Evolution of Metallic Additive Manufacturing (AM) – Part 4
Foil Based Processes in AM
Like wire-based Additive Manufacturing, foil-based AM applications are mostly in highly specialized areas such as the joining of multi-materials in a structure. There is also the potential for this process to expand into the manufacture of large products with certain symmetries. A key advantage of foil-based AM is that a whole variety of material feedstocks are already commercially available as produced by traditional manufacturing process like rolling, extrusion, strip casting, etc
Current Processes for
Metallic Additive Manufacturing
Shown in the figure below is one example of foil-based AM, namely ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing, in which a sonotrode is energized to bond multiple layers of materials.
The primary advantage of this technique is that dissimilar materials can be used to provide specific structural properties where needed. Thus, for example a brittle metallic layer, which has high stiffness and strength, can be combined with ductile metal to provide overall performance.
Another application of foil-based AM is the use of adhesive bonding to join the foil layers. Today many composite structures containing both metal, polymer and fibers are made using adhesive bonding. Though they were all analogous to AM where a part is built layer by layer, they are typically classified as composite manufacturing technologies. At Standard Advanced Products and Services we are equipped to produce foils of metallic alloys that are not commercially available in small to medium quantities for initial prototyping or concept studies.
