New additive printers boost NCAME capabilities
Published: Jul 1, 2020 12:00 PM
By Jeremy Henderson
It's been only three years since Auburn University, through a public-private partnership with NASA, established the National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME) inside the recently renovated Gavin Research Laboratory. Yet, due to rapidly growing collaborative interest from additive manufacturing (AM) industry leaders, it's already getting cramped inside the center's state-of-the-art facilities.
"But that's a good problem to have," said NCAME director Nima Shamsaei, Philpott-WestPoint Stevens Distinguished Associate Professor of mechanical engineering. "We're obviously pleased that leading companies appreciate our vision and expertise."
One of the center's newest machines is the TruPrint 3000, a new universal medium-format machine produced by leading German industrial machine manufacturer TRUMPF, that allows a large build volume ideal for general industry applications.
"There are many reasons why we partnered with Auburn," said Franziska Maschowski, who heads AM sales for TRUMPF. "Auburn has a huge influence in the additive community thanks to their cutting-edge research, but also thanks to the objectives of that research."
Maschowski said Auburn's drive to become an international leader in innovative additive manufacturing research and development was evident early on.
"There is a great young team at NCAME," she said, "and the facilities are extremely impressive."
Evan Raba, who handles laser sales for Coherent Scientific, agrees.
Coherent Scientific recently gifted NCAME with the Coherent CREATOR, a top-line 3D-metal printer for fabricating prototype and short production run components.
"We see NCAME as a great partner and conduit into smaller universities, community colleges, and even high schools trying to dabble in metal 3D printing," Raba said. "NCAME is even further in establishing this network of users than we are."
Shamsaei said that NCAME, as a founding partner of the ASTM Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence, will also use the new machines to conduct R&D in support of standardization.
Media Contact: , jdh0123@auburn.edu, 334-844-3591
The Coherent CREATOR (left) and TRUMPF's TruPrint 3000 are the latest state-of-the-art additions to NCAME's facilities.
