Powder Bed Metal Additive Manufacturing System

Tender description

The University of Manchester will be home to a new national research and innovation centre in advanced materials, the Sir Henry Royce Institute (SHRI). The University wishes to appoint a Contractor or Contractors to supply a Powder Bed Metal Additive Manufacturing System. A 3D additive manufacturing system, equipped with high power dual lasers for melting and processing materials in-situ. This should include a primary, up to 700 W laser, with a standard spot size of below 80 m and ability to defocus or increase the spot size by at least 40%. The second laser should have a power up to 1000 W and also be capable of defocusing to a larger spot size of 600 µm for the purpose of rapidly melting larger areas, melting multiple layers of powder at a time, pre-heating, or heat-treating individual layers. The system must be able to process a wide range of reactive (e.g. titanium) and non-reactive metallic powder materials. The system will comprise lasers and optical bench, a process chamber, powder supply and recoater system, a precision layer height control system, precision platform height control mechanism, with an integrated heating element able to heat the substrate to a desirable temperature up to 200ºC, process gas filtration including flow sensor, oxygen sensors (ppm sensitivity), with controlled gas circulation to remove process fume, temperature sensors and dew point sensors.