Combining five-axis machining and additive manufacturing in the same machine? Chick. The GINOVA technological platform of the S.mart Grenoble Alpes cluster, bringing together Grenoble INP-UGA, Grenoble-Alpe University and Mont-Blanc University, has just acquired a unique machine in France combining a machining station and an arc-wire metal additive manufacturing (WAAM) head. ” Our goal is to be able to do hybrid, additive-subtractive manufacturingunderlines Alain di Donato, technical manager of the GINOVA platform. We will create preforms using WAAM additive manufacturing and machine them finely, in the desired places, to obtain functional parts without having to change equipment ».
A portal common to both processes
The capabilities of the machine are impressive: a deposit of molten metal wire on the order of a millimeter and machining to the nearest hundredth of a millimeter. This equipment was designed by researchers from the GINOVA platform, in collaboration with the Savoyard company Ratmo.
« We started from an existing machining machine to integrate an additive manufacturing capacityexplains Alain di Donato. The WAAM torch is a simple tool that the spindle can grab to deposit material. This printhead is stored in a dedicated part of the machine “. The spindle is set in motion by a robotic gantry. Additive manufacturing and machining can therefore be performed with the same degrees of freedom: three translation axes and two additional rotation axes.
The WAAM arc-wire torch is a tool that can be handled by the center pin
The equipment will be used mainly for research and educational work. The researchers will initially work on optimizing the trajectories of the gantry. Specific projects, on which are grafted “several industrialists”, will be conducted for the production of aeronautical parts.
Working on the digital twin
Eventually, a 3D laser scanner will be installed in the machine as an additional tool. The objective is to be able to quickly analyze the part during production to check its conformity. A call for projects on this aspect is underway and will end in the coming months. This equipment will also allow the GINOVA cluster to explore the concept of the digital twin applied to additive manufacturing. This will be used to perform topological optimization of the parts but also to predict the final quality of the part. ” A major issue “, according to Alain di Donato.
Finally, Alain di Donato hopes to push this hybrid concept even further: “ We are going to start working on laser-wire printing, a slower but more precise technique than WAAMhe says. Our wish is to install a laser-wire head in this center to complete it. This will allow us to vary the manufacturing resolutions. The WAAM will be used for the preforms, the laser-fil for the details. A 3-in-1 process that could pave the way for parts with complex and unprecedented geometries.
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