Frost & Sullivan, Santa Clara, Calif., announces that Norsk Titanium, Norway, has won the 2017 Europe Technology Innovation Award for its novel Rapid Plasma Deposition additive manufacturing technology. RPD enables applications in numerous industries for the production of complex and high-strength products with high material property requirements. Norsk is a qualified aerospace supplier of structural titanium 3-D manufactured parts.
"Conventional manufacturing techniques result in output with reduced tool life, increased material spring back, and large amounts of metal scrap,” says Ranjana Lakshmi, Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “A technology that could improve the existing situation is welcome and would make a great mark in the industry.”
The RPD additive manufacturing technology can fabricate titanium alloy structural components with high material and metallurgical integrity. In addition, this technology has the following advantages:
- It has very high deposition rates
- It reduces the use of titanium by 40% to 80%, significantly reducing scrap rate and overall cost
- It can print both small-scale and large-scale components
The Norsk Merke-IV RPD machine, aided by tight process control, rapidly and precisely builds up near-net-shape parts by depositing layers of molten titanium. Due to the improvement in near-net-shape, minimal machining is required. Each machine is estimated to have an annual fabricating capacity of more than 20 metric tons.
The modular manufacturing capability can be integrated into any production line for manufacturing titanium alloy parts. The flexibility offered by RPD allows for lean manufacturing infrastructure and overall efficiency improvements.
The titanium alloy manufacturing market increasingly requires manufacturing technologies with the ability to manufacture complex designs at fast speeds and with short lead times to reduce cost, and with overall improved environmental footprint, all while maintaining the mechanical properties of the alloy. Norsk's RPD additive manufacturing technique meets these needs and offers advantages over conventional and additive manufacturing competitors. For these reasons, Norsk has earned Frost & Sullivan's 2017 Europe Technology Innovation Award.
