As a supplier to General Motors, TEI is using the world’s largest 3D sand printer to produce cast cores for the series production of large-format, weight-saving structural components for the Cadillac CELESTIQ. By implementing 3D printing in the development and construction of the components, OEM manufacturers can realize completely new, function-optimized designs. Suppliers benefit from the fast and flexible integration of 3D printed cores into existing production lines.

TEI, an expert in highly complex castings for the engineering and manufacturing industry, has been working with voxeljet since 2018. What started with a three-year volume contract of over 500,000 liters of 3D-printed sand turned into a success story for both companies. TEI is the only company in the US to own three of voxeljet’s VX4000 3D printers, which are among the world’s largest 3D sand printers with a build volume of 4 x 2 x 1 meters. With its third VX4000, TEI has now expanded its additive manufacturing capacity to up to 2.5 million liters per year. This enables the US company to implement further technically demanding projects such as the series production of lightweight components for the underbody structure of the all-electric Cadillac CELESTIQ.

The novel underbody structure consists of six large precision sand-cast aluminum parts. In order to realize the complex structures as economically and lightly as possible, TEI uses additive manufacturing in production for all inner cores. This allows stiffening features to be incorporated into the hollow sections, which is not economically feasible with conventional manufacturing. A total of 51 additively manufactured sand cores are used in the production of each vehicle underbody. TEI prints these using the VX4000 printers, each of which prints hundreds of inner cores for several vehicle sets in just one night. After printing, the cores are smoothed, coated with a fireproof coating, placed in sand molds and finally cast using a low-pressure filling process. Each of the six castings reduces the number of parts by 30 to 40 components compared to a typical stamped construction. As each structural part has fully machined interfaces, the six castings can be assembled precisely and very tight tolerances can be maintained for assembly fabrication.

Large-format mold and core printing on the VX4000 3D printers makes production leaner and therefore faster and more economical compared to conventional manufacturing. Significantly fewer components need to be produced, which simplifies and speeds up assembly work. “By eliminating tools and taking advantage of the large build volume of the VX4000 printers, we can significantly reduce delivery times and produce lightweight components with optimized topologies. This would not be possible in the conventional way,” explains Oliver Johnson, President of TEI. In addition, 3D sand printing makes completely new designs and light weight structures possible. This results in geometrically optimized parts, which are very important for the automotive and aerospace industries. What is important for the implementation at suppliers: New function-optimized designs can be realized quickly and flexibly with the VX4000 3D printers and printed cores can be easily integrated into an existing production.

“We are pleased to have TEI as a strong partner and user of sand 3D printing in the US. The purchase of the third VX4000 printer builds on previous system installations at TEI’s corporate site in Livonia, Michigan, and enables the company to grow rapidly and deliver unique projects like this,” said Michael Dougherty, Managing Director at voxeljet America Inc. “Together, we will further establish additive manufacturing technology in industrial manufacturing and intensify our collaboration. We are proud to support the company with our unique 3D printing technology and to show once again that our printed casting technology is entering production and enabling unprecedented designs.”

The sale-leaseback transaction involving the Company’s 135,380 square foot facility in Friedberg, Germany, was entered into with an institutional, unaffiliated real estate investor, and is subject to regulatory approvals in the Federal Republic of Germany. The leaseback of the facility provides for a fifteen-year lease commitment with two consecutive five-year extension option periods.

The Friedberg facility serves as voxeljet’s headquarters as well as its center of excellence for research, development and production of the Company’s 3D printing systems.

