Additive Industries
Assembly Line
Hexagon takes the guesswork out of 3D printing precision metal components with Advanced Compensation technology
Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division has unveiled new capabilities in 3D printing with a new technology that eliminates costly trial-and-error in precision metal part production. The innovative Advanced Compensation approach uses advanced geometry compensation to ensure large or complex metal parts distort into their intended shape during the printing process. By combining process simulation and 3D scan compensation, the most challenging parts with tight quality tolerances can be printed successfully with just one prototype build.
3D printer OEM Additive Industries was able to print a stainless-steel jet engine exhaust mixer with 0.2mm precision with just one prototype build. Alex Redwood, Head of Applications & Additive Studios at Additive Industries explains: “Thanks to Advanced Compensation, we successfully printed a large 316L steel component with an impressive surface tolerance of +/-0.2 mm – despite natural distortion of over 3 mm in previous builds. Achieving this precision required only one previous trial build, reducing time, material waste and allowed us to reduce the supports structure to the bare minimum. This level of control and efficiency opens up new possibilities for large-scale additive manufacturing applications.”