inspect it, right? Whether it's surface inspection or sub surface that he currents or ultrasound, then that part leaves that machine completely finished. So we have here two extremes, one of printing, entire things from scratch finished, fully assembled. That's still aspirational for most things. On the other hand, we can do it for areas of parts. And so give me a casting, a forging of something else where you need an additional material added and easy to do. And it's easy for the designer because the design doesn't change usually.

Ben Ferrar:

Okay. Yeah. No. So they, so you've found that people have been able to adapt fairly readily to, to adding a feature rather than a complete component from scratch. Right? Oh, that's so, so what level of adult, I mean, at what point will CNC machines come with a DED head, a standard

Jason Jones:

We've always said over the next 10 years, we think virtually all machine tool builders will have to make a strategic choice about offering at least a hybrid ready machine. And they'll only do it as fast as people adopt it. Right. And they only adopted as fast as people make a business case for it. And they only do that as fast as they're able to figure out a design that works. And so we're really trying to whittle it away from the lowest hanging fruit, which is, Hey, you've got to design already. Let's see if we can make it work with maybe a material substitution along the edges on the surfaces. Then once they have confidence, you go, okay, now you're going to add a feature or you're going to update this to a new revision of a part, right. Almost a remanufacturing approach. And that's the end. We're approaching it from, I know there's a bunch of other ways to do it, but from a hybrid perspective, that to us makes the most sound financial business sense.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah, totally agree. So switching topics, what unrelated to the hybrid business have you seen out there that you think is really cool right now?

Jason Jones:

So many of the software developments I love seeing the whole, okay. Let me back up a little bit, because we live in this world that sort of spans CNC, machining, which I always joke the controllers are like the best of the 1970s and best in the 1980s. Right. In terms of other operation, you have to kind of know how to program. And then we do additive where 3d printing is, is very much a digital age interface. Right. It feels more like using an iPhone. I'm so pleased to see all of the software work at an enterprise scale of automating all of it to offload so much of the nitty gritty that so many people have managed for years in a variety of ways.

Ben Ferrar:

I remember trying to recruit machinists right earlier on in my career and it's incredibly tough, right. I mean, before, you know, before the 3D printing and the digital cool side of it, right. It was, you know, the NC coding and it became impossible to, to find apprentices and to find people and bring them into the technology. So I think 3D printing to some extent is also feeding back into the more traditional technologies and giving a new lease of life for, uh, for those technologies as well. Right. In terms of interest.

Jason Jones:

For sure. And I'm especially pleased with the work people like Oak Ridge national labs is doing on trying to make machining easier, easier to let's move the whole thing up into the digital age so that it feels like playing a video game. Right. We live in a time where everybody, I mean, most people have tried playing video games on their phone. And that to me is what all this manufacturing equipment should feel like.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah, definitely. I mean, have a Nintendo switch at home with my son. He beats me all the time at, you know, Mario kart and things like that. But I mean, I do feel that I see the huge amounts of positives in those types of gaming technologies and logic, because it's, you know, it is really coming to that in terms of manufacturing now.

Jason Jones:

I can't wait. We, we were gifted a VR set pretty early. And so that's virtual reality and, and we've had a great time doing three-dimensional puzzles and figuring out stuff and with my kids. And I just see that as migrating naturally, I'm so excited for all the progress in augmented reality, because I think that's really where we're going to see a huge impact, uh, you know, commercially, especially.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah, totally agree. Um, we haven't talked much about parts or applications. Is there any, is there any parts or applications that you've worked with throughout your career that have really stood out as being the ones that, you know, being world beaters?

Jason Jones:

That's a fun topic and there are a number of things back when we were researching it DaMontford for, you may recall, we worked extensively on customized helmet liners. And what we found is that the materials and the systems weren't quite ready for it. And so I'm excited that over the last year or two or three, we've seen carbon and others come forward with these materials where now customized safety products becoming far more accessible and easier to, to achieve so well done to everybody. That's been part of that process chain, but it's fun to see fruition right. Of these things that are long time in the making.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah. They all the lead into other, you know, prosthetics and Uh AIDS, right. Uh, is really interesting. And, and on the, on the hybrid side, on the metal side, what would you say is the most interesting part or application that you guys have, uh, been involved in?