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning our business, operations and financial performance. Any statements that are not of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. You can identify these forward-looking statements by words such as ‘‘believes,’’ ‘‘estimates,’’ ‘‘anticipates,’’ ‘‘expects,’’ ‘‘projects,’’ ‘‘plans,’’ ‘‘intends,’’ ‘‘may,’’ ‘‘could,’’ ‘‘might,’’ ‘‘will,’’ ‘‘should,’’ ‘‘aims,’’ or other similar expressions that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs, assumptions, projections, outlook, analyses or current expectations concerning, among other things, the projected timing and successful completion of the sale-leaseback transaction, our results of operations, financial condition and business outlook, the industry in which we operate and the trends that may affect the industry or us. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement contained in this press release, we caution you that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. All of our forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are in some cases beyond our control and that may cause our actual results to differ materially from our expectations, including those risks identified under the caption “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 20-F and in other reports the Company files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this press release whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

The process is the perfect combination of two established production methods. A roll-bonded core (RoBoC) is inflated on one or both sides with approx. 100 bar compressed air to create cooling channels of the usual dimensions. This core is placed in a permanent mold and aluminum is cast around it. During the casting process, temperature is controlled from the inside through the existing channels so that deformation or melting is prevented. The result is a metal sheet integrated into the housing with the structures required for cooling the E-machine.

The cooling channel layout can be represented in a helical shape. Thus, the hottest channel section is embedded between the coldest and second coldest channel sections. The result is a homogeneous temperature distribution without a hot spot during engine operation. This design cannot be represented in the classic 2-shell design (e.g. in die casting), since there would be a thermal short circuit due to overflow from one channel section to the other. Depending on the customer’s requirements, however, meander-shaped or flat duct layouts can also be realized. Sealing against cooling water leakage is ensured by means of the self-contained roll bond core and is therefore no longer dependent on the casting quality. An expensive helium leakage test on the finished part, which can result in a very high loss of added value, is no longer necessary. Assembly, as required with the 2-shell design, is completely eliminated.

AionaCast has provided proof of concept by means of “proof of concept”. Little attention was paid to the cross-sections for the cooling medium and weight reduction. Now the team is working on Generation 2, where the inserted and inflated sheet is in direct contact with the stator, which again increases efficiency and reduces weight.

This concept makes it possible to reduce the wall thickness between the stator and the water-bearing channel from about 5 to as little as 1.5 mm. This reduction in wall thickness is also reflected in the overall weight of the electric motor housing for a typical BEV traction motor, which is reduced by approximately 1 kg.

Furthermore, the response time from the interaction of the optimizations is significantly reduced. To present the performance of the system, a CFD simulation of an existing traction motor from a major OEM was compared to the RoBoC Gen2 development. The time for the temperature reduction from 60° to 40°C in the stator could be reduced by about 70%. A pleasant side effect is also the significantly reduced casting process time, where the time to component removal from the casting mold can be significantly reduced due to direct cooling of the aluminum casting from the inside.

• The helix design and the smaller distance between stator and cooling medium results in higher thermal efficiency.
• The tightness of the cooling water channel is independent of the casting quality. Due to the concept, seals are completely eliminated and there is no residual dirt problem due to the absence of core sand. This makes this innovation more reliable than conventional systems.
• To list just a few cost advantages, such as the elimination of assembly (2-shell design), the lack of a sand core eliminates the need for reworking and capping of the core marks, several quality tests are no longer required, and the non-negligible shorter casting cycle makes the invention competitive.

For further development (prototypes), the patent holder AionaCast, which is also responsible for project management, was able to win well-known partners for the modification of a Bosch series housing:

• Kupral S.p.A. (Italy) / casting technology
• voxeljet AG (Germany) / 3D-printed molds for core package
• LPM S.p.A. (Italy): Foundry equipment
• Peter Prinzing GmbH (Germany): Roll-bond bending

In view of approximately 75 million traction electric motors to be produced from 2030, Jürgen Pohl sees further business development for this new manufacturing process as extremely positive. Furthermore, the same manufacturing concept with modified cooling channel layout (e.g. meander-shaped, flat or parallel channels) also offers potential for the production of battery and power electronics housings, he said.

The VX200 HSS from voxeljet is designed as an open source 3D printing system and provides full access to process parameters and temperature management to best match the additive manufacturing process and material. The HSS Material Network offers customers a flexible and low-risk outsourcing option for material development of additive manufacturing technologies. The addition of the competencies of the HSS Material Network partners enables companies of all sizes to receive unique support, from an initial suitability assessment, through specific development and parameterization, to certification or market-ready qualification of the material. Here we present our partners, projects and proof of concepts.

