TCT Asia 2024 has just wrapped up, revealing a lot of advancements across different facets of additive manufacturing. As the forefront of driving “Era of Mass Production” in metal additive manufacturing, BLT has made remarkable progress in areas such as equipment enhancements, new processes, and innovative applications. Let's now take a closer look at BLT's cutting-edge technological advancements following TCT Asia 2024.
Equipment Upgrade: Boosting Efficiency and Cost Reduction for Customers
At the exhibition, BLT presented three models: the BLT-S400, BLT-S450, and BLT-S800, demonstrating live full-scale part printing to visually showcase the process to visitors. The BLT-S800, featuring 20 lasers, is c printing complex irregular pipe joints with a full substrate of 80 parts on site. With an approximately 2.94 times increase in forming efficiency compared to the 8-laser configuration, it stands out as the largest Metal LPBF equipment for on-site printing, garnering significant attention.
During the exhibition, BLT hosted a product launch event to introduce the newly upgraded BLT-S450, capturing the attention of the entire audience. The enhanced BLT-S450 now boasts a build dimension of 450mm × 450mm × 500mm and offers configurations with 4, 6, or 8 lasers. Equipped with a cutting-edge single-blade bidirectional dynamic powder spreading system, the upgraded machine can intelligently detect part contours, enabling automatic multi-stage speed adjustments to optimize powder spreading efficiency. Furthermore, the improved BLT-S450 supports printing with a large layer thickness of 100μm, enhancing forming efficiency without compromising on quality.
The BLT-BP V2 system integrated into the BLT-S450 enables efficient slicing of large parts in a single operation, reducing preparation time. It also allows for flexible adjustment of segmentation lines for multiple lasers, optimizing their collaboration and enhancing printing efficiency. The upgraded BLT-S450 can now be equipped with a video monitoring module and a self-learning platform. The video monitoring module offers real-time monitoring and recording of the forming process, aiding in quality traceability. Meanwhile, the self-learning platform utilizes AI models to help users autonomously identify defects, customize defect features based on specific conditions, and refine the model through transfer learning using the BLT database.
The upgraded BLT-S450 provides two powder circulation options: integrated and modular systems, which can be tailored to various equipment or production lines according to specific production needs. These options facilitate automatic powder transfer, sieving, and supply during printing, boosting powder turnover rate, ensuring uninterrupted production, and cutting down on production cycles and costs. This effectively tackles the issues of extended production times and swift powder circulation in large-format multi-laser printing systems.
BLT has a well-established production line setup solution and extensive experience in mass-production with hundreds of pieces of equipment. By actively participating in diverse industrial sectors and specific application scenarios, BLT carefully examines the emerging needs and challenges posed by users across different industries. Through ongoing innovation and enhancements, BLT consistently improves the production efficiency, stability, and consistency of its equipment to assist users in various industries in enhancing quality, boosting efficiency, cutting costs, and reaping the benefits of additive manufacturing.
Large Layer Thick Printing Solution, Support-free Technology, and Precision Forming Application for Cost-effective and Productive Manufacturing
In the industrial sector, there is a growing need for cost-effective mass production solutions that enhance efficiency. BLT's large-layer thick printing solution allows for forming at 100μm, 120μm, and 150μm, leading to a substantial boost in production efficiency compared to earlier solutions that only offered 30-60μm forming capabilities.
Using the example of a titanium alloy topological bracket measuring 230mm×235mm×238mm that previously required 35 hours and 50 minutes for printing with a 60μm layer thickness, BLT has transitioned to printing with a thicker layer of 100μm, completing the process in just 19.5 hours. This represents a significant 45.5% increase in efficiency. In injection molds, the sprue bushing plays a crucial role, and metal additive manufacturing allows for the creation of sprue bushings with integrated conformal cooling channels, enhancing cooling efficiency and reducing production time. BLT can now produce sprue bushings with 300μm layer thicknesses, with each part requiring only 4 hours to print while maintaining the necessary precision for high-quality parts.
