Market Release: Laser welded tubes are commonly used in the market. A customer active in high-speed air jet applications asked for re-engineering an assembled part into a single part geometry by using Direct Digital Manufacturing in Titanium. Now we are grateful to our customer allowing us to present the case on the weblog.
The original process was highly influenced by the difficulties related to micro welding of thin-walled small tubes using Electron Beam Welding. The wall thickness is 0.2 mm (see picture).Besides the geometrical freedom another challenge was the surface finish of the parts as well as contact wear resistance.
In process the part swivels over an angle of 160° at 1500 sequences/minute. Through forward engineering and FEM analyses we came to an unique geometry. The part weight is about 2 gram and the TCO is reduced by 42%. At present 400 parts are made and since 6 months running in production.
Given the nature of Direct Manufacturing the customer decided to make the contact angle variable. This results in batch productions with freedom to change the part geometry upon the contact material. This part fits perfectly within the basic principles of mass customization
Thx Hildi!
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