Mohawk College and the University of Guelph in Canada have partnered to develop a ductile iron powder mix for additive manufacturing (AM).
The institutions plan to develop the powder for CGL Manufacturing, which makes machined castings, components, and fabrications using ductile iron. According to the company, while its aim is to produce preliminary parts and prototypes using powder bed fusion 3D printing, ductile iron is not a material that is commonly used in AM and is not commercially available.
‘A 24-week lead and set-up time of the casting process is one of the main challenges CGL faces when a sample part is needed for a new client, or for design revisions of current products,’ said CGL president and CEO Michael Ritchie. ‘We want to provide our clients with a high-quality experience, and part of that is reducing production to market time for samples, new products, and design revisions.’
Mohawk College and the University of Guelph have established a joint research project to ensure that the powder bed fusion parts have the same chemical composition and mechanical properties as the final casted parts.
The partnership is funded by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to support the research.
This story uses material from Mohawk College, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
