威廉·库克Holdings是英国最大的钢铁铸件制造商，生产用于铁路，能源，防御和货运行业的组件。Precision Foundry在该公司在南约克郡谢菲尔德的一个网站之一，现在开设了一个专家3D打印设施，用于原型和最终用户零件。
In this article, 3D Printing Industry speak to Simon Alexander, managing director of the William Cook plant in Sheffield, to learn more about how 3D printing will be integrated into the company’s existing methods of precision manufacturing.
Keeping ahead of the game
The William Cook 3D printing facility is equipped with a Voxeljet VX1000 additive manufacturing machine that uses plastic and sand as the feedstock. The primary material to be produced by the machine is poly methyl methacrylate (PMM), an acrylic glass also known as Plexiglass or Perspex.
Alexander explains how the technology will be used to help maintain William Cook’s commercial advantage,
Commodity parts are routinely sourced from low-cost economies against which William Cook finds it difficult to compete on price. So to succeed, William Cook must concentrate on high added value, high integrity, high difficulty and niche products. These require the use of state of the art and cutting edge technologies supported by a highly skilled workforce.
3D打印不可能
亚历山大继续说出如何使用该技术解锁“the casting envelope”, enabling“larger and more complex geometries to be cast that were previously considered ‘un-castable’ by the lost wax process”– a method of making objects that uses a sacrificial material to make molds,the same process used to make the 2017 Academy Awards.
Using 3D printing to make the casts gives engineers more flexibility when designing the parts as it no longer relies only on 3 axis milling. Alexander explains,
This enables casting users and designers to focus on design for function (rather than design for manufacture), with no or fewer compromises and constraints than would be the case with traditional casting technology.
The fourth industrial revolution
威廉·库克（William Cook）的Voxeljet VX1000是对精密铸造厂（Precision Foundry）投资的600万美元投资的一部分。这座城市的这个地区是劳斯莱斯（Rolls Royce）等工业巨头和谢菲尔德大学（University of Sheffield）的工业巨头网站的所在地advanced materials research facility in the reconfigurable Factory 2050.
公园大道地区的发展部分是由于英国政府对旨在重振国家经济的“北方强国”的资金。
Looking to the future, Alexander adds,
At present, the cost in use of the technology broadly restricts its application to prototyping, product development and one-offs. As the technology develops it may become more of a production tool and this has the potential to open up new markets. It may even be that for legacy parts and small batch runs, clients elect not to lay down expensive ‘hard tooling’ and instead come to rely on the speed and convenience of 3D printed patterns as and when the demand for parts arises.
To stay up to date with 3D printing developments from the UK’s Northern Powerhouse注册3D打印行业新闻通讯,follow us on Twitter和像我们在Facebook上一样。
Also, make sure important innovations get the recognition they deserve byvoting in the 1st Annual 3D Printing Industry Awards.
Featured image shows molten metal poured out of a crucible at the Sheffield foundry. Photo via William Cook
