Cost-Oriented Planning Of Equipment For Selective Laser Melting (Slm) In Production Lines

Equipment for selective laser melting (SLM) has mainly been developed for applications in rapid prototyping. This paper provides a methodology for a cost-oriented optimisation and planning of SLM equipment for series production lines. The approach thus supports the transition to more productive and cost-efficient equipment. The paper presents a two-step methodology: at first, setup time is reduced using heuristic rules based on the activity node network plan. Afterwards, the build-up time is optimised by cost and performance parameters like laser power and build chamber size. Using the presented methodology rules for a cost-oriented SLM-equipment can be derived. (C) 2018 CIRP. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.