Below are highlights from Mark Norfolk‘s presentation on Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing (UAM) a few days ago at the ASM Symposium at GE’s Global Research Center in NY. Mark is a senior project manager at EWI and the CEO of Fabrisonic, an EWI spinout.
- Ultrasonic additive manufacturing (UAM) is a novel new process that produces true metallurgical bonds with full density and works with a variety of metals such as aluminum, copper, stainless steel, and titanium.
- In combining additive and subtractive process capabilities, UAM can create deep slots, hollow, latticed, or honeycombed internal structures, and other complex geometries impossible with conventional subtractive manufacturing processes.
- The solid state nature of the UAM bond allows for welding of dissimilar metals. This enables dissimilar metal cladding, production of custom metal matrix composites, and the ability to embed objects or sensors in a metal substrate.
- With UAM technology, customers are able to manufacture complex parts that have unique features and attributes not possible using traditional manufacturing techniques.
- Parts currently made with traditional operations can be made with much less waste, an increasingly important factor as more expensive, higher performance materials see broader use.
For more information about this super-cool technology innovation, contact Mark Norfolk at 614.688.5223 or [email protected].
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Where the magic happens! Fabrisonic's "SonicLayer™7200" is a production-scale automated UAM system with a 6 ft. work envelope. Smaller versions of the machine are also available.
I’m Mary Wilmoth, Marketing Manager at EWI. If you’d like information about the other leading-edge manufacturing technologies we’re applying to industry to make our customers more competitive, check out www.ewi.org or email me at [email protected]. I can connect you with the right experts.