Jason Jones:

A lot of the remanufacturing work is just fascinating, right? Anything that goes in a jet engine or in a turbo charger, or, you know, a diesel engine, those types of parts, the standards are so high and so fixed, being able to bring all of the tooling and instrumentation and measurement together to really make a single setup work has been very challenging and very rewarding as well. So that again is a low hanging fruit application. That is just perfect for hybrid.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah. Great. And is there any materials, limitations, or, or conversely, is there any materials that you guys can process that you may not be able to process in other additive technologies?

Jason Jones:

Fundamentally, it's right. We do either micro pastoring or micro welding. When we talk about additive, it's kind of how we envisage it. So in terms of limitations, it's really down to metallurgy for new materials. We alluded earlier that the mixture of polymers, so often we get mixtures of metals, which is creative into different alloys, but being able to mix different families of materials together is something that's not been practical before that a hybrid approach easily enables.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah, and functionally grading components as well. I mean, so, I mean, I, it's just not feasible in a, I mean, my background's in 99% powder bed, it's not feasible. Right. Because you can't recycle the material. Right. You're effectively contaminating as you build. Right. Even though there were patents, you know, many patents in, in the early days around having multi-material systems. So I, I mean, what is the latest thinking on those, those functional materials and functionally graded materials? Is there, is there been, is a big applications that stand out there?

Jason Jones:

I wish I could tell you there's amazing applications everywhere. And I think that there are, but the practicalities of designing and programming for functional grading are the design tools are still a little bit out of reach in my opinion. So if you're, if you can script and if you can do whatever, or if you have a repeat part that you're going to make lots of it's worth doing, but if you use additive in a, it's a generic machine, I'm going to print something different every day of the week, the tools aren't quite refined enough that the average user will do it. So there's plenty of, you know, research-y type, I'm a PhD, you're running this thing and I can do it. And it's super cool.

Ben Ferrar:

I'm good. I'm going to stand and change the vowels on the powder feed and manually. So it goes 50%, 60%, you know, crank up the percentage.

Jason Jones:

Yeah. And you would laugh in the early days. We literally would have people, man, different things to test it out before you actually go to the work of programming. And I think for us getting directed energy deposition into a lower cost, easier to access format is really what's enabling, you know, on the backside of that is the software developments that are needed. We do a lot of software in house for control, but we don't, you know, do our own design tools. And I have to give credit to a lot of different CAD cam companies now, but especially in the early days, there were only a couple of CAD cam companies that decided, okay, we're going to take on hybrid as a topic, right? You've got Siemens, NX and Autodesk and a collection of others, but over time, people are starting to see, okay, this is a real thing. And so I'm really grateful for all of the software work that's going to enable those next generation products

Ben Ferrar:

And what modifications of the machine tool manufacturers had to make to accept these types of heads to be able to accept powder environments. Cause I would have thought they would be, could be potential issues with, you know, wear and cooling within, within the machines. How, how much change does that have to happen to the machine to be able to accept it?

Jason Jones:

The biggest change depends on the energy source. If you use a laser, you've got a light type that machine, right? If you use an arc, you have to have the appropriate windows in terms of powder. We were very nervous early on about powder and lots of people were, and we've found that actually the powder size we use, depending on its composition, usually it's not any worse than chips. And especially if somebody is in an extreme machining environment where they work on graphite or ceramic or all of those are far worse than the powder. So actually the machines handle it pretty well.

Ben Ferrar:

Yeah. Great. Well, we really appreciate you coming on and joining us, Jason, it's been great catching up with you. Thanks so much for coming on the show.

Thanks very much to Jason Jones for participating in this PowderHeads episode. Some really great insight into his own additive journey and that of the industry in general, where else are you going to hear stories about setting polymers on fire? If you have questions or comments about what we discussed in this podcast to powder heads, send the them to powderheads@carpenteradditive.com or visit our podcast page at www.carpenteradditive.com/powderheads. We continue to build an archive of all our interviews there as well as additional material that provides insight and perspective on modern day additive manufacturing. PowderHeads is managed by Carpenter Additive and its' parent company Carpenter Technology, a global leader in specialty alloys for over 130 years. Our goal is to help customers solve their most challenging material and process problems. Learn more at carpentertechnology.com. Thanks again for listening and keep building.