Sciaky, a subsidiary of Phillips Service Industries (PSI) has announced that it has joined the Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT) to expand adoption of its Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing (EBAM) technology in aerospace and other sectors.
Headquartered at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, ADAPT is an industry/academia consortium that advances data informatics and characterisation technologies to optimise processes, materials, and parts for AM. A barrier to AM process qualification that ADAPT is excited to work on, in collaboration with Sciaky, is the lack of fundamental understanding about how the process variables effect material microstructure and final part properties.
"Sciaky is pleased to work with the innovators of this higher learning consortium," said Scott Phillips, President and CEO. "We are always striving to break new ground with our EBAM process, as well as capture critical performance data on new applications."
As the most widely scalable metal additive manufacturing solution (in terms of work envelope), EBAM systems can produce parts ranging from 8 inches (203 mm) to 19 feet (5.79 meters) in length. EBAM is also the fastest deposition process in the metal additive manufacturing market, with gross deposition rates ranging from 7 to 25 lbs. (3.18 to 11.34 kg) of metal per hour. EBAM brings quality and control together with IRISS – the Interlayer Real-time Imaging and Sensing System, which is the only real-time adaptive control system in the metal 3D printing market that can sense and digitally self-adjust metal deposition with precision and repeatability. This closed-loop control is the primary reason that Sciaky's EBAM 3D printing process delivers consistent part geometry, mechanical properties, microstructure and metal chemistry.
As well as advanced manufacturing the Colorado School of Mines is also investigating alternative power sources.
