DEEP Manufacturing has unveiled the HexBot, a Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) system that’s aiming to ‘push the boundaries’ of metallic half manufacturing for the vitality, offshore, and maritime sectors.
The Bristol, UK-based firm says the WAAM system options six robotic arms which might function independently to construct metallic components as much as 3.2 meters in top and three metres diameter, or as much as 6.2 metres with the total the total six-arm configuration.
CEO Peter Richards mentioned in a press launch: “HexBot pushes the boundaries of what is doable in extremely large-scale additive manufacturing, providing pace, scale, and customisation on a stage by no means achieved earlier than.
“It is a uniquely succesful system backed by our world-class technical experience – one which’s not solely delivering on DEEP’s imaginative and prescient but in addition contributing to the development of producing as a complete.”
DEEP Manufacturing is a division of DEEP, an organization creating next-generation underwater stress vessels for subsea human habitats. The corporate says it initially invested in WAAM to help its inside manufacturing wants, recognising its potential for advanced large-scale structural components for offshore wind platforms, subsea vitality infrastructure, and shipbuilding purposes. Its UK Superior Manufacturing Centre is now thought to comprise one of many greatest concentrations of WAAM methods on this planet. Whereas the division solely formally launched in January, it has since expanded its WAAM providing to exterior purchasers throughout offshore, maritime, vitality, and aviation sectors, and it’s also in discussions with UK and US-based companions concerning Joint Trade Initiatives (JIPs) to speed up WAAM adoption and the creation of business requirements. DEEP Manufacturing has already secured DNV approval in precept (AiP) for its use of WAAM within the manufacturing of metal for stress vessels for human occupancy.
Richards continued: “It’s a difficult and unsure time for a lot of industries, however advances in expertise – significantly additive manufacturing, and extra particularly WAAM – have the potential to empower corporations not simply to outlive, however to thrive in tough situations.”