The iglidur® i3 material is a plastic powder specially developed by igus® GmbH for the production of gliding applications and gears for the additive processes of Powder Bed Fusion of Polymer (PBF-P), such as laser sintering (LS). It is used to manufacture components with a wide variety of applications, for example as special sliders in passenger cars, as gear wheels in e-bikes and even as sliders in elevators.

The special feature of iglidur® i3 PL is the additivation of the powder with solid lubricants, whereby the components manufactured from it achieve a wear resistance that is better by a factor of 3 to 30 than components manufactured from plastic powders otherwise available on the market. For this purpose, a large number of different formulations were tested and developed in the igus laboratory in Cologne. In addition, the service life of iglidur® i3 gears and plain bearings has become calculable online due to the large number of tests. Customers can thus check the properties of the components in advance for their performance and service life in order to make any design adjustments before the final production.

Due to its print head technology, the HSS has the potential for a significantly more economical production than the LS. Moreover, thanks to its open-source conception, HSS has the possibility to specifically adjust component properties on the process side, and thus offers great potential for many applications of the components made of iglidur® i3.

In addition to the high abrasion resistance, iglidur® i3 also stands out as a very good gear material. In numerous tests, the good suitability as gear material could be proven and confirmed by igus. Many times better than gears made of PA12 and PA11 in LS and even better by a factor of 5 than conventionally manufactured gears made of POM.

The iglidur® i3 material has already been available for the PBF-P since 2016. By means of LS, more than 400,000 components have already been manufactured with it. The plain bearings and gears manufactured by the project group Process Innovation of the Fraunhofer IPA and the Chair of Environmentally Friendly Production Technology of the University of Bayreuth within the scope of the proof of concept in HSS exhibit very good mechanical properties, which make a further optimization of the material to the HSS process up to a full qualification quite interesting.

igus is one of the recognized experts when it comes to polymers for sliding applications. 3D printing is not a novelty for the company. For example, the iglidur® i3 PL material was already qualified for laser sintering processes in 2016 and over 400,000 components have been manufactured with it to date. By means of HSS, the material can be processed even more economically. The reason for this is the high productivity and reproducibility of the HSS process.

The VX200 HSS from voxeljet is designed as an open source 3D printing system and provides full access to process parameters and temperature management to best match the additive manufacturing process and material. The HSS Material Network offers customers a flexible and low-risk outsourcing option for material development of additive manufacturing technologies. The addition of the competencies of the HSS Material Network partners enables companies of all sizes to receive unique support, from an initial suitability assessment, through specific development and parameterization, to certification or market-ready qualification of the material. Here we present our partners, projects and proof of concepts.

HDPE is a high-density polyethylene (0.94-0.97 g/cm³) and is particularly characterized by its very good resistance to chemicals and greases as well as its water-repellent effect. At room temperature, HDPE has a hard yet flexible appearance and, in addition to its very good mechanical properties, has good sliding behavior and increased wear resistance.

HDPE is therefore used, among other things, for the manufacture of products for the food and packaging industries, especially for the chemical industry. Thus, containers, bottles and pipes for chemicals, fuels, water, gas or oil are manufactured from HDPE as standard.

The process window of HDPE is very small for processing in laser sintering and, furthermore, a high laser power is required to melt the powder particles. The mechanical properties of the HDPE are negatively influenced by the high thermal load due to the punctual or line-by-line exposure by laser. This results in embrittlement of the material.

In the case of HSS, on the other hand, the energy is applied to the powder bed surface by means of an infrared lamp with the aid of an ink, which is selectively applied to the powder bed surface via a print head. The two-dimensional exposure ensures that the duration of the energy input is significantly longer compared to laser-based production systems. As a result, significantly lower maximum temperatures can be realized, which reduces thermal stresses on the material and preserves the proven mechanical properties of HDPE.

Unlike PA12, HDPE is a pure hydrocarbon. This makes HDPE non-polar, water-repellent and highly resistant to chemicals. At room temperature, HDPE is therefore not attacked by many solvents, alkalis and acids. Similar to PA12 or PP, up to 100% of the unprinted powder can be reused.

