SLM lets designer make bread from bakery
A
MTT Technologies Group product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Dec 9, 2005
Industrial product designer Keith Handy discovers that SLM can produce a fully functional prototype of a conveyor cleaning system for a major bakery and deliver manufacturable design.
The functionality of prototypes built using MCP's SLM selective laser melting process was recently shown by industrial product designer Keith Handy when he discovered that SLM let him not only produce a fully functional prototype of a conveyor cleaning system for a major bakery, but also delivered the only way of designing something that had previously been impossible to manufacture.
The SLM process produces 100% dense metal parts direct from CAD data using customary metal powder.
Handy wanted to design a steam cleaning system to remove the build up of bread crumbs and cooking oils from plastic chain conveyors.
Previously it had not been possible to clean the chain in situ and therefore it had to be replaced every year at high cost.
Delivering the powerful steam jets onto the small fast moving chain belts was the most significant part of the problem as steam has to be applied close to the nozzles to be effective.
Various aluminium manifolds were machined, anodised and assembled with proprietary jet nozzles.
Size limitations meant there were always some parts of the chain not being cleaned.
Several versions were tried and although the results were promising the cleanliness was only reaching about 70% of the chain.
Also the process was slow, requiring several passes of the belt.
Using SLM technology, he created a 3D design the following day and emailed a stereolithography file to the SLM operator.
The SLM manifold was ready for collection and tested at the bakery two days later.
The test showed an improvement - 85% clean.
A further manifold was designed and produced in the same way and further tests have showed a full clean in one pass.
The manifolds are now being integrated into a production design for the customer and there are plans to sell the product to other bakeries.
Handy explained: "The process let me design a hollow 3D manifold with pre-determined steam nozzle positions at specific angles to clean each critical point of the chain".
"I did not have to worry about part lines, assembly techniques or post-finishing for this application".
"In effect I was designing something that was otherwise impossible to manufacture, it was like being back at college".
"I was able to integrate a 0.635cm BSP thread in the CAD file to attach the steam fitting".
"The result is a manifold that delivers 10bar steam through ten jets at multiple angles, all within a single component that is 50 by 50 by 50mm".
SLM parts are built layer by layer with the metal powder being melted locally by an infra-red laser beam that traces the layer geometry.
Very fine details are achievable such as thin vertical walls of less than 100um thickness.
SLM can process H13 tool steel, stainless steels (including 316L), titanium, copper, cobalt chrome, tantalum (used for medical implants) and inconel (aerospace).
Early commercial projects included the production of dental crowns and bridges and medical devices such as surgical drilling guides.
SLM processing of highly reflective metals such as gold, silver and aluminium is nearing the end of development.
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