https://www.greenbiz.com/article/tipping-point-3d-metal-printing
'German conglomerate Siemens is no stranger to additive manufacturing — which
the company describes as "3D printing to the max." It even sells software and
services targeted at manufacturers embedding these digital technologies into
their design and production processes. So it makes sense that Siemens Energy,
which specializes in turbines, generators and storage, would embrace this
approach for its own products. The two are separate entities as of April 2020,
but the history is there.
The latest illustration of that philosophy is the contract Siemens Energy
disclosed in early May with Seurat Technologies, a fast-growing industrial
climate tech startup founded in 2015 in Wilmington, Massachusetts.
The common perception is that 3D printing is great for prototyping or for
creating components or things in low-volume batches — the practice is pretty
common among aerospace and healthcare companies, to name just two sectors. As I
reported last spring, Seurat is challenging that narrative by designing 3D
metal printing technologies intended for high-volume production. The company
claims its current systems already are 10 times faster than other 3D metal
printing options, and it’s promising a 100X speed advantage by 2025.
Put another way, it can print things in a matter of hours rather than weeks or
months.
Why so speedy? Seurat’s approach draws on the idea of pointillism — it was
named in homage to the Impressionist painter with which that technique is
typically associated. Its technology — born out of a manufacturing workaround
used at a nuclear fusion energy project at Lawrence Livermore Labs (yes,
really) — applies laser beams to the pattern being created. Think pixelization.
That enables Seurat’s systems to stamp designs more quickly than traditional
printers that apply things in layers. The pitch: Jobs can take hours rather
than weeks or months.
The other thing Seurat is promising is price parity compared with the process
by which these sorts of components are typically created — using casting and
molding processes. It’s shooting for roughly $150 per kilogram by 2025, with a
$25-per-kg goal set for 2030, according to the company’s marketing literature.'
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-poverty-indonesia-press-freedom-fiji-shade-america/>
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
