Approach Towards Surface Improvement in Additively Manufactured Tools

Additive Manufacturing has arisen as a ground-breaking set of technologies that, thanks to their capability of continuous improvements in performance and cost-efficiency, was able in the last years to replace well-established manufacturing processes. Proficiency in the fabrication of highly complex parts forced this astonishing development. This research is based on the idea that through the integration of additive and conventional manufacturing technologies it is possible to achieve great cost and operational benefits especially in the field of tool making for injection molding. Such an integrated manufacturing solution could overcome the limitations of independent additive, subtractive, and post-processing procedures by strengthening their potentialities. The present study highlights the opportunities of a synergy between the above-mentioned manufacturing technologies for the optimized fabrication of injection molds. An additive manufacturing process chain is presented, and special attention is given to the surface quality and its optimization directly in the Selective Laser Melting process. The potentialities of the Laser Surface Re-melting technique are analyzed, and the process optimization leads to a reduction of 45% of the average roughness directly in the SLM process. (C) 2019, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.