Renishaw
Renishaw AM250 laser melting machineLeading international engineering company Renishaw will be showcasing a number of its manufacturing solutions - including additive manufacturing systems - for the aerospace and automotive sectors at an industry event next month.
The British company will be exhibiting a range of its products at Advanced Engineering 2013 - which runs from November 12th-13th - at the NEC, Birmingham in the Aero Engineering section.
There, Renishaw will be demonstrating technologies that enable the rapid measurement of blades, additive manufacturing systems and machine tool calibration systems, in addition to the company's developing range of high-performance hardware and software products for coordinate measuring machines that are specially designed to aid the measurement and manufacturing of aerospace blades. All products complement the multi-award winning REVO 5-axis measurement system and include APEXBlade planning software for REVO sweep scanning and DMIS programming, MODUS airfoil analysis for the calculation and reporting of blade section profile and airfoil characteristics and SurfitBlade to aid reverse engineering of the complete airfoil.
Renishaw's additive manufacturing systems will also be on display. These systems utilise pioneering additive manufacturing technologies capable of producing fully-dense metal parts direct from 3D CAD systems using a high-powered fibre laser. Parts are built from a range of fine metal powders that are fully melted in a tightly controlled atmosphere, in layer thicknesses ranging from 20 to 100 microns. Renishaw will also exhibit the QC20-W wireless ballbar system which assesses machine tool positioning and servo control performance and includes a volumetric testing capability.
The Advanced Engineering Show is building on a "record" 2012 and in addition to hosting a specialised Aero Engineering section, there will also be dedicated sections for the engineering of composites, the automotive sector, auto electronics and printable electronics for industry.
Renishaw will be capitalising on the broad spectrum of attendees by showcasing its "game-changing contact scanning system", which presents entirely new process control opportunities for high-value CNC machine tools. The SPRINT system incorporates a new generation of on-machine analogue scanning technology that will deliver a step-change in the benefits of process control, enabling fast and accurate form and profile data capture from both prismatic and complex 3D components.
For blade manufacture, the SPRINT system provides unprecedented capability for blade tip refurbishment and root blending applications. For multi-task machining applications, the SPRINT machine tool scanning system offers users completely new process control capabilities, including exceptionally repeatable diameter measurement cycles.
In addition to the convenience of wireless operation, the QC20-W telescoping ballbar is the first calibration tool to allow testing in three orthogonal planes through a single reference point. A single, simple hardware set up means quicker testing and the ability to produce a representative volumetric measurement of positioning accuracy.
