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TCT COMPENDIUM ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING CASE STUDIES RETURNING ON INVESTMENT
WELCOME TO THIS TCT COMPENDIUM
From the editor
There's an example of additive manufacturing's transformational capabilities I've only heard anecdotally. I imagine I've embellished the story since, but it still serves as one of my favorites. It involves a small UK manufacturer of bespoke lighting for museums and art galleries - low-volume, high-value runs. The owner of the business is an artisan; he tried 3D printing some complex casings during the peak of the hype-cycle. Finding the tech costly, slow, and not to the quality expected by his prestigious clients, that was that for 3D printing. Years later he took on his nephew - a design student - as an intern, more as a favor than necessity. I picture the nephew consigned to dogsbody work; kept away from the precious design work. "Get the catalog and order some more louvers from Germany," barks the owner played, in this imaginary scenario, by Walter Matthau. The internal louvers help to direct the lighting onto the artifacts. They're a necessary evil, not visible on the complete product. And because they don't order in bulk, and pound sterling is weak against the Euro, they cost $20 a piece and take a week to arrive. Having used the technology during his studies, the nephew asked whether he'd ever considered 3D printing them? I can only imagine the short shrift he was given. Bored, the nephew clandestinely sends the designs to a local service bureau and asks, "could you print this, and if so, give me a quote for 50?" “Yes, they're suitable to be printed in nylon using selective laser sintering equipment and it will cost $15," replied the bureau. "OK, that's saving us five dollars per piece but probably not enough to sway uncle," pondered the nephew. "No $15 for the 50, not per piece, you can collect tomorrow." Seven times quicker, 98.5% cheaper, local and on-demand without so much as a redesign. Need to scale up the size? Need to customize the odd one? No problem. "Everybody needs a German nephew," the service bureau told me. The point being that you don't always need to apply Design for Additive Manufacturing techniques to drive a benefit out of AM. But imagine if they did? It's likely, in any manufacturing business, that AM could be applied at some stage of the process whether it is in prototyping, fixtures & tooling or end-use production parts. The difficulty comes in identifying what works. In this compendium of TCT articles, you will see how 3D printing is having a real impact on business big and small. There's no one size fits all; you have conglomerates like Jabil using sub $5,000 desktop machines and small job shops using million-dollar metal 3D printers. There’s also a year's worth of Todd Grimm columns, whose sage advice is worth heading should you be venturing into the world of additive. I hope you find this useful and hope to see your stories of AM success in TCT Magazine in the future.
DANIEL O'CONNOR HEAD OF CONTENT
welcome
FROM THE EDITOR
SECTOR: AEROSPACE APPLICATION: MAINTENANCE REPAIR AND OVERHAUL TECHNOLOGY: BIGREP, STRATASYS & 3D SYSTEMS ISSUE: VOLUME 4 | ISSUE 3
One significant advantage additive manufacturing offers is the ability to produce parts on-demand at the location of need. The majority of key aircraft manufacturers and airliners, from Etihad to Lufthansa, are waking up to the potential cost savings in manufacturing, procurement, warehousing, and supply chain management. Lightweighting is, of course, another huge benefit. As shown in the feature over the next three pages, a seemingly minor 15% weight reduction over time can deliver substantial savings in costs and environmental impact, plus the ability to produce parts at airport hubs could drastically reduce times planes spend grounded for repair.
“FOR SUCCESSFUL DEPLOYMENT OF AM, AN MRO REALLY NEEDS TO LOOK AT THE PAINS IN THEIR SERVICES. THE TWO PAINS THAT COME TO MIND ARE UNNECESSARY REPETITIVE COSTS AND EXTREMELY TIME-CONSUMING WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES.”
LAURA GRIFFITHS DEPUTY GROUP EDITOR
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LEARN A TO FLY WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS
s a somewhat nerdy by-product of working in an industry that looks at manufacturing the world differently, I too find myself often viewing the world through an additive lens. Perhaps the place I do this most is when traveling on an airplane where I tend to scour the cabin for places where additive manufacturing (AM) could be present someday soon.
A LOOK AT HOW SOME OF THE WORLD’S BIGGEST AEROSPACE AND MRO COMPANIES ARE EMBRACING ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING.
The lifespan of an aircraft, typically between 20 and 30 years, makes maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and retrofit, both big and necessary businesses. Think of every plane you’ve been on in the last few years that still featured a now-defunct charging socket from the 1980s - aircraft are not changing overnight to keep up-to-date with consumer expectations. However, Airbus’ Global Market Forecast projects that over the next 20 years the commercial aircraft upgrades services market will be worth 180 billion USD. According to a variety of market reports, aerospace accounts for roughly 20% of the AM market. It offers numerous benefits to the sector; part consolidation, reduced inventory, ondemand manufacturing, light-weighting reduced costs and fuel consumption. For replacement parts where timescales are tight, and downtime must be kept to a minimum, speed of delivery can be a game-changer. 4
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A380 INSIDE HANGER AT ETHIAD ENGINEERING
AEROSPACE
“For me, as an innovation director, I was always sure that AM would take off if you have functional integration,” Büning commented. “With dual extrusion and the right materials such as conductive or capacitive, it is possible to dramatically decrease the manufacturing process by embedding structural and functional performance within a single process chain. In my opinion, this is the way to go, and that's why BigRep is pushing hard on this.”
