Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lincoln Electric, which makes robotic arc welding systems, have joined forces to develop large-scale, robotic additive manufacturing (AM) technology for a range of new materials.
This is a continuation of a previously announced partnership which aims to use data analytics and robotics to enable rapid manufacture of metal components of over 100 pounds per hour.
The companies plan to focus on increasing throughput while lowering costs and improving the quality of large-scale AM metallic structures for industrial applications.
‘Approximately 60-80% of molds for the manufacturing of metallic components are produced overseas,’ said ORNL associate laboratory director Moe Khaleel. ‘With this new collaboration, US manufacturers will be able to showcase their ability to manufacture tools, dies and molds additively with reduced costs and lead times while maintaining speed and a quality build.’
This story uses material from Oak Ridge, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
