EDITORIAL. In this issue. Dear BOREALIS newsletter readers,

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1 Advanced concept of flexible machine for new Additive and Subtractive Manufacturing processes on next generation of complex 3D metal parts. NEWSLETTER EDITORIAL Issue 5 August 2017 Dear BOREALIS newsletter readers, The project has passed its 30 th month of activity, entering in its last six months. The new facility of IRIS, located in Orbassano, near Turin, in Italy, will host the final demo prototype of the Borealis machine. In this issue Editorial... 1 Focus topic #1 2 Focus topic #2 3 The work to be performed in these final months is related to the integration of all the modules that compose the machine, from the head to the optical chain, from the portal to the rototilt table. Moreover, the control platform and logic needs to be tested in the final real environment. The consortium is working in strong synergy to be able to run the final demo at the end of the year. Meet our partner PE... 4 OPI Future events.. 11 In this issue, we would like to introduce our consortium partners Prima Electro and OPI Photonics, working respectively in the design of the CNC architecture and in the realization of the optical chain. We hope you enjoy this edition of the Borealis newsletter. Borealis Project Staff Subscribe to our newsletter by sending an to info@borealisproject.eu Horizon 2020 European Union Funding For Research & Innovation

2 FOCUS TOPIC: BOREALIS CNC ARCHITECTURE The major activities of the design of the automation architectures consisted of three major phases. The first one was the Preliminary Design and Verification, which involved the control system specification, the control system Hardware and Software architecture design, the control system functional design and the high level logic verification. The second phase was the Control Development and Implementation, which consisted of the design of algorithms and the control code implementation. The last phase is the Control System Verification and Validation, which involves the control code verification and validation and the delivering of the executable control code. Melt pool camera check Laser Combiner Laser Scanner Previous layer CNC Run process model Machine Head CF1000 Laser Cameras Deposition Real time laser control CAX 3D scanner & infrared camera check Chillers Powder Feeder SL2-100 Protocol OPENcontrol EtherCAT Master Bridge & Osai I/O EtherCAT Modules Check OK Next layer KO Correct actions Run section model Exec Depo Exec Ablation OK On the left: Automation architecture design. On the right: CNC Architecture design. Courtesy of Prima Electro The most relevant component of the automation system architecture are the CNC, to execute the machining of the Borealis part, which includes also a PLC, to coordinate the execution of other components of the Automation system, and an interface providing functionalities to manage the part production process and monitoring. It includes also a vision System to analyse the process execution and providing information to the CAx system and a CAD/CAM/CAPP to generate the machining program, splitting it into several layers for the CNC and to analyse the machining feedback provided by the vision system and generate the next execution layer strategy or a recovery action in case of mismatches.

3 FOCUS TOPIC: OPTICAL CHAIN The BOREALIS laser source is an innovative hybrid source obtained by combining a highpower continuous-wave (CW) laser, used for the deposition phase, and a short-pulse (PW) laser, used for the ablation phase. This solution, which has been specifically devised to allow alternating additive and subtractive process, requires the development of an optical chain that includes two innovative devices: namely, a system to combine the beams emitted by the two sources into a common path and a 3D scanner head able to operate with both beams. The CW laser for the final machine prototypes will be a high beam quality 3 kw fibre laser, whereas the PW laser - mounted only in the small demonstrator - will be a 100 W nanosecond pulse fibre laser based on a seed-mopa architecture. The 3D scanner, which has been specifically designed for both ablation and additive manufacturing applications, includes 2 axis (x and y) to move the beam in the working area, and a third axis (z-axis) to change the spot size. Another key element of the BOREALIS machine optical system is the beam combiner, specifically developed by OPI Photonics; this device receives the two CW and PW laser beams in separate inputs and redirects the selected source into a common output to feed the scanner head. This represents one of most innovative features of the Borealis machine as it allows choosing the source depending on the process that needs to be implemented. Borealis optical chain. Courtesy of OPI Photonics

4 MEET OUR PARTNER Courtesy of PRIMA ELECTRO Founded in 1978, Prima Electronics, now Prima Electro, designs, produces and sales dedicated industrial electronics, Computerized Numerical Control solutions and Laser sources. The headquarter and main R&D and Innovation activities are in: Strada Carignano, 48, Moncalieri Turin, Italy. Prima Electro is active in the market with three brands: DOTS, OSAI and CONVERGENT. The DOTS (Dedicated Off-The-Shelf) electronics is located in the market area between the commercial electronics COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) and the custom one. Being pioneer in this market area, Prima Electro offers dedicated solutions for specific applications with a high level of industrialization and high competitive costs and time-to-market. DOTS is the business model that designs the electronics, mechanics and software of a product, translating clients ideas into specifications and supporting them during all the stages of the project. Prima Electro aims to offer dedicated power and control electronic solutions with the same industrialization level as any industrial commercial product, fast time-to-market, specialized engineering design, professional manufacturing capabilities and after sale services. See for further industrial applications and market details.

