Common Issues in Robot-Assisted Additive Manufacturing

🎥 𝗜𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴. 🚀 What you’re seeing isn’t a concept from a futuristic film. It’s a real-world challenge in Directed Energy Deposition (DED). When pushing for high deposition rates in thin-walled structures, buckling becomes a serious issue. And the real problem? It often occurs after the print is finished. Even the smartest process control system can’t prevent what it can’t predict. 💡 The key insight: real-time control isn’t always enough. You need to design for what happens after the process, not just during it. In this study, Procada AB printed a thin-walled demonstrator to compare two strategies for increasing stiffness: 📐 A biaxially corrugated geometry on one side, lightweight and efficient. 🧱 A simple wall thickening on the other, traditional, but heavier. The result revealed more than just mechanical differences. It showed a clear shift in mindset. Build-to-print is not enough in additive manufacturing. What we really need is build-to-spec thinking. Because designs made for sheet metal don’t automatically translate to additive. And in many cases, they shouldn’t. They deserve a redesign that fully leverages what AM can offer. ✈️ If you’re working in aerospace, defense or high-performance engineering, here’s the real question: Are you truly designing for additive manufacturing, or just printing legacy ideas with new tools? #AdditiveManufacturing #DED #DesignForAM #Aerospace #Buckling #StructuralStiffness #BuildToSpec #EngineeringExcellence #AdvancedManufacturing #FutureOfManufacturing

Thermal history matters.   Identifying hotspots and problematic thermal behavior is critical to additive manufacturing in general, and even more so when it is large scale. Uneven heat distribution leads to residual stresses, distortions, and early part failure — especially under fatigue.   At ADAXIS, we're working on integrating fast thermal simulation into AdaOne to help users: detect hotspots and thermal risks, optimize toolpaths for better heat distribution and improve print quality and consistency.   The goal: robust, geometry-compliant parts on the first try, across materials and scales.   In the teaser below we can see a common situation when printing molds and tooling. Internal stiffeners are needed to provide rigidity but built up heat where they connect to the outer geometry can cause problems. #additivemanufacturing #robotics

I was thinking out loud a few days back: “Are we just laser-welding junk together?” Everyone’s hyped about additive manufacturing. Metal powders + lasers = future of everything, right? But I think there’s the truth we don’t talk about enough Most metal 3D printing out there is just glorified porosity printing. Because unless you're actively controlling grain structure, thermal gradients, and melt pool dynamics… You're not building components. You're building defects. Let’s break it down: – Complex scanning strategies → inconsistent fusion boundaries – Lack of process tuning → trapped porosity + microcracks – You’ve got steep thermal gradients → columnar grains – Anisotropy that kills performance under stress/fatigue And yet we keep printing test coupons, doing tensile tests in one direction, and calling it “ready for production.” Want to make AM real? Start treating it like metallurgy, not magic. • Map the melt pool • Understand grain growth vs. cooling rate • Use EBSD and XCT, not just surface inspection • Optimize scan strategies based on phase transformation, not print speed Additive can change the game but only if we stop pretending it's plug-and-play. Otherwise, we’re just laser-welding junk together and hoping it holds. #MaterialsScience #AdditiveManufacturing #DMLS #MetallurgyMatters #PowderMetallurgy