With respect to PP but also to PA12, HDPE offers a significant price advantage, as HDPE is a widely used mass plastic which is much cheaper to produce than PA12 or PA11. In addition, HDPE is manufactured in Europe, which secures supply chains and times.

The proof of concept was manufactured from the HDPE powder DiaPow HDPE HX developed by Diamond Plastics GmbH for laser sintering, which is characterized by a very uniform particle size distribution and very good flowability. The process capability analysis and initial parameterization carried out by the Fraunhofer Project Group Process Innovation of the Fraunhofer IPA and the Chair Manufacturing and Remanufacturing Technology of the University of Bayreuth demonstrate that the HDPE powder has very good processability in HSS. Therefore, the HDPE powder will be optimized and fully parameterized by the partners specifically for the HSS process. The focus will be on reproducibility, part quality and productivity in terms of reduced shift time. Finally, the adapted HDPE powder is made commercially available to the market.

Particularly noteworthy is the fact that a particularly high degree of flexibility was achieved during processing using HSS. This kind of flexibility is difficult to achieve in laser sintering, for example. The reason for this is the selective thermal loading of the material. This has a negative effect on the mechanical properties of the material. With HSS, on the other hand, the powder bed is exposed over a large area, which increases the duration of the energy input and reduces thermal stress. In this way, the flexibility of the HDPE is retained.

After jointly developing and qualifying a Thermoplastic Polyorethane (TPU) powder for HSS, the two companies are taking their collaboration to the next level by bringing customers a seamless material-process solution for volume manufacturing of their specific applications.

“Typically, material and processing technology work separately in the value chain, with customers having to figure out how to make them work,” said Geoff Gardner, Innovation Director Additive Manufacturing at Covestro. “Together with voxeljet, we want to remove what we believe is still a barrier for adopting AM on the production floor. Thanks to its size and speed, coupled with the constant layer time, HSS offers manufacturers an economic solution for series production.”

voxeljet will contribute its knowledge with its large format VX1000 HSS printer platformVX1000 HSS, and Covestro its expertise in designing functional materials, to develop a seamlessly working material-process solution that can be deployed for large scale manufacturing.

James Reeves, Global Director of Polymer Sintering (HSS) at voxeljet added: “This is a match of two companies strongly believing in really close collaboration across the additive ecosystem. The potential of HSS to process specialty powder materials is tremendous. By offering customers material choices, we accelerate their access to pioneering products.”

Material possibilities that the companies are considering are TPUs, which are suited well for footwear and cushioning applications, as well as thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and polpropylene (PP). The collaboration with voxeljet involves scaling new materials on the large-format, industrial manufacturing machine – VX1000HSS, currently accessible via voxeljet’s Early Access Beta Program.

If you are interested in collaborating in this program, please reach out – both companies will showcase their polymer powder materials and printers at Formnext 2021, Nov. 16th-19th in Frankfurt, Germany, in hall 12.1; Covestro at booth C11 and voxeljet at booth C129.

About Covestro:
With 2020 sales of EUR 10.7 billion, Covestro is among the world’s leading polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative, sustainable solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. In doing so, Covestro is fully committed to the circular economy. The main industries served are the automotive and transportation industries, construction, furniture and wood processing, as well as electrical, electronics, and household appliances industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the chemical industry itself. At the end of 2020, Covestro has 33 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 16,500 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).

Learn more about legacy-DSM additive manufacturing on am.covestro.com and Covestro on www.covestro.com

Forward-looking statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Covestro AG. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Covestro’s public reports which are available at www.covestro.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

Friedberg, greater Munich, November 2021 – In order to achieve high-quality parts using additive manufacturing, the 3D printing system and the material to be processed need to be precisely matched to each other. To help customers identify the ideal material for their application and determine suitable process parameters for manufacturing, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA, its Process Innovation Project Group, and the University of Bayreuth, with its Chair for Environmentally Friendly Production Technology, and voxeljet AG, manufacturer of industrial 3D printers and provider of on-demand services, have launched the HSS Material Network.