5 DOTS and OSAI offers. Courtesy of PRIMA ELECTRO. After the acquisition of OSAI, historical brand of Numerical Control products born in 1954, division of Olivetti, Italian leader in the area of CNC mainly for wood, glass and marble, Prima Electro is today the first Italian manufacturer of numerical controls. The OSAI brand is today leader in the wood, glass and marble working and in the special metal working machines. The offer of OSAI products is nowadays a complete line of state-of the-art products addressed to control a wide range of machines in several sectors of industrial automation market, ranging from HMI Industrial monitors, operator panels and keyboards, including a scalable line of Computerized Numerical Controllers (OPENcontrol) from low power hardware architecture based on INTEL ATOM processors to high end more powerful architectures based on INTEL icore processors. and block I/O modules with analog and Pulse&Direction axis interfaces (I/O Bridges) as well as OD700 drives for asynchronous and synchronous motors, ranging from 1 to 36Arms, complete the OSAI product range. All modules communicate using several industrial buses, between them two of the most widely adopted are EtherCAT and Mechatrolink III. See for further product details. Convergent, historical brand for laser sources products born in 1961, produces nowadays a wide range of laser sources for cutting, welding, drilling designed on traditional CO2 technology and recently based on state-of-the art laser diode multi-emitter technology for new Fiber laser products. In this particular field Prima Electro focuses on two major activities. The first one is the development of special solutions of CNC for laser machines. Several modular I/O modules (OPENrio)

6 Laser and electronic businesses. Courtesy of PRIMA ELECTRO. The second one is related to the development and integration of semiautomatic production cells dedicated to the assembly of the optoelectronics required for the laser machines, such as the high power diodes and collimators. The expertise in the field of system integration of production solutions developed for assembly large variety and small volumes of high value added optoelectronics has been largely supported by a structured cooperation with the Polytechnic of Turin since 2011 whose major goal is the study and development of cutting edge optoelectronics to be nested in laser sources. This business activity contributes severely to the development of know how in the field of clean rooms for optoelectronics that currently represents a sensitive topic of the company strategy. The Nd:YAG Pulse Lasers gained 50% of the worldwide market of laser drilling applications such as cooling holes of turbine vanes, blades, shrouds, and combustor liners. See also What is the role of PRIMA ELECTRO in the Borealis project? The role of PE within the Borealis project is to provide the electronic required to control and manage the Borealis demonstrators and the SW required to manage the Additive process. In particular, the CNC (OPENcontol XLi), the EtherCAT stack-based drives, the I/O modules connected to the demonstrators and the axis motors are provided. At the level of CNC software, the redundancy resolution algorithms on the additive head, the laser scanning algorithms (hardware provided by Raylase), the connection to the various CAx systems for the management of the technological sequences building

7 workpieces by means of Additive technology, the control of the processes connected to the various connected devices have been developed. In this sense PE is present in the Borealis project as a task leader for those tasks in which the CNC is the characterizing topic. Which are the major challenges that you have faced during your activities related to Borealis? The biggest challenge, by incorporating into a completely new technology, is to have control and management of devices that have never been used, to which it is understood and used, so far it has also been necessary to identify new algorithms that allow to overcome the current technological limits, in order to offer innovative solutions to the market. Which are the tasks that the CNC architecture has to manage? The tasks in which the CNC architecture is involved are: management of trajectories for the redundancy resolution, management of monitoring systems and "closed loop" management on additive technology in Cax integration, laser scanner management, and finally integration with third-party Cad/Cam. What are the aspects of control that differentiate Borealis from the traditional machines of Prima? The main thing that differentiates the Borealis machine from the other Prima machines is the technological process. In the previous machines, mainly a "cutting" process of the material through laser technology was applied; in the Borealis machine, the cutting process was replaced by the "additive" process, so a piece is created from the deposition of material powder, always fused with laser. This new technology involves the control of new devices such as: Powder feeder, Laser scanner, vision systems, different laser source control modes. At the kinematic level, machines from 5-6 axes are moved to machines with axes, of which several are managed in redundancy; furthermore the kinematics involved are completely different. PE Diod Fab. Courtesy of PRIMA ELECTRO.

