9/23/08

718, Inconell Oil Drilling Head


Market Release: For a customer active in the Oil & Gas industry we've produced a drilling head out of 718 Inconell super alloy. The part weight is about 3 kg and it took us many hours to have this part melted. After melting the part has been moved to our 5 axis milling machines for finishing. After finishing the part has been DLC coated, lapped and assembled. All other parts are made in a conventional way. The final assembly was send to the customer for testing purposes. A destructive analysis was made on the drilling head. The final outcome is positive, the tests have proved that the melted parts has identical material properties. RM allows us to adapt the drilling head geometry in relation to the drilling principles. The customer agreed to run a new batch with different geometries and to tests these again. The expertise built on this project will be used to further develop the Super Alloys Market, Inconell is widely spread into very demanding environments. We believe that miniaturisation of Inconell parts might become an interesting new business for Melotte's DDM solutions.

9/18/08

Melotte @ Sirris Materials Day

Sirris, the collective centre of the Belgian technological industry organises on 23 October 2008 the 2nd Sirris Materials Day about innovative use of materials as a driver for a technological edge. At the Sirris Materials Day, Melotte’s General Manager Mario Fleurinck will give a presentation on moulding @ Melotte, vertically integrated near-to-net-shape manufacturing solutions. Magnesium moulding fits in perfectly with Melotte's product & process offer. Many of our customers are looking for advanced processes, either to reduce costs (competition with low-wage countries) or to offer something a bit different. During the presentation Mario Fleurinck will focus on a major process re-engineering project based on Magnesium Moulding. The project includes the transformation, reverse engineering and optimisation, of a lost-wax steel part into an advanced magnesium moulding solution. Check out more information on www.materialsday.be/

9/12/08

Micro Polymer Production Device

Today we’ve produced a gas dispersion device in 1.2344 (H13) material, after melting we measured a hardness of 50 Hrc. The rendered image shows internal channels (catalyst dispersion) and an in-part filter. Although we’re very exited about the results we need to further investigate the shrinking coefficient. We believe that the next batch will be closer to the Near-To-Net-Shape. Next Monday the part will be shipped to our customer’s premises and assembled into the high pressure micro Polymer Production Plant. During the next trial the internal channels will be extrude honed in order to improve the flow of the catalyst material. This will allow us to deliver finished devices within 4 working days and the mirror and catalyst position might vary from batch to batch. The material is dense and easy to polish. The micro porosities on the surface are in line with commercially sourced 1.2344 raw material. We’re happy with the result and look forward to the WEEKEND! Cheers! Next week we start production of a free form device made out of Inconell! I’ll report on our finding next week.

9/8/08

Specialist rapporteert

Al geruime tijd ben ik bezig met layered manufacturing. Het is onvoorstelbaar welke mogelijkheden er nu zijn door deze industriƫle mijlpaal. Met de SLM-technologie is alles mogelijk en het is schitterend hoe mooi en goed de onderdelen uit de machine komen. De onderdelen die ik tot op heden geproduceerd heb gaan van design naar dentale tot zeer complexe industriƫle onderdelen .

Ik was zeer blij om deze uitdaging aan te gaan en mijn enthousiasme wordt alsmaar groter zeker wanneer ik alle opportuniteiten zie die door direct digital manufacturing mogelijk zijn. Kortom :" The sky is the limit".
Today, I took my first small steps in the world of layered manufacturing. One of the findings that emerge immidiate, are the possibilities for engineers to think out of the box, and give their ideas the edge to stand out and make a difference.

This is what we need in a competitive world.

Key-Note Speeches

In the next few weeks Melotte will present its commercial offer in Direct Digital Manufacturing at (1), The Materialise Innovation Forum (Leuven) , (2) A seminar on Rapid Manufacturing at OCAS (Gent) and (3) the Sirris Materials Days at La Hulpe (Brussels). Key-note Speeches addressed by Mario Fleurinck on behalf of Melotte NV.