XXL additive manufacturing makes its appearance at Formnext
IREPA LASER, an industrial R&D company, has acquired a hybrid additive manufacturing solution with 2 robots, combining powder deposition and wire deposition, to move into the production of large parts.
Imagine a 3D-printed mould more than 2 metres high and in diameter, with a total weight of 1 200 kilograms. That is the XXL part that IREPA LASER built in its workshops in Illkirch. A mould designed to produce wine tanks by rotational moulding for the company Wine & Tools, which specialises in innovative winemaking technologies.
An innovative collaboration with its partners VLM Robotics, Siemens and Janus Engineering, which was showcased at Formnext, the must-attend 3D printing event, in Frankfurt in November 2021.
For 3 years, IREPA LASER has set itself the goal of “ developing a hybrid laser DED process suited to the manufacture of large parts and perfecting it on a highly innovative machine in order to use it to meet identified industrial needs at affordable cost ”, explains Jean-Paul Gaufillet, its President.
To achieve this, IREPA LASER selected the multi-robot machine solution offered by VLM Robotics. It comprises 17 axes driven by a numerical control developed by Siemens.
This hybrid machine also incorporates end effectors for the CLAD®-pw (powder and wire) laser additive manufacturing process developed by IREPA LASER. A cutting-edge process that enables bespoke manufacturing and delivers significant savings in terms of production lead times and material yield.
Thanks to this mould, Wine & Tools will create around ten tanks with a customised design, so that it can then offer wineries the chance to design their own tank collections. A collective achievement that opens up new prospects in the XXL metal parts market for the agri-food industry.
>> Meet our partners – VLM ROBOTICS / WINE & TOOLS
Philippe Verlet, CEO at VLM ROBOTICS, and Frédéric Planchon, General Manager at WINE & TOOLS, look back on this ambitious project, which put additive manufacturing to the XXL test.
