Manufacturing Machinery World May 2020

NEWS NEWS NEWS
KINGSBURY EXPANDS ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
PORTFOLIO INTO LARGER COMPONENT PRODUCTION
Already the sole sales and service agent in
the UK, Ireland and the Gulf for two metal
additive manufacturing (AM) machine
producers in France, Kingsbury
(www.kingsburyuk.com) has been
appointed to represent German WAAM
(wire arc additive manufacturing) equipment
builder GEFERTEC GmbH in the same
markets with immediate effect
(www.gefertec.de/en/start-2).
Richard Kingsbury, managing director of
the Gosport-based machine tool distributor
commented, "GEFERTEC's metal AM
technology fits perfectly with our existing
French agency lines of AddUp powder-bed
laser fusion machines and production lines,
and direct energy deposition equipment
from its BeAM subsidiary.
“There are tremendous advantages with
WAAM. Chief amongst these is that standard
MIG/MAG welding wire is used as the raw
feedstock to create parts rapidly within a
large build envelope. Such wire is relatively
inexpensive and readily available in a wide
range of metals.
"GEFERTEC's proprietary 3DMP
technology, which is a CAD to layer-by-layer
arc welding process on a machine platform
controlled by the familiar Siemens 840D
CNC, transforms our offering to customers.”
Tobias Röhrich, CEO of GEFERTEC
responded, "With more than 60 years of
experience in the relevant markets and
industries, Kingsbury is a perfect partner for
us.
"We share with them the same vision of a
long-term cooperation and of offering our
customers more than just hardware but
efficient production solutions for quantities
down to a batch size of one.
"With Kingsbury’s expertise and passion
for manufacturing, we will make the benefits
of our award-winning 3DMP technology a
success for customers in the UK, Ireland and
the Gulf."
The manufacturing process involves
taking a CAD model of the metal part to be
produced, which can be up to three cubic
metres in size and up to three tonnes in
weight, creating a layer-by-layer AM
program in 3DMP CAM software, and 3D
printing the near-net-shape component by
bead-on-bead melting and deposition of
welding wire using heat generated by the
electric arc. The component profile is checked
using a scanner mounted in the machine,
after which the surfaces are 3- or 5-axis
milled or turned to achieve the required
shape, surface finish and accuracy.
WAAM is applicable to an extensive
range of metals, provided that they are in
wire form. The list includes stainless, mild
and tool steels as well as alloys of nickel,
titanium, copper and aluminium; indeed,
any metal that can be welded. Multiple
materials can be combined in a single
structure, internal voids may be produced as
with other types of AM, and there is very
little material wastage.
Parts produced have high density and
strong mechanical properties comparable to
those manufactured by traditional
subtractive methods. The technique is also
suited to repair of worn parts, application of
wear coatings and reverse engineering of
legacy components.
Target industries are aerospace, especially
for producing high quality titanium and
nickel alloy parts, tool and mould making,
the rail sector and job shops with their small
batch sizes. Compared with traditional
subtractive machining, cost savings of up to
70 per cent have been reported when
processing difficult-to-machine alloys and up
to 50 per cent when dealing with other
metals.
Tel: +44 (0) 23 9258 0371
solutions@kingsburyuk.com
www.kingsburyuk.com
Manufacturing Machinery World, May 2020 25