Additive Manufacturing. It is often talked about, but what is it?
3D printing, in Industry 4.0, is the most disruptive digital technology capable of distorting traditional production paradigms. The production starts from a virtual 3D model that is printed in layers and distorts the process according to which the production usually takes place by removing material from the solid.
Additive Manufacturing, as the name suggests, is additive manufacturing that starts from a CAD model and follows a semi-automatic process of converting the file by breaking down the object into layers that can then be printed by 3D printers.
The first patent dates back to the 1980s and then 30 years were necessary for incubation in order to have processes today that are technically and economically valid even outside the areas of rapid prototyping.
The reduction of the limits in relation to the shapes that can be produced, the elimination of production waste and therefore of the production costs and times of the so-called TTM (Time To Market) or of the time that elapses between the conception of the product and the its marketing.
The areas of use are varied and certainly in the first places there is that of the medical sector where new ways of treating pathologies are being tested and in particular in the dental sector. Another area is that of housing and equally important is that relating to aeronautical and aerospace applications.
As regards Additive Manufacturing, the collaboration between HTS and POLIMI begins to take shape. In fact, an HTS oven (the HT-S1 model) was recently installed at the Department of Aerospace Sciences and Technologies (DAER).
The aim is to help the development of advanced heat treatments to improve the structural conditions of the molded parts.
The experimentation processes first and then production require the use of excellent work tools and for this reason the HT-S1 model was adopted.
