The “printed” Plain Bearing

With an inner diameter of 400 mm and a finished weight of approx. 85 kg, ADMOS presents the first 3D-printed composite slide bearing at the Hannover Messe 2017. The special feature of the 100 % generatively manufactured part is the fact that, in addition to the actual production,  two different additive manufacturing technologies are used simultaneously. The steel body was welded using an electric arc-based metal printing process. After machining, the part was coated with a bearing metal by laser cladding. The created additive hybrid represents an intelligent combination of two additive production technologies and enables the well-directed exploitation of the respective process advantages.

3D-Metal Printing

The shaping built-up of the steel base body was carried out using an electric arc-based metal printing process. In addition to a high build-up rate, it ensures a rapid availability of a large number of standardized welding materials. Based on the 3D-CAD data, a wire-shaped additional material is melted layerwise and the three-dimensional structure of the part is generated generatively.
printed weight:90 kg
build-up rate:400 cm³/h
print time:30 h

Laser Cladding (LAS)

After the mechanical processing, the base body of steel was coated by a laser cladding process. The powdered bearing metal is feeded to the component surface via a nozzle and it is melted completely by the energy of the laser beam. The sliding surface is applied layerwise and has a firmly bonding connection with the base material. The advantage of this powder-based process is the possibility to process a wide range of materials, such as the classic tin-based and copper-based bearing metals.

cladded weight:7 kg
layer thickness:4 mm
print time:2 h

The Advantages

Particularly with regard to the fast availability of components, there is a number of possibilities compared to the conventional production process:

  • faster availability by decoupling of delivery times
  • simplification of the coating process
  • higher flexibility of the manufacturing process

In addition, the reduction of the used materials in the production process can save considerable amounts of raw materials.

  • near-net-shape production
  • reduced “metal removal rate” at complex parts
  • reduced consumption of bearing metal due to minimal oversizes

 

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Contact

Do you need further information?

+49 30 53009 – 131 (Mr. Weise)
+49 30 53009 – 160 (Mr. Schulz)
info@admos-gleitlager.de