Additive Manufacturing

Today was my first day shadowing and I spent it with two engineers in the additive manufacturing lab. My day started early around 7:30 am in the office; I was given a visitors sticker then The Global Director of Research & Development showed me a presentation of Carpenter’s objectives and processes (much of which I knew from previous research).

Once he headed off to a staff meeting, Dr. Aman, the director of additive manufacturing, took me down to shadow one of his engineers that would be working in the lab for much of the day. Initially, I was given a tour of more or less the entire building including the characterization floor, where hardness, malleability, and cracks are looked into, then the chemistry floor where the composition of the alloys are analyzed, and finally into the additive manufacturing lab where all the 3D printers were working.

3D printing metals are conceptually similar to 3D printing plastics but with many additional steps and precautionary measures. The lab focused on two different types of printing, one with a laser and the other with an incredibly thin layer of glue. In both, the alloys start out in a very fine powder, generally no bigger than 60 electrodes. The powder is sifted out so only the pure, fine powder remains in the metal container, which is attached to the printer. Each metal container holds nearly 100 pounds of the fine powder. Once a printing job is initiated, gravity pulls the powder down, allowing a single layer at a time to be placed before a laser hits the powder and solidifies it. When programming the printer, the power of the laser and the speed of the laser can be controlled, but must fit within the range for the given metal. A laser that moves too fast or too powerfully risks causing cracks in the metal.

Carpenter gets different customers who oftentimes require a personalized alloy wether for aerospace or biomedical purposes. Additive manufacturing creates demos for such companies, and 3D prints a rough model to send back to the company. The Reading additive manufacturing site stays busy, but produces small scale or specialized products, while most of the mass production is in California.

Regardless of the scale of production, additive manufacturing remains a profitable and expensive business. To produce the highest quality alloys, the excess powder cannot be reused, so it is used for demos (models). For example, the lab makes alloy pens, bottle openers and tees for employees (which I’ll be bringing to the intensive fair). If these items were on the market (not just demos) they could go for hundreds of dollars because of the materials and time taken to manufacture.

Here’s a simplified video explaining the 3D metal process visually to help:

Due to confidentiality reasons, I won’t be able to take personal photos of the labs or facilities, but I’ll be sure to keep including as many details as I can.