3D printed manifold for a pneumatic control panel of a railway vehicle
View Patent ↗A manifold for a pneumatic control panel of a railway vehicle comprises at least one conduit for guiding a pneumatic fluid and at least one attachment section for attaching a pneumatic device. The manifold is obtained from a blank that is obtained by an additive manufacturing process. A method for producing a manifold for a pneumatic control panel of a railway vehicle, the manifold comprising at least one conduit for guiding a pneumatic fluid and at least one attachment section for attaching a pneumatic device comprises a first step wherein a blank for the manifold is formed by an additive manufacturing process.
1. A manifold for a pneumatic control panel of a railway vehicle, the manifold comprising:
a plurality of conduits for guiding pneumatic fluid coupled to a blank base; and
attachment sections each having one or more fixation openings and one or more conduit openings for attaching a pneumatic device, the one or more the conduit openings arranged at varying angles relative each other,
wherein the manifold is formed from a blank that is manufactured by an additive manufacturing process, and wherein,
wherein each of the plurality of conduits is located between the attachment sections, and wherein multiple of the plurality of conduits have a reduction in a cross-sectional at an area of the manifold and in an overlapping fashion.
2. The manifold of claim 1 , wherein the manifold is further formed from the blank by a machining process.
3. The manifold of claim 2 , wherein the blank comprises structure configured to affix the blank base during the machining process.
4. The manifold of claim 1 , wherein the additive machining process is a direct metal layer sintering process.
5. The manifold of claim 4 , wherein the blank comprises structure configured to affix the blank base during the machining process.
6. The manifold of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the plurality of conduits comprises a wall section and a flow-through section, wherein the wall section has a thickness of less than 2 mm.
7. The manifold of claim 1 , wherein the manifold is a one-piece manifold.
8. A method for producing a manifold for a pneumatic control panel of a railway vehicle, the manifold including a plurality of conduits for guiding pneumatic fluid and attachment sections each having one or more fixation openings and one or more conduit openings for attaching a pneumatic device, wherein each of the plurality of conduits is located between the attachment sections, wherein the method comprises, in a first operation, a blank for the manifold is formed by an additive manufacturing process,
wherein the additive manufacturing process comprises an arrangement operation and a manufacturing operation
wherein the arrangement operation comprises a routing operation comprising determining a cross-section and an arrangement of each of the plurality of conduits between the attachment sections, and
wherein the routing operation determines whether multiple of the plurality of conduits have a reduction in a cross-sectional at an area of the manifold and in an overlapping fashion.
9. The method of claim 8 , the method comprising, in a second operation, the blank is machined to become the manifold.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein a third operation to be carried out after the second operation comprises a testing operation for determining whether the manifold conforms to previously defined specifications.
11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the manufacturing operation includes a direct metal layer sintering process.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the arrangement operation comprises a minimization operation, in which the position and rotation of at least one of the attachment sections is determined such that the manifold comprises a minimal volume while still enabling pneumatic devices to be attached.
13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the arrangement operation comprises a rotation operation in which a spatial rotation of the blank for the manufacturing operation is determined, wherein one or more parameters of the manufacturing operation which are determined by the spatial rotation are used to determine an optimal spatial rotation according to one or more criteria, which criteria comprise at least one of the following: required duration of the manufacturing operation, ease of accessibility of the parts of the blank to be machined during a second operation, reduction of residual stresses within the blank, reduction of required supports for the manufacturing operation.