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Aeroswift 3D printer project still ‘a key focus’, assures CSIR

26th June 2020

By: Rebecca Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has confirmed to Engineering News & Mining Weekly that the Aeroswift additive manufacturing project remains “a key focus” for it. Additive manufacturing is popularly known as three-dimensional (3D) printing. It involves building objects up by adding material, instead of by machining material away, as is the case in conventional manufacturing. Complete components can be produced to their exact specifications in one process.

The project was originally established in 2011 in cooperation with the then Aerosud group. The Aeroswift machine, based on the CSIR campus in Pretoria, is a process development platform, and was built from the ground up in South Africa, using a mix of commercial and locally developed components. It can manufacture parts with dimensions of up to 600 mm × 600 mm × 2 000 mm and was funded by the then Department of Science and Technology (now the Department of Science and Innovation).

The form of additive manufacturing used in the Aeroswift machine is called powder-bed fusion-selective laser melting – powder is laid down and then melted by a laser, the part being built up, layer by layer. Aeroswift remains one of the biggest 3D printers in the world. The use of titanium metal powder allows the production of components that are light, strong and have complex shapes. The project and the machine were originally focused on producing high-value, low-volume, complex parts, typically made from titanium, for the aerospace industry.

Engineering News & Mining Weekly had received information, from a source that will remain confidential, that the Aeroswift project was “in tatters” and that it had been “allowed to collapse”. It was also stated that the “Aeroswift system itself has not been operational in almost a year”. Further, “[t]he Aerosud component of the consortium disintegrated to the extent that it was liquidated in March 2020”.

“[T]here are no plans to shut [Aeroswift] down in the foreseeable future,” CSIR group manager: strategic communication Tendani Tsedu has assured. “The Aeroswift research platform team is currently preparing for new builds and has undertaken upgrades to the mechanical and software systems before the nationwide lockdown. The CSIR is also actively looking for new projects and clients at this stage in order to assist the South African industry with unlocking the massive growth potential of additive manufacturing.”

Regarding Aeroswift’s original industrial partner, private-sector group Aerosud, that had comprised Aerosud (Aviation), the Aerosud Innovation and Training Centre (Aerosud ITC) and Aerosud Aerospace. But in 2014 the group was “unbundled”, the three divisions becoming legally separate entities. The aviation company, which retained the name Aerosud, has had no practical involvement with Aeroswift since then, although it has remained in contact with the CSIR and has often taken visitors to view the Aeroswift machine.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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