The Project
OScaR is a 1-year project, started in January 2022 and concluded in December 2022, dedicated to identifying innovative solutions dedicated to re-manufacturing using metal additive manufacturing technologies
Re-manufacturing is gaining great importance in modern production. Repairing defects of complex, high value components enables cost reductions due to decreased lead times and raw material use. Typical applications regard turbine blades or pumps of highly stiff materials.
Today, companies struggle to achieve cost-effective repair processes due to a lack of automated solutions. Varying component shapes and defect types require flexible and automated processes to efficiently re-manufacture parts.
OScaR enables full repair and processing of large, complex metal parts for high quality applications, implementing an advanced repair system seamlessly integrated with Prima Additive machines. The solution will combine an integrated measurement system and a toolpath generation platform to achieve the next level of flexible manufacturing. A wide applicability for many production technologies as AM or laser ablation will boost the adoption of re-manufacturing.
The target of this project will concern different phases of the re-manufacturing process of damaged metal components:
– Scanning of the damaged component using an integrated measuring system
– Planning of the component reconstruction strategy through a tool path generation platform, followed by a simulation phase of the production process, to achieve the next level of flexible production
– Effective repair phase of the component on Prima Additive machines
– Finishing of the functional component upon its return to its original shape and upon reaching the required mechanical characteristics
– Finished component repaired and subsequent analysis of the achievement of pre-established requirements
Re-manufacturing is gaining great importance in modern production. Repairing defects of complex, high value components enables cost reductions due to decreased lead times and raw material use. Typical applications regard turbine blades or pumps of highly stiff materials.
Today, companies struggle to achieve cost-effective repair processes due to a lack of automated solutions. Varying component shapes and defect types require flexible and automated processes to efficiently re-manufacture parts.
OScaR enables full repair and processing of large, complex metal parts for high quality applications, implementing an advanced repair system seamlessly integrated with Prima Additive machines. The solution will combine an integrated measurement system and a toolpath generation platform to achieve the next level of flexible manufacturing. A wide applicability for many production technologies as AM or laser ablation will boost the adoption of re-manufacturing.
The target of this project will concern different phases of the re-manufacturing process of damaged metal components:
– Scanning of the damaged component using an integrated measuring system
– Planning of the component reconstruction strategy through a tool path generation platform, followed by a simulation phase of the production process, to achieve the next level of flexible production
– Effective repair phase of the component on Prima Additive machines
– Finishing of the functional component upon its return to its original shape and upon reaching the required mechanical characteristics
– Finished component repaired and subsequent analysis of the achievement of pre-established requirements
The high individuality of repairing processes makes it difficult to achieve robust and automated processes, i.e. various defect types and part shapes must be handled cost-effectively. Moreover, time efficiency is of great interests in various sectors, e.g. turbine parts have to be repaired normally within 48 hours.
OScaR automates metal parts repairing by an advanced inspection and tool path generation platform. The benefits for manufacturers and users will be:
-Huge reduction of engineering time for designing such repair strategies
-Possibility to repair a broader range of complex parts
-Increased convenience of repairing wrt manufacturing of new parts
-As a result, cost reduction on the whole production chain
The redution of scrap and engineering/testing/processing times will result also in a positive environmental impact, thus relating the project to both flagship 2 (Flexible production systems for competitive manufacturing) and 3 (Low environmental footprint systems & circular economy for Green manufacturing). OSCaR will achieve this by proposing a repair kit for machine tools that includes:
– a shape measurement sensor
-automated tool path generation.
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Besides repairing, the solution will be suitable for multi-process tasks, (e.g. DED – machining – drilling). Moreover, the measurement system allows inline geometry quality control, to meet increasing quality and yield time demands. Thereby OScaR provides an innovative and sustainablele manufacturing environment, serving highly skilled workplaces. Prima Additive machines will be equipped with the kit to enable automated measurement of part shape. This information will be passed to the tool path generation module, and post-processed for the target machine. Moreover, process simulation will be developed as a service for the DED process segment, the most critical and difficult to predict. The functionality of the system will be tested and fine-tuned within validation runs for targeting the desired KPIs.
The goal is therefore the complete repair and rework of large and complex metal parts thanks to the implementation of an advanced system that can be integrated into machine tools equipped with additive technologies.