The new HSS Material Network aims to share knowledge and jointly accelerate the development of polymer materials for additive manufacturing. In the network’s workflow, voxeljet plays a mediating role and discusses the initial requirements with the customer. Subsequently, the connection is established between the customer and the Fraunhofer Process Innovation Project Group of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Döpper.

The research and development focus of the Fraunhofer IPA lies in particular on organizational and technological tasks from the field of production, while the University of Bayreuth focuses on theoretical basic research. A common focus of the two closely cooperating research institutions is the industrialization of additive manufacturing. This cooperation results in an optimal symbiosis between application-oriented and fundamental research, which can be used to answer a wide range of research and development questions from the industry.

The Campus Additive Innovations (CA.I), an inter- and transdisciplinary think tank at the University of Bayreuth in which scientists from a wide range of disciplines, such as materials engineering, production engineering and chemistry, work together and advise companies, was also formed as a result of this cooperation. The CA.I and its members have numerous different 3D printing systems at their disposal, including a VX200 HSS from voxeljet. As a completely open platform, this 3D printer with customizable parameters is ideally suited for matching printing process and material.

“Medium-sized companies in particular often lack the equipment, interdisciplinary skills and resources to conduct their own materials research and technology optimization. To close this gap, we founded the Campus Additive.Innovations,” explains Döpper. In addition to a variety of different additive manufacturing systems, the research team chose the VX200 HSS from voxeljet. It is necessary that the manufacturing systems have open software and hardware interfaces, allowing individual setting of all process parameters and free programming of the process steps. This machine park, which spans multiple manufacturers, offers the optimal prerequisite for coordinating the additive manufacturing process and the material. “The HSS Material Network offers customers and interested parties a flexible and low-risk outsourcing option for material development “, continues Döpper.

James Reeves, Global Director for Polymer Printing at voxeljet, adds: “High Speed Sintering is an additive manufacturing technology that is highly productive, flexible and also ideally suited for the production of higher volumes. But the potential of additive manufacturing has not yet been fully exploited, as long as there are materials that cannot yet be printed. Given that we can look at more than 18,000 polymer materials, there is still a lot of work to be done. That’s why we created the HSS Material Network. By collaborating and openly exchanging ideas with industry leaders and renowned research institutions such as Fraunhofer IPA, we are able to significantly accelerate the development of new materials – and at a fraction of the cost that alternative offerings claim. Customers thus receive a fast and application-oriented solution that is specifically tailored to their needs.”

The HSS Material Network is linked to voxeljet’s Material Certification Lab, and independent organizations wishing to advance the development and qualification of polymer materials for the HSS process can join it informally. Through collaboration and knowledge exchange, the development of polymer materials for additive manufacturing can thus be advanced.

TEI is one of the largest users of 3D sand printing in the US and runs a fully equipped aluminum foundry in Livonia, Michigan. The engineering expert decided to invest in the second VX4000 3D printer to further expand its already existing capacities for additive manufacturing and quickly and economically realize technically demanding projects for prototyping inquiries as well as production orders. The 3D printer will be installed at TEI’s Livonia facility in Livonia, Michigan.

“At our facility we cover the full workflow, from printing to casting to heat treatment and machining.” says Oliver Johnson, president of TEI. “With the second VX4000 in house, we are able to further capitalize on the advantages 3D sand printing has to offer to metal casting. By eliminating the need for tooling and thanks to the large build volume of the 3D printer we can reduce delivery times drastically, which in turn greatly benefits our customers, whether it’s the automotive or aerospace industry. In addition to that, we can produce parts that cannot be made conventionally, such as light-weight components and topology optimized parts.”

Michael Dougherty, Managing Director at voxeljet America Inc. adds: “When it comes to castings for industries with very high standards, such as the aerospace or automotive industry, the VX4000 is the perfect tool to meet the requirements for dimensional stability and accuracy and still be able to produce the parts needed as fast as possible. We are very proud to support TEI’s growth in additive manufacturing technologies and see the potential of this technology develop further.”