FLOOR-TO-FLOOR Can (or indeed, should) you 3D print an entire airplane? Berlin-based BigRep is looking to answer that question from an interior perspective in partnership with Etihad Airways Engineering, taking a close look at every single part you see in the cabin, to explore where AM could offer a better solution. “Currently we are jointly working together with the innovation unit of Etihad Engineering to identify parts within the cabin – predominantly large format parts – that could be candidates for 3D printing,” Daniel Büning, Head of Global Strategy at BigRep explains. “It could be headrests, it could be side wall panels, it could be part of the seats or entertainment system. The core idea is to work with their lead designers and engineers to establish a novel digital workflow for AM cabin design.” Etihad is leveraging BigRep’s large-format polymer FDM (fused deposition modeling) systems, which will soon be located at its Innovation Centre in Abu Dhabi, to reimagine non-flying parts for new aircraft and retrofit installations. As Etihad is the first airline MRO permitted by the EASA to certify, manufacture and fly 3D printed parts in-house, it already has a substantial advantage over a significant hurdle.
The project is part of NOWlab@ BigRep, BigRep's internal innovation department which looks at what’s to come in the industry in the next five to ten years. So, while you won’t see these parts flying in your commercial airplane cabin tomorrow, the potential for future applications in functional integration and reducing production costs and time could be tremendous.
CERTIFICATION-READY Over in Dubai, Emirates Engineering, part of the biggest airline in the UAE, has been actively exploring 3D printing for cabin parts for around two years and recently teamed with 3D Systems. The company, which provides MRO services for a wide range of Airbus and Boeing models, used selective laser sintering (SLS) to produce video monitor shrouds for its aircraft cabins. The first batch was printed in partnership with UUDS, a European aviation Engineering and Certification Office and Services Provider based in France, using 3D Systems’ new Duraform ProX FR1200 material, a flame-retardant nylon-12 thermoplastic. The 3D printed monitor shrouds were 9-13% lighter than components
manufactured traditionally and could lead to significant reductions in fuel emissions and costs across an entire fleet. The parts have undergone a range of tests and are in the process of receiving EASA certification before they are installed on select Emirates aircraft. Emirates has already used AM to develop EASA-certified aircraft cabin air vent grills that were installed for on-board trials late last year. Both components are currently being evaluated before they are rolled out across Emirates fleet. Airbus, the second biggest aerospace manufacturer in the world, is no stranger to AM and has already produced thousands of parts such as brackets, clips, and holding devices using polymer processes. The latest is a spacer panel, located alongside the overhead storage compartments on commercial aircraft, produced in partnership with Materialise and set to be the first 3D printed parts placed in the cabins of Airbus’s A320 Family jetliners at Finnair. To the passenger, the part won’t look any different on the outside, but its weight has been optimized with a bionic design to achieve a 15% reduction compared to the original. “Conventional manufacturing has trained MRO managers to think in terms of manufacturing at scale to ensure cost benefits. AM is a game-changer because it allows for cost-effective production of even single parts,” Edouard de Mahieu, Project Manager, Manufacturing at Materialise told TCT. “AM enables the production of what is necessary now, even if it’s a highly 4
“Imagine you have an aircraft that is 30 years old and there is a need to refurbish or retrofit them every other 5 to 10 years. Every one of those parts has to be certified,” Büning adds. “This is a major problem if you are not able to do that by yourself or with a certified partner.” Taking this a step further, BigRep is already embedding “digital smartness” into parts in combination with digitally tailored design methods. Hybrid manufacturing is also being explored, using off the shelf 6-axis industrial robots to print onto half-finished parts independent of its geometry or size as a “digital value add-on.” The first proof of concept is a full-scale print of an Airbus A320 sidewall on the BigRep ONE. The part was scanned to create a “digital twin” which is used to provide information to the robot about the part geometry and print conductive tracks, antennas and ornamental features.
5 ABOVE:
BIGREP HYBRID MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES USED TO EMBED ‘DIGITAL SMARTNESS’ ONTO PARTS AT ETIHAD ENGINEERING.
AEROSPACE
customized part. Ultimately, when your spare parts production is free from the economies of scale, the winner is performance.” The spacer panels are produced using Materialise’s Certified Additive Manufacturing process and then painted to Airbus cabin requirements, all using flame-retardant Airbus-approved materials. The Belgian company’s Certified AM facility holds several critical certifications including ISO 9001 for manufacturing and EN9100 and EASA 21.G for the aerospace industry which has already seen the company produce flight-ready parts for the Airbus A350 XWB. Materialise describes the process as more than a 3D print but rather “an entire quality system.” “Quality in AM can be affected at each stage of the value chain. That’s why we have defined quality management processes for each step of the manufacturing process, from data capture to build preparation, production to postprocessing, and final quality control,” Mahieu continued. “In order to define and hone these processes, we work very closely with our clients to understand their quality requirements and integrate them seamlessly into our infrastructure and workflows.”
