Previous
Published on: Tuesday, Tue, 17 Jul 2018 ● 2 Min Read
GE Additive’s subsidiary Concept Laser is now ready with the first M Line Factory laser-based additive manufacturing systems. The deliveries will commence from mid 2019, the result of extensive beta testing.
Direct Metal Laser Melting (DMLM) machines from Concept Laser use lasers to melt layers of fine metal powder and create complex geometries with incredible precision directly from a CAD file. Several different machine envelope sizes – including the largest powder-bed metal additive system in the world – are available to meet the needs of any industry. Innovative features, including the patented LaserCUSING® technology, set these machines apart.
The M Line Factory offers a new type of modular machine architecture which offers an unprecedented level of automation and innovation that allows economical series production on an industrial scale.
The basic idea is to physically decouple the machine units used for part production and for set-up and dismantling processes. These tasks can now be carried out in parallel and physically separately from one another thanks to the modular architecture. As a result, current stoppage times for the machines, as a result of manual processes such as supplying or exhausting metal powder, are reduced to a minimum. This will deliver considerable time and cost savings.
Features: • Time-saving exposure coating strategy with supreme quality standards • Redundancy of build plate cover thanks to the lasers • Switchable filter units for maximum machine running time • Completely redeveloped and modular software, designed for series production • Unique innovative safety concept, and • Automatic tool changeover without any interruption to part production (in development).
The modular machine technology of the M Line Factory forms the core of Concept Laser’s “AM Factory of Tomorrow” concept which also makes provision for upstream and downstream stages of the production process as well as interfaces to conventional manufacturing methods. This “smart factory” is a flexibly expandable, high-grade automated and centrally controllable meta production system which is focused fully on the production assignments in hand and thus enables the economical series production of additive metal parts. The concept consistently implements the basic idea of “Industry 4.0” in the form of automation, interlinking, and digitisation.
