After considering a slate of leading-edge innovations in additive manufacturing from top global users and system suppliers, the jury for the inaugural International Additive Manufacturing Award (IAMA) has selected Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies Ltd., of the United Kingdom and Plano, Texas, as its winning submission. The award was presented on March 6, 2015, during a reception at The MFG (Manufacturing for Growth) Meeting in Orlando, Fla.
Hybrid Manufacturing’s submission is a hybrid kit innovation that can be integrated into any CNC machine to allow for metal deposition (via laser cladding), finishing and inspection of parts on a single machine. The hybrid methodology integrates directed energy deposition into multiaxis CNC machine, using a tool changer to change between processes.
“Hybrid technology is exciting because it offers a new way to adopt additive manufacturing – as an upgrade to a CNC machine tool. Adding tool-changeable deposition heads to an existing CNC machine enables 3D printing of metal, without the need to buy a separate machine,” said Dr Jason Jones, Co-Founder and CEO of Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies. “This significantly reduces costs and provides an intuitive adoption path for CNC operators. The combination of additive with machining offers new capabilities, including in-process finishing, that cannot be delivered by either technology independently.”
“As a team, we are very excited to win the inaugural IAMA,” Jones said. “We are grateful for the exposure it brings to hybrid processing generally, and specifically to the seven years of foundational innovations that we have led in this area. We express our thanks to all those who contributed to the award.”
Dr Jones will have the pleasure to make a presentation at the Additive Manufacturing European Conference to be held Tuesday 6 October 2015 during EMO Milano 2015. EMO is the undisputed leading exhibition of the machine tool sector. It is a true point of reference in promoting the contact between the demand and the offer of manufacturing systems, irrespective of sector trends
The IAMA is the result of a partnership between AMT-The Association for Manufacturing Technology and VDW-Verein Deutscher Werkzeugmaschinenfabriken (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association). AMT and VDW, with media support from Gardner Business Media and VDI Nachrichten and sponsored by the European Machine Tool Association CECIMO, first announced the annual IAMA at IMTS-The International Manufacturing Technology Show 2014 in Chicago, Il.
