Siemens and Toolcraft use 3D printing for industrial porous structures

Additive manufacturing has been experiencing steady growth for years, and companies such as Toolcraft are making a significant contribution to its further development. In close collaboration with Siemens, Toolcraft is now focussing on the industrial application of porous metallic structures, which are becoming increasingly important in the process industry and other high-tech sectors in particular.

Siemens has been researching the optimisation of such porous structures using additive manufacturing technologies for some time. These structures, which can transport liquids and gases by capillary forces, open up new possibilities in cooling technology and heat transport. Demonstrators for chemical reaction technologies have already been successfully developed in a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, 3D-PROCESS.

“We see potential applications in the process industry, energy process engineering and aerospace in particular. However, applications in mechanical engineering and medical technology are also possible,” explains Dr Karsten Heuser, Vice President Additive Manufacturing at Siemens Digital Industries, and continues: “With Toolcraft, we have a long-standing partner at our side to build the strategic bridge to the industrial production of these sophisticated material structures. We are delighted that Toolcraft can take on this role.”

The partnership with Toolcraft, an expert in additive manufacturing, is intended to facilitate the technological transition from research to industrial production. Toolcraft is working to standardise the production of such structures for all relevant plant systems in the process industry and to further develop the technology. The medium-sized company has been certified in accordance with the European Pressure Equipment Directive 2014/68/EU for over a year and has extensive expertise in the field of additive manufacturing with highly specialised materials such as Hastelloy C22.

“We see enormous potential for the industry in the production of porous structures,” says Christoph Hauck, Chief Technology and Sales Officer at toolcraft AG. “In the future, we can not only imagine additively manufactured components with this technology. With AMbitious, we plan to offer training courses on the topic in order to pass on our expertise,” he adds.

Porous structures offer many advantages, including the precise control of pore sizes and distribution, which make it possible to produce components with unique functional properties. They can compensate for temperature and pressure fluctuations, transport fluids and even create low-friction sliding surfaces. These properties make them attractive for numerous applications in industry, including medical technology and mechanical engineering. Toolcraft plans to offer training courses with the ‘AMbitious’ project in order to pass on this advanced technology.