About TEI
TEI is a global leader in the design, engineering and manufacturing of prototype, pre-production and mass production equipment for the casting industry. TEI products are the highest quality and are backed by a reputation for innovation, design excellence, and precise first-run performance. TEI is a full service, vertically integrated supplier offering a complete range of services in Engineering, Tooling, Casting, Machining and Inspection complete on one site. This approach delivers TEI and its customers’ fundamental advantages in terms of timing, confidentiality, and quality.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning our business, operations and financial performance. Any statements that are not of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. You can identify these forward-looking statements by words such as ‘‘believes,’’ ‘‘estimates,’’ ‘‘anticipates,’’ ‘‘expects,’’ ‘‘plans,’’ ‘‘intends,’’ ‘‘may,’’ ‘‘could,’’ ‘‘might,’’ ‘‘will,’’ ‘‘should,’’ ‘‘aims,’’ or other similar expressions that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs, assumptions, projections, outlook, analyses or current expectations concerning, among other things, our results of operations, financial condition, business outlook, the potential application of new technology and new materials and their impact on future business, the industry in which we operate and the trends that may affect the industry or us. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement contained in this press release, we caution you that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. All of our forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are in some cases beyond our control and that may cause our actual results to differ materially from our expectations, including those risks identified under the caption “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 20-F and in other reports the Company files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this press release whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

New Highlights

• Project to accelerate and optimize the production of a key casting components² of the GE Haliade-X Offshore Turbine
• 3D Printing provides flexibility to produce large turbine components near offshore wind projects, lowering transportation costs and bringing environmental benefits
• Trials of new technology expected to begin in Q1 2022

The project involves the development of a new, large format 3D printer capable of producing sand molds for casting the highly complex metal parts of different shapes and sizes that make up an offshore wind turbine nacelle.  The modular 3D printing process, which is based on voxeljet’s core Binder-Jetting technology, can be configured to print molds for castings up to 9.5 meters in diameter and 60-plus tons in weight, dimensions.

Juan Pablo Cilia, Senior Additive Design Engineer at GE Renewable Energy, said, “The 3D printed molds will bring many benefits including improved casting quality through improved surface finish, part accuracy and consistency. Furthermore, sand binder jet molds or additive molds provide cost savings by reducing machining time and other material costs due to optimized design. This unprecedented production technology will be a game changer for production efficiency allowing localized manufacturing in high cost countries, a key benefit for our customers looking to maximize the local economic development benefits of offshore wind.”

The Fraunhofer Institute for Casting, Composite and Processing Technology IGCV is responsible for casting and materials technology issues as well as digital process monitoring. “We are taking a close look at thermal management during casting, and we will evaluate the ideal proportions of the printing materials,” said Dr. Daniel Günther, Head of Department Molding Processes and Molding Materials at Fraunhofer IGCV. “Also, we will develop and test new approaches to process monitoring as part of the project.” Based on prior experience the team expects to significantly improve the environmental footprint of processes involved in producing the Haliade-X type wind turbines. This sustainability aspect is a firmly established guiding principle of research at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, according to the institute’s director, Prof. Dr. Wolfram Volk, who adds: “We aim to optimize the mold printing to avoid extremely costly misprints or even miscasts, to save on binder and activator, and to improve mechanical and thermal behavior during casting. By developing a process that conserves resources as much as possible, we want to help to improve the environmental and cost balance in the manufacture of wind turbines.”

Christian Traeger, Director of Marketing and Sales at voxeljet, said, “The test mold we printed for GE in 2019 consisted of dozens of individual parts. With the ACC, we aim to print a significantly reduced number of parts for the full set. Added to that, the mold can be optimized in terms of functionality and material consumption. This optimization makes completely new casting designs possible that can further enhance the efficiency of the turbines.”

“While offsite on-demand 3D printing provides many benefits for small quantities of cast parts, running a 3D printing system on-site leverages the technology to its fullest capacity. Given the demand for offshore wind turbines, that will help a lot to fulfill project schedules and high market demands,” adds Dr. Ingo Ederer, CEO at voxeljet. “With our productive “Binder-Jetting” technology in combination with our experience in large format industrial 3D printing, we are serving customers in the foundry industry for over 20 years. It is our mission to bring 3D printing into true industrial manufacturing and we are therefore very excited to be part of this groundbreaking project.”

