How 5AXISMAKER Is Pioneering the Future of Desktop Manufacturing
Our 5AXISMAKER offers the only affordable, desktop machine with both milling and 3D printing, in 5 axes.
But what if a user could employ both milling and 3D printing – on the same object?
That “hybrid manufacturing” is currently possible in very expensive, very large and very complicated setups that require years to learn. But it’s now becoming possible on our desktop machine with exciting new software that we’ve developed, called 5XCAM.
As Easy as 3D Printing
Although it’s still in the development phase, this new software will make hybrid printing affordable and relatively easy to do -- for the first time.
Hybrid manufacturing offers the efficiency of 3D printing, where material is carefully deposited according to a planned shape. By contrast, milling – where a block of material is cut down to the desired shape – wastes as much as 95% of the material.
But milling has a key advantage: accuracy. When you carve an object via milling, you can get very close to the desired model.
Hybrid provides the best of both technologies: efficiency and accuracy.
Many of the current hybrid manufacturing projects are for the aerospace industry, employing large industrial machines that require software licenses starting at about $10,000 per year, and that take years of training.
Our new software is the only one that makes hybrid as easy as 3D printing. The resulting products are very strong, and created through highly efficient and highly accurate processes.
A Hybrid Manufacturing Use Case
A study we are doing now for (former Daimler AG) Mercedes-Benz Group AG with Professor Charlie C.L. Wang at the University of Manchester – using our 5XCAM software – shows the potential.
The auto maker approached us because they had a very specific brief for an aerodynamics form-finding exercise: “not just print it and finish it with milling but continuously being able [to] add/remove material on the same component again and again until an optimal shape is achieved.”
The modifications Mercedes-Benz wanted to try out were small changes on the surface area on the component, the housing for a side mirror. In other words, the auto maker wanted to be able to tweak every millimeter of the surface, a flexibility in shaping that went far beyond creating a few whole-object options.
To accomplish this aim, the task was to create a model of the mirror housing, and then add or subtract several added layers – 4mm, 5mm, and possibly other depths -- as they figured out which final shape for the mirror housing was best for their needs. See images below
This is a great use case for hybrid manufacturing. But there are two ways you can go about it, using our machine and 5XCAM software.
Our Ultimate Goal
One way is to begin by 3D printing the basic object, such as the mirror shell, and then follow by milling it down and/or printing more layers.
This route is most suitable for self-supporting structures, where our 5-axis non-planar printing with our new 5XCAM software weaves structural elements into the object to make it stronger. A self-supporting object can then be more reliably re-used as the key feature in a project, with additional milling or printing conducted as needed.
The other way is most appropriate for non-self-supporting objects, where the first step is to mill the supporting substrate. The next step in this path would then be to 3D print the basic object on the substrate, after which milling or printing can proceed as needed.
We utilized both paths for the Mercedes-Benz study, and found hybrid manufacturing to be a game changer. Having a seamless transition between milling and printing in one workflow makes it much easier to fabricate any kind of object or variations, and it dramatically reduces the possibility of errors.
Both of these paths represent a universe of new possibilities for the affordable production of custom objects. With an expansion of composite materials beyond the current plastic or plastic with short carbon fibers, 5-axis hybrid manufacturing can truly create our ultimate goal: a factory on a desktop.