Next year, a production machine will be introduced that enables the creation of metal parts and machining in one single workspace. The upcoming device will be equipped with five controlled axes for metal welding technology and five-axis machining of internal and external shaped surfaces. This will be one of the machines from HYBRID MANUFACTURING (HM) category, combining a full generic technology (metal welding) and full-featured subtractive technology using a five-axis milling.
The main advantage posed by the technology is its relatively low price, - a part manufactured by this technology achieves 25-30% of the cost of competing technologies. The new technology allows to create metal parts at significantly lower cost and enables the processing of high-end materials such as nickel alloys and others, but the offer is now focused primarily on the treatment of structural steel, stainless steel, fine grain steel and wear resistant steel.
While developing the new device, representatives of KOVOSVIT and scientists from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering focused on making more work space available and the creation of larger parts offered by the comparable competition. Currently, technology is being developed for production of parts in size of 500 x 500 x 400 mm. Speed in which new parts are created is mainly influenced by the quality requirements of the material (i.e . minimal internal defects), part precision, permitted thermal effects on the material and the internal stresses and also by the chosen manufacturing strategy. The real value of rate of growth for parts of different types of steel are in the range from 0.2 to 1.0 kg / hr.