The International Energy Agency³ has projected that global offshore wind capacity will increase 15-fold by 2040, becoming a 1 trillion dollar industry, thanks to falling costs, supportive government policies and technological progress like that behind the Haliade-X offshore turbine from GE Renewable Energy.  GE Renewable Energy has been selected to supply its Haliade-X turbine for 5.7 GWs worth of projects in Europe and the US.  The company is a member of the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) and as part of that supports various initiatives that aim at increasing the production of sustainable wind energy.

Notes

1. A nacelle is a housing unit on top of the tower of a wind generator that contains its mechanical components.
2. Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a casting, which is ejected or broken out of the mold to complete the process.
3. Source:  https://www.iea.org/reports/offshore-wind-outlook-2019

Friedberg near Augsburg, Germany, June 2021 – To develop the new high-performance ceramic material set Brightorb^TM for 3D printing, AGC Ceramics Co., Ltd. has entered into a cooperation with voxeljet AG from Friedberg in Bavaria, Germany. Brightorb was developed on a VX1000 with a build volume of 1000 x 600 x 500 mm. The 3D printing system works layer-based and bonds the ceramic particles with an inorganic binder. Targeted applications for the new, ceramic material set include high-performance cores for sand and investment casting, ceramic filters, structural components, as well as art and product design.

The ceramics material with its brand name Brightorb is composed of spherical sand with the main components Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3) 80%, Zirconium Oxide (ZrO2) 10%, Silicon Oxide (SiO2) 9%, the minerals Corundum, Baddeleyite and kinds of cement. During 3D printing, Brightorb is applied to the build platform with average grain sizes of 50 µm and layer thicknesses of 100 µm and selectively bonded with an inorganic binder. The inorganic binder is characterized by its high environmental compatibility as only water vapor is produced during molding. This greatly improves environmental and working conditions in foundries. To subsequently prepare the printed ceramic for the final application, the printed components get impregnated by a silica-based liquid and have to be fired in a sintering furnace for their final strength. Most of the unprinted powder can be reprocessed, recycled and fed back into the printing process.

“We have been noticing a growing demand for increasingly complex component geometries among our customers for a long time,” explains Dr. Ingo Ederer, CEO at voxeljet. “The great advantage of the geometric freedom of 3D printing is, that geometric adjustments can significantly optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of, for example, engines or turbine wheels. It is rare that such complex components can still be produced using conventional molding processes. Together with AGCC, we have been able to optimize a VX1000 for ceramic powder in close cooperation, so that it is ideally suited for the challenging demands of metal casting. Both in terms of strength and surface quality”, says Dr. Ederer.

The 3D-printed ceramics are used, for example, as cores for the investment casting process in order to reproduce complex and filigree cavities within castings. In this process, the filigree cores are combined with conventional wax patterns. These are coated with a ceramic slurry and burned out before casting. What remains is a hollow ceramic mold in which the printed core is still inserted. Molten metal is then poured into the mold. After cooling, both the mold and the core are removed.

This process makes it possible, for example, to integrate internal cooling channels in turbine blades, thus increasing turbine efficiency and reducing downtimes to a minimum. Mr. Ushimaru, Additive Manufacturing Director from AGCC is also satisfied: “Brightorb is a high-performance ceramic that is extremely well suited for metal casting due to its high-chemical stability, heat resistance, thermal conductivity and low thermal expansion. We were able to optimize the material set in such a way that the shrinkage factor of the printed components during the downstream sintering process at 1,400°C is less than 1%. This means that the components are also suitable for filigree core designs. Thanks to the high-fire resistance, it is possible to cast alloys with melting points beyond 1,600°C. Overall, ceramics will continue to gain importance as a material in the future, and the same applies to 3D printing as a manufacturing technology. We are pleased to have embarked on this path together with voxeljet and look forward to further close cooperation.”