June 7, 2016 – Designed and engineered with serialized production in mind, the Renishaw RenAM 500M builds complex metallic components directly from CAD using metal powder bed fusion technology. The machine will be featured at IMTS 2016 in Renishaw’s booth E-5509 in the East Building of Chicago’s McCormick Place. The RenAM 500M is first in a family of products based around Renishaw’s optical systems and control technology and offers efficient, ergonomic design and safety features, as well as automated capabilities.
Renishaw has core skills in optical engineering, motion control and manufacturing from over forty years of producing industrial products. The RenAM 500M machine manufactures parts within the 250mm x 250mm x 350mm build volume (9.84 x 9.84 x 13.77 inches) and utilizes a high powered ytterbium fiber laser to fuse fine metallic powders together creating functional 3-dimensional parts.
In-line sieving allows powder to be recycled and re-used in a single process under an inert atmosphere, reducing user interaction and turnaround time. Metallic powder is loaded into the machine hopper at the front of the system and sieved ultrasonically. Any un-melted material is returned to the hopper and passes through the sieve before being processed. Sieved powder is pneumatically transferred in a flow of argon gas into the powder delivery silo.
The RenAM 500M features a twin SafeChange filter system enabling builds to run for long periods in a stable and controlled atmosphere. Filters capture process emissions safely and the machine’s intelligent control system actively senses the filter’s condition and redirects the gas circuit to a clean filter before conditions deteriorate. Powder sieving and recirculation are automatically carried out within the compact system, reducing the need for manual handling and exposure to materials, which provides increased safety and sustained quality of the metal powders.
The RenAM 500M is ideal for industrial production application, specifically serialized production. Each system is intended to be dedicated to a single material type for a lights-out manufacturing environment and provides a higher level of automation compared to the AM250 and AM400 platforms.
The large 480mm (19 in), touchscreen and machine control software eases navigation through every process step. Based on a Windows operating system with a dedicated user interface, large icons show the build set-up workflow for clear and straightforward operation.