HYPRO - Hybrid manufacturing systems for next generations' tools and products - is a user controlled innovation project (BIA) supported by the Norwegian Research Council. The project structure is based on three interacting themes:
- Concept development
- Industrial case studies
- The development of a prototype hybrid manufacturing cell
Interacting themes
The concept development involves production- and materials' technology in interaction with design methodology and the industrial case studies have been picked from consortium members for investigation of potential added value by application of hybrid manufacturing. The cases include: injection moulding tooling inserts with conformal cooling, cutting tools with functionally graded material edges and hollow light-weight structures for the aeronautical industry.
The integrated hybrid manufacturing solution is expected to deliver a higher degree of automation, decreased material waste, shorter cycle times and increased flexibility, in comparison to the alternative process route for comparable products. Finally the prototype hybrid manufacturing cell is the integration of a commercially available additive manufacturing machine: ConceptLaser M2 Cusing and a Deckel-Maho 5-axis milling machine.
Results
The results obtained in the project will be presented in a set of demonstrators from the industrial case studies and the prototype hybrid manufacturing cell. The project is coordinated with the national CRI Norman program and the FP7 EU Project IC2 (Intelligent and Customized Tooling).
The project is expected to develop the concept of hybrid manufacturing for high value tools and products, including the basic principles for design and a prototype for an integrated hybrid manufacturing cell. At the same time, the experience and confidence in efficient exploitation of additive- and hybrid manufacturing technology will increase among the consortium members and Norwegian manufacturing industry as a whole. Specifically, the following results are expected:
- Radically reduced time consumption for hybrid manufacturing
- Up to 90 % reduced consumption for critical materials
- Enable efficient production of more complex geometries
- Weight reduction
- More functionality in the same component
For production tools in particular:
- Up to 50 % reduced cycle time
- Up to 50 % longer life span for tool inserts
- Improved quality and tolerances in the parts
Consortium
The consortium includes seven partners: one tooling company, two injection moulding companies, two component manufacturing companies and two R&D partners.