Kingsbury expands metal additive manufacturing portfolio

Kingsbury has been appointed to represent German wire arc AM (WAAM) equipment builder Gefertec for the UK, Ireland and the Gulf.

Richard Kingsbury, managing director of the Gosport-based machine tool distributor commented: “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.

“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.

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. 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.

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% have been reported when processing difficult-to-machine alloys and up to 50% when dealing with other metals.

Kingsbury www.kingsburyuk.com

Gefertec www.gefertec.de/en/start-2