Last year, BLT introduced support-free technology, allowing the printing of structures with angles below 30°. Building on market demands and challenges, the BLT technical team focused on addressing issues related to large-sized channels and horizontal overhangs. They successfully printed support-free horizontal channels and planes with a diameter of φ100, expanding the practical applications of this technology in part production.
Moreover, BLT's precision forming parameters can achieve a minimum feature size of 0.1mm. By using stainless steel topology surface components, they produced four parts with varying layer thicknesses to showcase different roughness levels. The formed parts exhibit an original roughness reaching Ra 2.6.
Several Collaborative Customers Cases Showcased at the Exhibition
The latest engineering application case of 26-laser BLT-S1500(build dimension:1500mm x 1500mm x 200mm, W×D×H) All-in-one Hybrid Radiator made a stunning appearance. This groundbreaking part combines the functions of a mixer, reactor, and radiator, enabling the complete mixing of four different materials, facilitating reactions with additional substances, and efficiently discharging waste while producing mixed, reacted, and cooled materials. With its large size, intricate structures, and precise features, this part demonstrates designs that traditional methods simply cannot achieve, significantly enhancing the performance of components. In addition to the All-in-one Hybrid Radiator, BLT showcased other impressive parts at the exhibition, including the intermediate casing and exhaust nozzle, all printed using our advanced 26-laser LPBF technology.
Another stunning exhibit is Rear Subframe in automotive industry. BLT reconfigurable designs and produces the rear subframe of an electric vehicle. The part uses Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimization (BESO) to obtain a topology with superior performance, and the entire optimization-design process is controlled by a parametric process with a high degree of automation and convenient and precise control of local details. The final part adopts a hollow lattice filling structure with a wall thickness of 2 mm, which is 20% lighter than the hollow die-cast aluminum alloy of the original scheme, avoids the local discontinuous corner caused by the process limitation. The strength and stiffness of the formed parts meet the needs of use. The size of the part is 1230mmx845mmx337mm, produced by BLT-S815 (Build Dimension: 800mm×800mm×1500mm, W×D×H)
BLT has also introduced a 3D-printed five-cylinder engine water jacket measuring 350mm × 105mm × 210mm and weighing 8kg, along with an injection mold measuring 310mm × 200mm × 55mm and weighing 4kg. These products leverage automatic grafting technology to seamlessly integrate crucial components like mold cavities, conformal cooling channels, and the machining base. This innovative approach aids customers in reducing processing costs, accelerating production cycles, and enhancing overall production efficiency.
BLT also brings enhanced performance heat exchangers. Ultra-small curved surface features exhibit outstanding heat exchange advantages. By leveraging these structures as the core of the heat exchangers, BLT achieves efficient coupling of parameters such as porosity, connectivity, and specific surface area. Through sample testing in typical application scenarios, these heat transfer performance improvements have been demonstrated to exceed 30%.
Copper alloy powder boasts high reflectivity, with only a 5% absorption rate for near-infrared light at room temperature. Laser melting of copper alloy powder poses challenges in sustaining the process, resulting in low forming efficiency and difficulties in maintaining forming quality. To address this, BLT has developed a copper alloy forming process and utilized the BLT-S400 to create a high-frequency induction coil featuring an internal cavity and thin-walled annular structure. The coil, measuring 86mm×76mm×26mm and weighing 72g, meets the quality standards required for its intended applications.
BLT also presented new advancements in cutting tools with titanium alloy mill holders and mill arbors. Employing an additive approach, BLT designed and optimized the milling cutter head and holder, enhanced the internal cooling system, and minimized the weight of the formed parts. These improvements, compared to the previous solution, result in increased service life and reduced energy consumption during operation.
TCT Asia 2024 wrapped up successfully, and BLT remains committed to the "era of large-scale production" in metal 3D printing. By harnessing the benefits of metal additive manufacturing to the fullest, BLT strives to help customers in diverse industries cut costs, enhance quality, and boost efficiency in mass production, thereby delivering substantial value.
www.xa-blt.com
