3D Printing News Briefs, January 19, 2023: Metal AM Standard, Inkjet 3D Printing, & More

We’re beginning with standards news in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, before moving on to a business collaboration and a new facility. Risk management and quality assurance provider DNV released a new edition of its standard for 3D printing metallic parts, and CoreTechnologie is partnering with Meteor Inkjet for inkjet 3D printing. Finally, Fabrisonic has moved to a new facility in the Columbus, Ohio area.

DNV Updates Metal Additive Manufacturing Standard

Risk management and quality assurance provider DNV, based in Norway, released an updated edition of its standard DNV-ST-B203 for metal additive manufacturing, which was the first internationally accepted framework for producing and using high quality 3D printed metal parts for the oil & gas, energy, and maritime industries. The standard now includes baseline requirements for the most established metal AM technologies, and introduces new concepts for quality assurance for data-driven manufacturing. This latest edition includes qualification and production requirements for three new AM technologies, in addition to the two from the first edition, and includes provisions for the most established methods: binder jetting (BJT), laser or electron beam powder bed fusion (PFB-LB or PBF-EB), and directed energy deposition using electric arc and laser beam (DED-Arc and DED-LB). The standard, which is the result of a joint industry project (JIP) run by DNV’s Technology Centre Oslo, also now includes defined acceptance criteria for non-destructive testing, guidance on part family definition, requirements for the qualification of combined manufacturing methods, and more.

“The learnings from the case studies helped the project to identify important activities in the qualification and production setting,” explained Stian Gurrik, Project Manager ProGRAM JIP phase 3, Technology Centre Oslo, Energy Systems at DNV. “In addition to assisting the work on the development of the standard, the project was able to create parts that can be put into service. And by comparing the resource consumption from part repair with that of conventional part replacement, the project showed that there could be a significant environmental benefit from enabling repair of worn parts with Additive Manufacturing. The work also continues in ProGRAM JIP phase 3, started in June 2022 and will run into 2024.”

CoreTechnologie Collaborating with Meteor Inkjet

Software manufacturer CoreTechnologie (CT) announced that it’s collaborating with UK-based Meteor Inkjet Ltd., which supplies electronics, software, tools, and services for industrial 3D inkjet printing. CT is the developer of the 4D_Additive software suite, which offers functions for model repair, geometry analysis and optimization, support, lattice and surface texture generation, and nesting and slicing for a more seamless AM process. Using inkjet technology to apply materials or binders requires integration of software and hardware for industrial printing systems and AM tools, in addition to reading capabilities for all common CAD formats and the provision of optimized 3D data in a special format for inkjet printers. Together, CT and Meteor will ensure the integration of their software environments, and develop tools designed for binder and material jet applications. By combining 4D_Additive with Meteor’s printhead drive electronics and Met3D Digital Front End, inkjet printer manufacturers will have a straightforward path from design to production.

Rémi Goupil, CoreTechnologie’s Product Manager for 4D_Additive software, said, “As a result of our collaboration with Meteor, binder and material jet systems with Meteor hardware and software can be easily integrated into the industry-standard workflow provided by 4D_Additive, enabling the processing of precise native CAD models of all major systems and formats.”

UAM Manufacturer Fabrisonic Moves to New Ohio Facility

Since 2011, Fabrisonic LLC, a manufacturer specializing in metal Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing (UAM) applications, has been incubated by EWI at its Columbus facility on the campus of The Ohio State University. But the company has been experiencing business growth, which drove the need for more space to expand and make room for more machines, employees, and expanded parts production. With that, Fabrisonic recently announced that it had moved to a larger, state-of-the-art facility nearby. The move also allowed the company to upgrade its entire IT infrastructure to a higher security platform that meets government sensitive data requirements. The new 30,000 sq. ft. facility is located at 7719 Graphics Way, Suite A, Lewis Center, OH 43035.

“The across-town move does not adversely impact Fabrisonic employees, allowing the company to maintain access to its current talent pool and attract new employees to accommodate growth. Although it’s time for us to spread our wings and move out of mom and dad’s basement, we’re staying close to our Buckeye engineering roots,” said Mark Norfolk, Fabrisonic President and CEO.