Sodick develops metal material processing 3D printer

Japan's Sodick announced on July 16, 2014 that it has developed a 3D printer 'OPM250L' that uses metal materials, which will be sold in October 2014. The printer uses a metallographic composite machining method that combines deposition modeling using laser melting and solidifying metal powders with machining-based finishing. Sodick has signed a licensing agreement with Panasonic for this processing technology, and is also developing related technologies independently and has applied for 5 patents. Metal light forming composite processing is a process of cutting the contour part of the cross-sectional shape in the forming process of using a laser to selectively melt and solidify a thin layer of metal powder and deposit the cross-sectional shape. It can not only produce complex shapes that are difficult to achieve by cutting alone, but also improve the surface roughness problem of deposition molding and improve the accuracy. The metal light forming composite processing technology was developed by Panasonic and has been applied to the company's mold making. As for commercially available devices, Matsuura Machine Works, which is licensed by Panasonic's technology, launched the 'LUMEXAvance-25'. Sodick made full use of the underlying technology owned by the company in the productization process of the OPM250L. For example, the company's linear motors are used for the main control axes, and specially developed NC devices are used for the control of laser scanning and machining. In terms of CAD/CAM software for producing deposition modeling and machining control data, the Sodick Group and OPM Laboratory (Headquarters: Kyoto City), which have successfully developed similar software, jointly developed software for the OPM250L. The injection molding mold is expected to have a synergistic effect with the 'V-line' (a method of separating plasticization and injection) used in Sodick's injection molding machines. Sodick believes that based on this one-stop design concept from mold design to molding, providing a 'one-stop solution' for product groups and support is a major feature of its own. The basic configuration of OPM250L is as follows: the maximum molding size is length 250×width 250×height 250mm, the maximum load is 100kg, the overall size of the device (excluding peripherals) is 1870×2200×2055mm, and the weight (excluding peripherals) is 4500kg. The laser uses a ytterbium (Yb) fiber laser with a maximum output power of 500W and a spot diameter of 200μm. In terms of cutting processing, the maximum rotation speed of the spindle is 45,000 revolutions per minute, the tool holder system is the hot-loading double-sided control system 'HSK-E25The metal powder materials are provided by Sodick, and two kinds of maraging steel and STAVAX will be launched first. The particle size is a normal distribution centered on 20 μm. Pricing has not yet been determined. In the future, new materials such as titanium alloy and stainless steel will be gradually added. Prices for the OPM250L start at 65 million yen (excluding tax). It is planned to produce more than 60 units per year, which will be manufactured by Sodick's Kaga Office (Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan). In addition, the company will exhibit the product at the '27th Japan International Machine Tool Fair (JIMTOF2014)' to be held at the Ariake International Convention Center in Tokyo from October 30 to November 4, 2014.