A new chemical immersion treatment to enhance the surface of additive manufactured parts could revolutionise the aerospace industry.
South West Metal Finishing (SWMF) has been working on its Almbrite™ process for the last three years and believes it could be the future choice of aircraft manufacturers around the world. Some of SWMF’s tier one aerospace clients include Safran, UTC Aerospace and Airbus.
Chemical Immersion:
AlmbriteTM is a chemical immersion process designed to modify and enhance the surface of additive layer manufactured parts by removing Foreign Object Debris as well as Smoothing and Brightening the surface of part. The process can be used for any type of part but a significant advantage is that it is also suitable for internal surfaces where a high-quality finish can be achieved.
Additive Layer Manufacturing:
Additive layer manufacturing (ALM) uses various techniques to construct a three-dimensional object including extrusion and laser sintering based processes. ALM is a process in which a component is built up in discreet layers by using a high energy heat source to melt or fuse powders. The processes are driven by data taken directly from computer aided designs (CAD) which are then sliced into individual layers. Fine metal powders are deposited on top of a build platform and the energy beam is used to melt the shape of the desired component, the process then proceeds with a new layer of powder which is subsequently melted, such that the component is built up in a layer by layer fashion.
