The Bright World of Metals at Messe Düsseldorf is a trade fair combining four trade fairs.
The GIFA, METEC, The Therm Process and the NEWCAST all focus on metal casting industry and related technologies. So I stopped by to get an up-date on traditional casting processes and Additive Manufacturing applied in casting. Master parts for casting with intricate features are oftentimes generated additively by SLA technology for example. But also complex hulls and cores of casting molds can be created additively. So it was not much of an wonder to see Voxeljet and EX One exhibiting. I heard that their expo booths were at some stage so packed that people were blocking the way through the exhibition hall. The huge interest confirmed to me that additive manufacturing is also moving further into traditional technologies to improve cost efficiency. Or being able to keep manufacturing in high labor countries.
EX One was presenting their new EXERIAL ™ system. A large scale production system with a very impressive footprint.
The machine of the size like a double car park contains to build envelopes so caled “job boxes” each 1,5 times larger
than the single job box of the so far largest system S-Max. The total build platform with over 3150 liters volume will
accomodate even large scale components. The machine was shown in dry operation mode simulating binder infiltration and recoating.
Unfortunately it was not permitted to take photos so please check this link: Exerial ™
Links:
The Bright World of Metals
http://www.gifa.com/
http://www.metec-tradefair.com/
http://www.newcast.com/
http://www.voxeljet.de/en/
http://www.exone.com/