Combustible Dust Hazards
We put you on the path to greater safety with advice on hazards posed by combustible dusts and powders, the best lines of defense, test selection and more.
Materials quality and the reliability of the components are essential requirements for the industrial use of 3D printing. This includes knowledge on the integrity, materials properties and the composition of the material used in the printed parts.
In Additive Manufacturing or 3D printing components are produced in a printing like process layer by layer. A printed geometry close to the final shape of the component is pursued cutting down further processing stages. The manufacturing process gives great freedom to design and engineering allowing complex geometries and advanced materials used in a non-traditional way providing exceptional features.
Today Additive Manufacturing is an established production technology in many fields known for special characteristics and extreme reliability in difficult conditions such as aerospace & aviation, medical and automotive. As the technology gains ground Additive Manufacturing is also entering the traditional industrial manufacturing and workshops.
Whatever the industry or application it is vital to secure that the parts you produce and the processes you use are safe and meet their requirements.
In many cases the AM parts need to comply with the same requirements as the components produced with conventional technologies. It is also of significant importance to have the information on the reproducibility of your equipment, processes and materials studied while you are developing and certifying your products and processes. Regarding safe operation, handling and logistics there are special regulations for powders, raw materials, waste & waste disposal which need to be considered.
An accredited and experienced operator such as DEKRA can provide you with impartial and accurate testing and expertise you can trust on any stage of your activities.
Due to our wide variety of services and industries served, DEKRA is the global partner for the Additive Manufacturing industry and safe 3D printing.
Projects and experience of DEKRA in additive manufacturing
We have cooperated as a development partner for a major operator in AM to solve complex issues related to challenges in determining materials properties. With our experience in testing and modern testing technology we were able to build rapidly new expertise, procedures and data regarding determination of elastic modulus used in the design of medical components to support our customer. This helped our customer to solve a critical manufacturing challenge with more confidence to the test results.
At times 3D printed parts and prototypes can be hard to handle in conventional materials testing equipment. Together with a customer we tailored a test set up to verify mechanical strength on prototypes of AM printed lattice structures. Here the specific challenge was that the prototypes were already printed in advance without special considerations to testing. It is important to involve an experienced laboratory early on in the project while planning the test schemes. DEKRA is capable to support you in choosing the right test methods according to your requirements to save time and money.
We tuned our production processes for specific tensile tests according to needs of an AM customer to fit volumes of several thousands of test samples annually. Furthermore, we accommodated the testing parallel to our standard testing routines and equipment to offer a solution with competitive price and high efficiency. The process was built to cover from logistics to data transfer to allow lean operation as an external laboratory handling the testing routines of an AM production unit of the customer.
With a test chamber for VOC emission testings together with migration and sensoric testings for food contact requirements, we evaluated the suitability of specific materials to be used for consumer goods in specific markets.
