The Additive Effect
Join our founder and CEO Brian McLaughlin as he shares about the “First to 50 Parts” Concept in Additive Manufacturing with EBM.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION
[00:00:09.030]
Hello, everyone, Brian McLaughlin here, President and Founder of Amplify Additive. We wanted to revisit a webinar we recently did. In that webinar, we discussed the idea of the First to Fifty, for a 54-millimeter acetabular cup. For both EBM and laser, there are consumables you need to consider and also post-processing steps you need to consider. For EBM, we use a stainless steel star plate for fifty-four parts, and therefore through the PRS process, which is the powder recovery system, we can prepare those parts and get them ready to move on to secondary machining.
[00:00:41.250]
For Laser, and we’ll get into this in the next slide, showing a side-by-side comparison on a calendar view, it takes significantly more time, but you’re also using five setups compared to a single set up on EBM. Heat treatment is required for laser; hipping is required for laser, and then in order to remove the parts off the platform, you need to wire EDM the parts off the platform
[00:01:06.960]
In comparing the two technologies side by side in a calendar view, and this is assuming one EBM system compared to one laser system, EBM in blue, in four days, we can process the parts and ship the parts for secondary machining on EBM. For laser, we assume back to back builds in order to get the same quantity of parts, then a heat treatment, then shipped to hipping, then eventually wire EDM. So we’re assuming a much shorter time frame for EBM, time to market for acetabular cups in this case.
[00:01:37.890]
The benefits of EBM compared to laser really come down to a number of things. We can use the entire volume of the build chamber so we can stack parts in a platform. And again, hipping with regards to EBM, technology is application-specific, so in cases where high fatigue is a consideration, that is where we consider hipping. One of the biggest considerations for EBM to laser that the parts coming out of the machine have material properties that meet or exceed ASTM standards for both grade five and twenty-three titanium powder. To drive home this conversation for First to Fifty for EBM, it takes us four days to process 54 parts and send the secondary machining at a reduced cost compared to laser.
[00:02:16.590]
For laser, again, it takes significantly more time, more cost, more builds to get you the same quantity. So again, when you’re looking at overall cost and time to market, EBM is a much better solution for this particular product. Thanks for joining us. If you’d like to learn a little bit more about electron beam melting, feel free to reach out to us at Amplify Additive dot com.
