Increasing Productivity through the Application of Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies

Manufacturing industries have more and more to deal with the machining of complex shaped components, of-ten in small series and fabricated in difficult to cut mate-rials. Hybrid manufacturing technologies can face these challenges. They can be obtained by integrating produc-tion processes on one single machining platform and/or combining process mechanisms to enhance machining. After giving a brief introduction and classification of hy-brid manufacturing technologies, this paper focusses on some hybrid technologies investigated by the KU Leu-ven advanced manufacturing research group. Process-es like vibration assisted machining, integration of ma-chining & selective laser hardening, combination of ECM & Mechanical cutting, will be discussed. To ensure precision machining, the need to apply advanced moni-toring systems will be described as well.status: publishe