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Technical Papers
Installation of the nozzle at BIRLA COPPER
The mission: Informing and inspiring colleagues
A further task of the project team is to communicate the know-how, and the potential and bene ts of AM within the group. Sarah Hor- nickel: “We organize design workshop, also for external companies, are in direct contact with the design departments and do not miss out on any opportunity to share information about Additive Manufacturing with our colleagues so that they can see the great potential it provides. Only colleagues who are convinced about Additive Manufacturing will make consistent use of the advantages of AM in their daily work. We have tried out new forms of spreading the word: We organize informa- tion rounds with our colleagues and have set up information booths at the canteens at the SMS group locations in Germany. Our booth was a great success, with large groups of people stopping by to get rst-hand information about this fascinating new technology.” Nina Uppenkamp adds: “It is important to demonstrate – both within and outside the company – that SMS group generates added value for its customers by making active use of this future-oriented technology. This is why we work closely and as a trusted partner with our design departments and with our customers. The plant operators are very interested in additively manufactured components and the potential they provide to optimize their production processes.
Less weight, higher speed and integrated functions
The project team has already implemented a great number of innova- tive solutions, which impressively demonstrate what advantages Addi- tive Manufacturing processes provide. Their most important bene ts include: signi cant weight reduction of dynamically actuated com- ponents, functional features are directly manufactured into the part during the 3D printing process, improvement of energy ef ciency as a result of optimized ow patterns and minimized weight, dramatically shortened delivery periods and the possibility to produce virtually any- where in the world.
Nina Uppenkamp describes a project which has bene ted from the full range of advantages provided by Additive Manufacturing: “In a copper wire rod mill, annular gap nozzles are used for wire cooling and water
removal. The conventional compo- nent consisted of several parts and the air gap adjustment required the use of a shim. Setting up and properly adjusting the component involved a great effort by our cus- tomer. Our task was twofold: First, the component design was to be simpli ed and, second, the adjust- ment was to be accomplishable without the aid of a shim. We pro- duced a nozzle by AM which requires only 35 millimeters of installation space – versus the previous 65 mil- limeters, weighs only 0.85 instead of 2.5 kilograms and is of mono-
Individual nozzles
ITAtube Journal No3/October 2019
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