Additively manufactured coolant clamp mounted in turning toolThe adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) is allowing Alcester-based
Seco Tools (UK) Ltd to create products that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to produce using conventional techniques. The advantages include shorter lead times, improved tool life and increased sustainability.
The development and manufacture of prototypes for metal-cutting machining by means of AM is becoming increasingly commonplace in the operations at Seco Tools. One of the main strengths of this manufacturing method is the opportunity it presents to make specialised customer-specific tools and solutions.
Above all, AM technology will come into its own when producing tools that must be designed in a special way. This may involve complex geometries or other customisations to client-specific needs, such as making the tools lighter, which improves the vibration-dampening properties, or provide them with better cooling possibilities.
Ingemar Bite, R&D Specialist at Seco Tools, who also believes that AM technology is helping to shorten lead times, said: “By directing the coolant to hit the cutting edge at just the right place, we can significantly extend the tool’s useful life. With AM technology, coolant can be guided to locations that would otherwise have been impossible. AM allows for us to produce geometries that require less manufacturing steps, which often results in shorter lead times and thereby, faster deliveries.”
Increased sustainabilityAM technology will also open up the possibility of repairing broken tools in the future, by removing dysfunctional components and 3-D printing them anew. This could, for example, involve tool components or the reuse of different types of machine-side connections which ultimately is good for the environment and sustainability. Another advantage with AM technology, compared with traditional manufacturing in this context, is that there is less waste of materials. Overall, not as much material is used for AM manufacturing and any left over powder can be reused.
While AM is undoubtedly a time and cost-efficient method for one-of-a-kind production and prototype development, it can also be used for the large-scale manufacture of standard products. Seco Tools is already additively manufacturing cooling clamps for its Jetstream tools for example.
Mr Bite added: “The cooling clamps have a complex form with curved cooling channels and are thus well-suited to this type of manufacture.”
The R&D department at Seco Tools works continuously to improve the use of AM technology for the development and manufacture of new and existing products. The company is constantly looking into ways to improve its products and how to best utilise AM technology.
Mr Bite, who is of the opinion that even the materials can be developed, concluded: “We like to collaborate with our customers on these efforts and to conduct tests together with them. The materials that are currently used in AM are no different in nature than those being used in conventional manufacturing, and the technology works well with many different metals. In the future, we will add even more and superior materials, while regularly adapting our equipment and upgrading hardware and software as required.”
Different methods can be used for AM; the one that Seco Tools uses is called SLM (Selective Laser Melting). Here, lasers and a bed of metal powder are used to construct the products. In an SLM machine, a roughly 20–60µm layer of powder is spread, and then processed by a laser. This process is repeated, layer by layer. Once all the layers are in place, the excess powder is removed and the product goes into post-processing for its final form.