EOS, a German manufacturer of industrial 3D printers for metal and polyamide powders, has announced the launch of its Smart Fusion software, which is designed to automatically adjust laser power in real time. The company says Smart Fusion will help meet the need for support structures while reducing material consumption, post-processing requirements and part cost in metal additive manufacturing applications.
Smart Fusion is designed to intuitively detect potential design issues, automatically adjust laser power, and eliminate the waste of time and resources associated with “trial and error”. Through testing with EOS beta customers, Smart Fusion delivers performance that is two to five times faster than competing solutions.
The system works by measuring the amount of laser powder absorbed by the powder bed, with a high-resolution camera overlooking the build chamber, and monitoring emissions from the melt pool of each layer using the company’s proprietary technology. The data is sent back to the laser so that the power is adjusted to ensure uniform distribution of energy throughout the build platform. This helps to reduce stress on the parts and avoid metal overheating and movement in unwanted directions.
“Smart Fusion represents another major breakthrough in metal 3D printing, especially for organizations with advanced applications such as energy, aerospace, mobility and aerospace,” said Mirco Schöpf, product manager at EOS. “Other solutions on the market have major drawbacks, such as slower part build times and the need for an expert to make sure the setup works. Smart Fusion offers an industrialized solution that is faster, more flexible and more accessible.”
“When we heard about Smart Fusion and started testing it a few months ago, we knew it was going to be a breakthrough,” commented Stefan Seidel, technical director at Pankl Racing Systems. “Not only does this significantly reduce the cost of producing parts, but it also facilitates the use of optical tomography, which we believe is a key element in introducing 3D printing into mass production. Over the past few months, we’ve developed several EOS products that really show the potential of Smart Fusion.”
Pankl Racing Systems is one of the many companies that have beta tested Smart Fusion, and EOS has confirmed that the aerospace equipment maker has also piloted the new product.
The new Smart Fusion works with existing EOS, EOSTATE and EOSYSTEM monitoring solutions to monitor, measure and regulate lasers. EOS initially makes Smart Fusion available with the following machines and materials:
Smart Fusion requires purchase of the Smart Monitoring System from EOS. EOS intends to expand the availability of Smart Fusion soon, including AMCM systems.
Source: www.eos.info
