ECO-Hybrid

Hybrid man­u­fac­tur­ing technologies

In the hybrid man­u­fac­tur­ing of ther­mo­plas­tics, the ECO-Hybrid com­bines fused gran­u­lar fab­ri­ca­tion (FGF)-based extru­sion with machining.

This plant, which has been devel­oped in coop­er­a­tion with the com­pa­ny Weber Addi­tive, is based on the direct extru­sion of a plas­tic gran­u­late. The con­tin­u­ous addi­tive print­ing process per­mits the pro­duc­tion of large-vol­ume and extreme­ly resilient com­po­nents. After or dur­ing print­ing, 5‑axis machin­ing takes place to opti­mise accu­ra­cies and sur­faces. This makes the sys­tem an ide­al choice for the pro­duc­tion of rough-shaped com­po­nents for use as quick pro­to­types or for the final pro­duc­tion of small and large series.

Dr. Kawal­la-Nam: „This trend-set­ting hybrid tech­nol­o­gy ren­ders process­es much more effi­cient. The goal must be to pro­duce large quan­ti­ties in a short time at com­pet­i­tive costs.“.

In addi­tion to small 3D com­po­nents, the ECO-Hybrid main­ly per­mits the fast pro­duc­tion of large-vol­ume com­po­nents, such as façade ele­ments, form­work for the con­struc­tion indus­try or casting/pressing moulds in mould-mak­ing indus­tries. CNC machin­ing per­fects their func­tion­al­i­ty in terms of desired accu­ra­cies and high-qual­i­ty sur­face finishes.