Materials Processing

EOS270 Selective Laser Melting (SLM) 3D printer


3D printing is a key technology in the future of manufacturing.  TiDA has expertise in SLM – being one of only 2 processes commercially available in NZ to direct print 3D metal components.

EOS 270 Selective Laser Melting (SLM) system

Titanium, stainless steel and other materials

Powder bed/surface-melt system

Build Volume 250x250x215mm

2 to 20 mm3/s build rate – material dependant

Direct CAD model to part – No tooling needed

Process and materials – R&D focus – if you are simply looking for 3D printed parts, TiDA’s spin out company – RAM3D provide parts and prototype manufacturing services.

200 Tonne Press

This 200 Tonne press has many uses, but is used primarily in order to conduct press consolidation on various powder metallurgy materials.

Furnace

The sintering furnace was installed at TiDA in mid 2012. The working volume of the furnace is 1000 x 500 x 450mm (L x W x H).

Thermal treatments are critical steps in many powder metallurgy processes.   Typical uses:

Sintering (heating metal or ceramic  powders to form a solid body)

Titanium Nitriding (increasing surface hardnace through reacting titanium with nitrogen at high temperature)

 Stress relieving – a critical step for titanium produced by SLM 3D printing, and many other materiaals.

 The furnace is also used for heat treatment where controlled environments are required up to 1350Deg C,  In Argon, Nitrogen or down to extreme vacuums as low as  0.001 Pa..

Mechanical Testing Equipment

Buehler Hv  Micro Hardness Tester

This machine tests in Micro Vickers & Knoop converting to Rockwell C and other hardness measuring standards.

Wilson Macro Hardess Tester

This machine is highly accurate producing macro hardness results in both Rockwell B and C.

This machine is on long term loan from South Auckland Forging Ltd.

Tensile/Compressive Tester – Instron 5985

This machine tests tensile, bend, and compression.  It is a modern sytem with full computerised data aquisition and post processing, enabling testing to ASTM standards.

This machine has a certified testing range up to 250kN (25.5 tonne).

It’s one of  the tallest tensile machines of this type  in the country,  Enabling us  to test longer samples,  up to 1m in length.

Fritsch Laser Particle Sizer

This state-of-the-art equipment accurately measures the distribution of particle sizes within powder samples.

The measuring range is from 80nm (.08 microns) to 2mm (2000 microns).

Fatigue Testing Machine

This rotating bend (Wohler) fatigue testing machine provides fatigue test results for small (80mm long x  4 to 6mm diameter) specimens.

The sample is tested in full reverse bend loading at 50 Hz.  A typical 10 million cycle run-out fatigue test can be completed in 55 Hours.  A full Stress/Life (Sn) curve can be be generated in less than a week.

We have experience in fatigue chatacteristics of additively manufactured and conventional metals.

Microscopy Equipment

ZEISS EVO MA25 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)

This microscope features high resolution imaging and fine element analysis via EDS.  It is a facility of great value in many scientific fields.

  • Electron Scanning Microscopy (ESM)
  • Largest specimen capability in NZ – upto  5kg, chamber diameter of 300mm, usefull height 210mm.
  • Stage movement of 130x130x60mm (XYZ)
  • 30kX+:1 practical magnification.
  • Electron backscatter diffraction (EBDS – Nordlys) system for crystallographic analysis of specimens
  • Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS – Oxford instruments) system for elemental analysis.
Buehler Inverted Metallographic Microscope

Complete with image analysis software. Inverted instument views and illuminates  from beneath, making it particularly suitable for irregular shaped metalic specimens.  Images can be output to a computer for better viewing.