Rapid Production of Custom End Effectors Using Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing

The focus of this talk will be utilization of cold sprays rapid additive manufacturing capabilities. Leveraging the capabilities in house to aid EWI’s automation program CSAM has garnered attention for its high deposition rate and ease of use. Using the production of custom Al 6061 end effectors as the case study, we will explore the cold spray additive process including planning, manufacturing, and finishing stages. Currently the amount of time that it takes for these parts to print is incredibly fast, however that time savings can be squandered in post processing so how do we design parts to avoid that time sink? This case study will evaluate several metrics across a variety of additive manufacturing technologies EWI owns to compare the technology to other like AM tech evaluating strengths and weaknesses.