Implement Lightweight Construction Using Bionics And Additive Manufacturing

2023 Author: Hannah Pearcy | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 11:39

Today, additive manufacturing processes are being used more and more, even in the most demanding areas of application. This not only makes manufacturing more flexible. There is also extensive potential for use in the areas of functional integration, sustainability and lightweight construction. Additive Manufacturing (AM) enables tool-free production in which the products can be created, for example, directly from 3D CAD files by applying material in layers. It is useful for effective lightweight construction that high-quality materials such as aluminum, titanium or magnesium can now also be used. The high degree of design freedom is also particularly important, since the construction at AM is hardly limited by the manufacturing process. This allows very unusual creative implementations,that are difficult or impossible to produce conventionally, for example complex bionic structures or honeycomb-like filling structures.

User meeting lightweight construction

We show the most important strategies of lightweight construction

Guideline provides assistance for the application of additive manufacturing

All manufacturing processes have specific strengths and weaknesses. At AM, designers and developers still largely lack this wealth of experience. The VDI 3405 guideline should now provide orientation and support the process of designing AM components. It describes the peculiarities of additive manufacturing processes and gives detailed and specific design recommendations for laser sintering of plastic components and beam melting of metals. Taking into account the respective process-specific features, it also applies to the other additive manufacturing processes listed in VDI 3405. The guideline was created after several years of preparation and through the cooperation of a large number of partners from industry and research. VDI 3405 is the first guidelinewhich unifies language usage for this area.

Picture gallery

Picture gallery with 5 pictures

What the designers do on the one hand of the process, the bionics on the other hand increasingly provide as a design idea. Role models from nature are being used more and more frequently to achieve an optimized and efficient design - in all areas, from automobile construction to medical technology and mechanical engineering to the consumer goods sector. The Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, for example, has specialized in implementing bionic design approaches with a focus on lightweight construction.

Content of the article:

• Page 1: Implementing lightweight construction using bionics and additive manufacturing
• Page 2: Structure database of plankton organisms provides bionic models

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Article files and article links

Link: Lightweight design through the use of bionics is also part of the Lightweight Design User Meeting 2017

Link: Link to the registration for the user meeting lightweight construction 2017