8 MEET OUR PARTNER Courtesy of OPI PHOTONICS OPI Photonics is an innovative SME located in Torino (North-West Italy) specialized in the development of devices and systems for the management of high-power optical beams, at micro and macro scale. The former is mainly represented by compact multi-emitter laser diode modules based on innovative combination architectures, which are capable of delivering from 100 W to 500 W thanks to a modular platform approach. The macro-scale sector most relevant for the BOREALIS project includes new devices for combining, coupling, delivery and switching kilowatt laser beams, both for fibre and direct-diode lasers. OPI flexible technology allows the seamless coexistence of off-the-shelf and dedicated solutions, up to personalized approaches in which OPI accompanies the customers from the design phase, to the realization of prototypes and to volume production. Besides, this unique approach makes OPI also the ideal partner for research projects, both as technology provider and as end user. OPI has recently undergone a consolidation of the lines of products, with associated new branding initiative, which includes a new logo, creative look, and redesigned website. In particular, the new logo, besides for the use of a more up-todate graphics, with its multi-colour lines that represent multi-wavelength rays reflecting and bouncing, better expresses the products and key competences of OPI.

9 What is the role of OPI in the Borealis project? OPI is responsible for the optical system of the BOREALIS machine, not only because it is leader of WP4 the workpackage devoted to the design and implementation of the optical chain, but because it develops the elements that allow the practical implementation of one of the key innovations of the BOREALIS approach to additive manufacturing, namely the possibility of alternating additive and subtractive processes in realtime. This unique feature of the BOREALIS machine is feasible thanks to a specialty device that combines a high-power continuous wave laser (i.e., the laser used for melting the powders, thus for the additive approach) and a pulsed wave laser (i.e., the laser used for micromachining, thus for the subtractive approach) into a common output path to allow sharing the same scanner head. Besides for this, OPI is collaborating with all the other partners for the various aspects that impact on the optical chain; in particular, together with the team from the Dept. of Electronics and Telecommunications of Politecnico di Torino and the team from Prima Industrie has developed and tested the hybrid laser source, composed of a continuous and of a pulsed sources, and the other elements composing the optical chain, such as beam switches and collimators. Which are the major challenges that you have faced during your activities related to Borealis? The specialty beam combiner for continuous and pulsed laser beams is a device that to the best of our knowledge is totally new on the market; therefore new defies had to be faced for its design and practical realization. This represented the most challenging aspect of OPI contribution to the BOREALIS project. Which are the main innovations of the Borealis optical chain? As already mentioned, one of the main innovations of the BOREALIS project the possibility to alternate in real-time additive and subtractive processing is related to the innovations in the optical chain. While all the elements of this optical chain, from the laser sources to the beam switches, had to be adapted to meet the peculiarities of the application, two components stand aside for their groundbreaking aspects: the beam combiner for continuous and pulsed laser beams and the 3D scanner head for the simultaneous processing of the two beams with profoundly different characteristics.

10 Which will be the main exploitable results that you will inherited from the Borealis machine and that will be important for your business? The design and realization of the beam combiner for continuous and pulsed laser beams required a lot effort and the development of new technological approaches to handle both kilowatt range beams and high peak power beams. The experience made in BOREALIS will be certainly useful to complement the already existing background in managing high power beam and will be used to improve the performance of OPI product line of beam delivery systems. We believe that these improvements will constitute an additional selling point, therefore providing a relevant impact on the business besides for that coming from the manufacturing of the optical chain components as expected from the exploitation plan. Laser delivery system. Courtesy of OPI PHOTONICS. OPI PHOTONICS participated to LASER World of PHOTONICS in Messe Munchen, on June, launching its new branding campaign and presenting the latest industrial applications of beam combining, from the miniature level of multi emitter laser diodes modules, to multi-port beam couplers and switches for kw lasers. Moreover, OPI PHOTONICS showcased the latest achievement of the BOREALIS project, representing the consortium in one of the world s most important lasers trade fairs, counting almost 1,300 exhibitors and more than 32,000 visitors during this year s event.

11 BOREALIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY The last General Assembly, where the entire consortium met together, was held in Brindisi, Italy, on July. It has been in correspondence with the 30 th month of project s activities. Latest achievements related to CAM and CNC architecture have been presented, and the final roadmap toward the final demonstration of the Borealis prototype has been drawn. The final prototype will be installed and integrated in autumn at IRIS premises in Turin, Italy. Borealis GA in Brindisi in July FUTURE EVENTS IN(3D)USTRY, located in Barcelona on October 3-5, will be a key event with specific activities and contents for all profiles interested in the Additive & Advanced Manufacturing, connecting top users with prominent manufacturers and service providers. Professionals & main companies present their needs in the fields of Automotive & Aeronautics, Architecture & Habitat, Retail & Consumer Goods and Healthcare. Euro PM2017 Congress & Exhibition is the Europe's annual powder metallurgy congress and exhibition organised by the European Powder Metallurgy Association. This year it will return to Italy in 2017, and is being held in Milan 1 5 October 2017 in Milan, covering all topic powder metallurgy event featuring, among others, Additive Manufacturing, Hot Isostatic Pressing and New Materials and Applications.

12 CONSORTIUM ILT Useful links and contacts Project website Horizon 2020 website Contact