Episode 8: Additive Manufacturing: From Powder to Part

Technology Today

Southwest Research Institute

Technology

4.8 • 19 Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2019

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For thousands of years, people have made things the same way, carving out a tool or a part from a bigger chunk of material. While humankind has had great achievements through conventional manufacturing, there’s a new manufacturing method emerging. Additive manufacturing is 3D printing of metal parts. Instead of starting with a block of material and molding it to create a part, the builder starts with a powder and lasers. The part is formed layer by layer from the bottom up to exact specifications. Our guest today explains why this is an exciting time in manufacturing and how this method is opening up new possibilities in making parts. Listen now as we explore additive manufacturing, a new way to build.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Building parts from a powder. It's a method called additive manufacturing. Think of it as 3D printing using metal powders as the ink. Our guest today explains why this is the future of manufacturing in a range of industries. So how does this cutting edge technique create critical parts for aircraft and other machinery.
0:23.4	That's next on this episode of Technology Today.
0:33.4	We live with technology, science, engineering, and the results of innovative research every day.
0:35.2	Now, let's understand it better. You're listening to the Technology Today podcast presented by Southwest Research Institute.
0:41.7	Hello and welcome to technology today. I'm your host, Lisa Benia. Additive manufacturing is an up-and-coming
0:48.2	method of building complex parts for big machinery. We're talking aerospace and automotive to biomedical and energy applications.
0:57.5	It is a process still under development, but brimming with possibility. Parts manufactured this way
1:03.7	are already in use on airliners. Our guest today is Southwest Research Institute engineer Grant Musgrove.
1:10.2	He's on the front lines of taking additive manufacturing to the next level and overcoming the challenges of this fairly new technology. Thanks for joining us, Grant.
1:19.2	Yeah, thank you for having me.
1:20.7	So, Grant, let's start with the basic definition of additive manufacturing. Explain this term for listeners hearing it for the very first time. Well, I guess if we break it down additive manufacturing. Explain this term for listeners hearing it for the very first time.
1:29.3	Well, I guess if we break it down additive manufacturing, we are making something. We're
1:33.4	manufacturing something. Most people know what that is. And additive, a great way to explain that,
1:38.7	I think, is to look at the complete opposite of that, which would be subtractive. And that's what
1:42.2	we usually use to make things. It's
1:44.3	called conventional manufacturing, which is basically taking a big hunk of material and removing it
1:51.3	until you get the part that you want. So additive would be starting with some kind of base material
1:59.1	and then building it layer by layer until you get the part that you want.
2:03.4	So in some cases it's a powder you start with and then that forms into a part, whereas in
2:09.7	subtractive manufacturing, as you said, you start with this chunk of metal and it whittles it down
2:15.1	or carves it down into your desired part.
2:17.7	Exactly.
	...

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