The National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, America Makes has unveiled the first legacy CNC machine tool, Hybrid LENS CNC Machine, in a private event at TechSolve’s headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Led by Optomec and backed by TechSolve, Lockheed Martin, MachMotion and U.S. Army Benét Labs, the technology is a combination of Optomec’s LENS 3D printing technology and subtractive manufacturing from MachMotion to “cost effectively bridge the gap between additive and subtractive manufacturing processes”.
By embedding the latest in controls, toolpath generation and quality monitoring in a modular design, this formulation signals the future of hybrid manufacturing with the ability to enable any CNC machine tool to be upgraded with additive manufacturing capability.
“It’s incredibly exciting to be able to witness firsthand such a successful outcome of one of America Makes funded projects and collaborations,” Ralph Resnick, America Makes Founding Director and NCDMM President and Executive Director commented. “Moreover, this project exemplifies the America Makes mission to efficiently accelerate the transition of promising additive technologies into mainstream manufacturing. This achievement is poised to have a game-changing impact on the manufacturing industry. For manufacturers and machine shops to now have the dual ability of employing additive and subtractive manufacturing processes in one machine is tremendous. They will be able to leverage their existing machine tool assets to cost-effectively use 3D printing in their facilities.”
Optomec, a Platinum partner of America Makes, has been at the forefront of hybrid manufacturing capabilities for industrial the industrial sector through its range of LENS and Aerosol Jet technologies. Last year saw the launch of its LENS Print Engine, a tool which can be integrated with other manufacturing methods to allow manufacturers to use both additive and subtractive features within the same platform.
The news had been labelled "An evolutionary approach to adopting 3D printing" and the event included a panel of experts from America Makes, G.E. Power and Wayer and AM Consortium EWI that explored the challenges, opportunities and long-term impact of integrating additive manufacturing processes on the factory floor.
