Additive manufacturing

More than 50 different technical processes have become established worldwide in industrial additive manufacturing. The well-known selective laser melting consists of two steps: In the first step, the powder is uniformly distributed on a flat bed by a powder conveyor.

Then the material is melted with the help of a laser. The additive manufacturing uses many 3D-printing principles, where a materials, powders, fluids, binders etc. need to be dosed and positioned within their processes.

Highest resolutions

Whenever small amounts of materials, powders or fluids need to be dispensed or positioned in an industrial process, engineers rely on piezo-based solutions. Well known since the late 1970s is the piezo inkjet technology in printers.

With piezo actuator arrays high resolutions can easily be achieved, whereas such array consists of many small scale piezo bending actuators.

Piezo actuators open up new possibilities when feeding fluids and powder in 3D printers, for example in drying bed in high capacity at maximum speed. Energy-efficient and reliable piezo actuators can be easily used in fluid dosing and powder conveying technology. Tiny piezo actuators and actuator arrays achieve high packing density both for fluid and powder output at the print head.

Due to the small sizes of piezo actuators, it is natural to mentally associate piezo solutions with density-relevant actuator applications; but piezo also invites you to think big! Whenever motion, positioning or dispensing is required within a process, piezo systems can easily be scaled up!

Imagine a print head with hundreds of tiny piezo actuators producing large quantities at top production speeds! Huge parts, e.g. from the aerospace industry or shipbuilding, can thus be printed three-dimensionally!