ZEISS and EOS, a supplier of manufacturing solutions via industrial 3D printing technology, have declared their intent to jointly integrate and market the ZEISS AM in-process monitoring. The solution will be used for in-situ surveillance of the powder bed for industrial 3D printing with metals.
ZEISS is a technology enterprise operating in the fields of optics and optoelectronics. The company works in four segments: Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology, Industrial Quality & Research, Medical Technology and Consumer Markets. ZEISS develops, produces and distributes solutions for industrial metrology and quality assurance, microscopy solutions for the life sciences and materials research, and medical technology solutions for diagnostics and treatment in ophthalmology and microsurgery.
EOS is a technology supplier in the field of industrial 3D printing of metals and polymers. Formed in 1989, its product portfolio features systems, materials, and process parameters.
“We are confident that ZEISS can contribute with this product to help further industrialize additive manufacturing and that with EOS we found a strong partner for a successful market entry”, said Heiko Degen, Business Development Manager Additive Manufacturing Process & Control at ZEISS.
A uniformly distributed powder bed is essential for a stable and reliable AM-Process. To detect grooves and elevations in the powder bed with a “high degree of certainty”, the patented technology of ZEISS captures height information of the powder bed and is used as the core of the product. The goal is to analyze the acquired 3D information by a trained neural network. As a result, customers receive automatically marked and classified irregularities in the powder bed.
The cooperation aims at integrating the ZEISS AM in-process monitoring into the DMLS® systems of EOS to give customers the possibility to have the powder bed supervised to assess its quality during the printing process as well as afterwards and to intervene manually or automatically according to predefined rules.
“The automated analysis of the powder bed quality and quick reaction to identify defects opens the immense potential for cost savings. We are, therefore, developing an interface for our EOS M 290 that enables the communication of a ZEISS solution on our 3D printing system. As an example, information from the ZEISS product can be used to correct detected powder bed defects by triggering a second recoat step”, added Dominik Hawelka, Product Line Manager at EOS.
You can find more information about the collaboration between ZEISS and EOS on the companies’ respective websites.
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