Linde

With its innovative concepts, Linde is playing a pioneering role in the global market. As a technology leader, it is our task to constantly raise the bar and help our customers get ahead.

Linde R&D centre for additive manufacturing
As the right gas mixtures are essential for meeting quality expectations in 3D prints, the new Linde Global Development Centre in Unterschleissheim, near Munich, Germany, is looking at ways to optimise the various layering processes. The additive manufacturing research team is focusing its efforts on the effects that different atmospheric gases and gas mixtures have on the different metal powders used in additive manufacturing.

ADDvance® O2 precision: A product of successful collaboration with Airbus Group
The research initiative for the invention of a new measuring and analysis unit called ADDvance® O2 precision was inspired by a collaboration with Airbus Group Innovations, the R&D department of aerospace company Airbus Group SE. Their additive manufacturing team suspected that an inaccurate composition of the gas atmosphere in the printer chamber was negatively impacting product quality, so they requested Linde’s expertise and support. Within three month, the team under Pierre Forêt, responsible for Additive Manufacturing at Linde Gas, developed a solution capable of detecting the lowest levels of contamination. The revolutionary discovery will be beneficial for the whole industrial sector.

Getting a head start into the future of additive manufacturing
Forêt and his team are currently working on a catalogue of gases tailored to individual materials and printing processes to positively influence reproducibility and product quality. Gases are of course not just important for the atmosphere in the printer chamber, but for every step of the production process, starting with the raw metals that have to be turned into powders through atomisation. The choice of gas has a major impact on the quality of the powder. Linde also offers premium-quality gases for the final heat treatment step, which is known as hot isostatic pressing.

“The market is developing rapidly. We want to use our knowledge to help processes become established in the industry and ensure that everyone involved can work together as effectively as possible,” (Pierre Forêt, Head of Additive Manufacturing at Linde Gas)

Linde service and support for 3D customers
Would you like the best possible performance from your additive manufacturing processes? Linde Gas has bundled its research activities in this area and will continue to lead research into how oxygen and humidity impact the additive manufacturing process. If you want to keep pace with tomorrow’s competition, you need a partner by your side for whom top quality, process optimisation and enhanced productivity are part of daily business. However, we define partnership not merely as being there for you but being with you. After all, joint activities form the core of commercial success.