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Inert Atmospheric Chamber for Shaped Metal Deposition Manufacturing Process:

After the successful completion of my first external Rolls-Royce secondment, I was approached by the Shaped Metal Deposition (SMD) team leader to help with the Research Cell support competition project in partnership with Nottingham University Technology Centre (UTC). The aim of the work was to explore, develop and demonstrate additive metal deposition techniques for the repair and manufacture of complex, high performance and high integrity components. The programme of work had fallen behind schedule due to problem interfacing the Kuka robotic system and the rotary table simulation software. Additional support had been requested by the University and a formal 3-month external secondment was agreed between the University and Rolls-Royce Manufacturing Technology.

The additive manufacture of Titanium needs to be performed under inert conditions to prevent Alpha Case formation on the deposit. Oxygen levels in the sub 10ppm range are required to prevent degradation of the material due to the formation of Alpha Case and discolouration of the material.

Prior to my involvement a temporary tent arrangement thrown up using plastic sheet and sticky tape was used by the SMD process to demonstrate feasibility. The continued use of this system was unsuitable from Health & Safety, Environmental and cost aspects.

During my period at Nottingham UTC in the SMD cell I was responsible for the specification, manufacture, installation, commissioning and operation of a process capable inert atmosphere system to replace the adhoc tent arrangement. The aims of the work was to provide a system which.

Provided a robust, reliable, reproducible and process capable system.

Minimised the use of argon; and the time taken to achieve inert conditions.

Minimised the manual effort required to achieve and maintain inert conditions.

Met relevant Health and Safety requirements.

The temporary tent arrangement can be seen in Figure 1 below, this set-up could only be used for feasibility stage of the development trials. Dr Steve Jones a Nottingham UTC research associate gave me a basic generic brief of his requirements; it was then my responsibility to deliver a fully engineered atmospheric chamber with the capability of sub 10-ppm oxygen levels. This task had to be completed and commissioned within a two week time period to avoid any further delays to the project deadline. The University would not approve the use of their machine shop equipment for this development, I therefore had to resource the capacity to mill, drill and turn the various components I had designed. This part of the project was completed during the decommissioning of the Elton Road machining facility. This again required me to plan my time around the availability of the machinery before it was moved to the new facility. I completed all of the required components within a 4-day period working Saturday and Sunday to ensure this milestone was achieved on time.

The photographic evidence below details the following; Figure 2 show the machined base plate which is split into 2 sections and sealed around the rotary table. Figure 3 shows the top plate that fitted onto the wrist axis of the Kuka robot. Figure 4 shows the finished commissioned atmospheric chamber. Figure 5 shows the successful competition of this project with a dansensor reading of 10ppm. Figure 6 shows additional alignment tooling I implemented to aid the process development and set up time.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6