Comparison of turning blades produced by a conventional- and additive manufacturing method

Abstract: Additive manufacturing has developed radical through the years. Sandvik has invested in the area by building a center specific for additive manufacturing. Due to problems with the material- and product properties and high production costs no products have been used with additive manufacturing method. These aspects have improved over the years and therefore the master thesis was made with an objective: to compare two different produced blades with focus on the aspects of material- and product properties and production costs. One of the blades was produced through additive manufacturing (AM) and the other blade was produced in today’s production at Sandvik Coromant in Gimo. If the blade can be produced through AM there is a possibility to lower the production costs and improve the degree of design freedom. The material that will be used is SS2230 (50CrV4) which are used in conventionally produced blades and 1.2709 which are used in AM produced blades.   The investigation consisted of five different tests (flow rate, pressure force, vibration, fatigue and keyhole wear) and a study on production aspects with focus on value stream mapping, investments and production costs. The main objective in the result was to compare each test between the two different produced blades, not to investigate the optimal value. Therefore, was the test designed to have continuity with as small deviation as possible between the tests. This resulted in choosing values which were not optimal for the blades but focused on continuity and deviation.   The coolant channels flow rate improved with 35% on the AM produced blades but pressure force, fatigue and keyhole wear resistance did not deviate much from conventionally produced blades. Fatigue tests were made twice with two different inserts because the result from the first test differentiated too much from the expected results on both blades. Production costs will be higher with AM but on a long-term may an investment improve the degree of design freedom on a product and a possibility to produce towards costumer (just in time). This will need an expensive investment with a bigger perspective on the timeframe. The value of the product may increase but the production costs will increase too.