Photonic process chains - the dawning of a new age in production

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BMBF State Secretary Georg Schütte thanks Martha Cohen for her performance of "A Little Future Music of Photonics" on a violin made with a 3D laser printer. Source: VDI Technologiezentrum GmbH, Photo: P. LoskeThe sounds of Vivaldi coming from a printed violin - it was the sound of future music in the truest sense which violinist Martha Cohen played at the presentation of the new BMBF programme "Photonics Research Germany" during the Munich LASER WORLD OF PHOTONICS 2011 fair. Cohen played on a violin that was manufactured by the Munich-based firm EOS with a 3D laser printer.
Printed bicycles, game playing pieces or bioimplants such as cartilage - nothing seems out of reach any more thanks to new additive manufacturing processes where the object is built layer by layer. Custom-made products such as dentures or hearing aid parts are now routinely and regularly being made with these processes. It is the dawning of a new age in industrial production technology. All around the world there is already talk of an industrial revolution - and photonics is one of its driving forces.

Complex turbine components can be produced in a single process with a 3D printer.©Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, Aachen / Volker Lannert

Removing the component from the powder at the end of the process ©Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, Aachen / Volker Lannert

There are two trends emerging with regard to the future demands of the market on manufacturing companies. Firstly, consumers want ever more complex products at the lowest possible prices. Short product cycles and wide variety of products require a highly flexible production system. Secondly, there is the increasing involvement of the end user in the development of individual components which are produced at the touch of a button. In an ideal scenario the end user uses appropriate software to create his or her own product design, which is then promptly transmitted electronically anywhere in the world to a service provider who will manufacture the product.

Both trends require closely linking the entire product emergence process - from design and selection of material to intelligent and flexible production processes - to be energy-efficient and, in the best case, economically viable regardless of degree of complexity or batch size.  At the same time the cycle of digital data (sometimes generated by the customer) to finished product must be as short as possible.

Photonic tools: "Complexity for free, Individualization for free"

Model of a V8 engine block (scale of 1:3) produced with the generative laser process on a laser unit of the Concept Laser GmbH. In the future life-size automotive components will be produced with more powerful lasers (> 1 kW) at significantly faster rates. ©Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, Aachen / Volker LannertAdditive manufacturing processes such as the 3D laser printer are an outstanding current example of the new possibilities that the photonics toolbox brings to production.  They act as something of a catalyst for the next generation of production.

The potential of the 3D laser printer will initially be tapped in industrial processes  where it is already making the quick production of 3D prototypes possible. It makes the idea-to-product cycle faster  or enables the production of customized products such as in the aeronautics industry where it is now possible to produce components which are highly complex in structure but much lighter. The 3D laser printer will create new competitive advantages.

The scope of the potential in photonics, however, reaches much further. The contactless, highly flexible and wear-free testing methods and production processes in photonics are the first choice when it comes to meeting the future requirements of production processes. Without requiring a tool change, photonic instruments of various shapes can be used flexibly from one job to the next, thus enabling the mass production of individualized and complex products.

From stand-alone solutions to new photonic process chains

Although the road is still long, the vision of these processes is in clear focus. Using the potential of photonic tools for modern production to its fullest extent requires seeing the manufacture of a product in the entirety of the process chain rather than in individual steps. What this means for photonics is that the next step must lead from stand-alone solutions to complete, novel photonic process chains.

As concerns additive production processes in particular, the customarily limited range of materials must be expanded and then optimized for processes and applications.

Combining different materials into a single hybrid material or modifying a specific material, laser-based bonding processes and structuring techniques enable optimal adaptation of the properties of the components to the requirements of use. Adaptive, self-optimizing manufacturing and systems design which is based on intelligent laser networks and optical sensor and control systems boost the flexibility of production infrastructure, reduce time-to-market, and it holds the potential for zero-defects production.

The linking of individual photonic processes is just as important as their interfaces to other production processes. In future, laser processing machines might even act as so-called social machines and apply their experience to determine the best parameters for the processing of certain materials and share these parameter sets with other machines in the network.

BMBF is providing a sum of 30 million euros for project funding

The global race to develop innovative production processes is on. In his State of the Union address, US President Barack Obama announced that research in the field of 3D printing will be stepped up. China is also engaged in intensive research in the field. News about printing large aircraft parts made of titanium alloys is reason to sit up and take notice.

In Germany, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) had already systematically developed the technological foundations of laser and measurement technology and their applications in a close collaboration between science, industry and policy-makers. Today Germany is a global market leader.

With its recently launched "Photonic Process Chains" funding initiative the BMBF and the manufacturing industry are driving the intelligent linking of photon-based production processes with upstream and downstream production planning processes in order to achieve the flexible production of individualized or complex products. BMBF is providing a sum of 30 million euros to fund the relevant projects.

In addition, the BMBF funding programme "Photonics Research Germany" is providing support to the industry, thereby establishing favourable conditions at the very start. In November 2011 the Ministry launched a two-day symposium at the EuroMold fair in Frankfurt for the target groups of these tools: tool manufacturers and mould makers, automotive parts suppliers and producers, medical technology companies, the turbomachinery and aerospace industries, laser system manufacturers, software developers and Rapid Manufacturing for everyone.

A project under the "Make L!ght Initiative" of the BMBF: Small groups of vocational school students from Oldenburg assembling 3D laser scanners. The final test run goes smoothly: The 3D laser scanner transmits its data to a computer programme by USB. © VDI Technologiezentrum GmbHThe BMBF is also addressing the open innovation potential of these new technologies with the new "Make Light" initiative which is aimed at attracting young people to the field. Vocational school students today can already build their own 3D scanners, operate laser cutters and learn how to work with simple 3D printers.