TIME TO SPARE SIA Engineering Company (SIAEC) recently formed a joint venture with Stratasys to establish an AM service center for the manufacture of parts for commercial airlines. The Singaporean firm provides MRO services to more than 80 airlines worldwide. Combining SIAEC’s MRO industry knowledge and Stratasys’ AM leadership, the partnership aims to identify opportunities for 3D printing in aviation whether that’s advanced tooling or end-use cabin parts. “We'll do some prototyping work but we're more focussed on advanced tooling and production part opportunities which are less obvious and may take the customer, such as an MRO, a very long time to discover for themselves,” Daniel Thomsen, Stratasys secondee, Deputy General Manager – Joint Venture with SIA Engineering Company told TCT. “We are trying to work extremely closely with our customers and help them identify these advanced opportunities.”
4 SHOWN:
AIRBUS 3D PRINTED SPACER PANELS WITH MATERIALISE CERTIFIED ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
Initially, they will look at interior cabin components and non-critical, non-loaded, singular parts which Thomsen believes will not only be a good starting point to get engineers thinking differently about AM but also for regulators to understand and become familiar with the utilization of the technology. “For successful deployment of AM, an MRO really needs to look at the pains in their services. The two pains that come to mind are unnecessary repetitive costs and extremely time-consuming workshop activities,” Thomsen explained. “These tend to be two good starting points. AM is an option and with strong knowledge behind that option, in many cases, can deliver the most economical and successful solution.” Whenever an aircraft is not flying, it is losing money, so driving down lead times for replacement components is crucial for airlines. By adopting AM into their spare part workflow, MROs could have the ability to keep stock quantities significantly lower and manufacture lesser volumes on demand with a catalog of parts that have been designed for AM. Unlike some of the more elaborate AM concepts we’ve seen for the aerospace industry, this doesn’t mean overhauling the entire look of an aircraft. In fact, Thomsen says in his view “you won’t see them flying.” Cosmetically, AM cabin parts will look the same, adhering to each airline’s aesthetic, but instead, they might be enhanced by internal features that can’t be seen, such as lattices, to reduce material and weight. “AM can produce more complex geometries where the complexity may not be seen due to being in the back of the part but will provide possibly stronger, lighter and more reliable parts than what was currently installed on the aircraft,” Thomsen adds. “This is certainly not just reproducing an existing part, but designing a new part solution, exploiting the benefits of AM”.
FROM THE EDITOR
SECTOR: AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATION: JIGS, FIXTURES & GAUGES TECHNOLOGY: ULTIMAKER ISSUE: VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 3
This automotive story is significant in that it is one of the first use cases for desktop 3D printing in heavy industry. Ultimaker’s journey started producing wooden 3D printers on a farm in the Netherlands in 2009, by 2016 Volkswagen Autoeuropa had seven machines printing jigs, fixtures and gauges continuously on the shop floor. It serves as proof that it is not what machine you have but what you do with it. As evidenced in the case study, the ROI is simply phenomenal and this application went on to win a TCT Award in the Automotive Applications category.
“WITHIN TWO MONTHS WE HAVE A RETURN ON INVESTMENT FOR ALL OUR PRINTERS.”
DANIEL O'CONNOR HEAD OF CONTENT
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automotive
Automotive ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
CAN YOU JIG IT?
Automotive 3D printing technology stories often deal with lightweighting of parts with complex structures that require months of perfecting. We often overlook how the rough and ready world of desktop 3D printing is now reliable enough to fit into the dayto-day assembly of some of the world’s most recognizable vehicles. Daniel O’Connor takes a look at the world of 3D printed jigs and fixtures inside Volkswagen Autoeuropa.
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MBRACE THE MUNDANE,” industry expert Todd Grimm told the TCT Show audience back in 2015. He urged the gathered massed to go forth with the cost and time-saving benefits 3D printing offered for tooling, jigs and fixtures and apply them throughout industry. Judging by the number of tooling case studies we get here at TCT Towers, many have heeded Todd’s words. But ‘3D Printed Tooling, Jigs and Fixtures,’ could be seen in the depths of the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’ on Gartner’s 3D Printing Hype Cycle for 2017. The yearly market research also claimed that this application for 3D printing was some five-to-ten years from mainstream adoption. Two of the most mainstream brands in their respective industries, Ultimaker and Volkswagen Autoeuropa, have shown that, in this instance, Gartner’s analysis is wrong. You don’t get much more mainstream than sub $4,000 3D printers being used on a daily basis in the assembly of over 100,000 vehicles a year. VW is the world’s second largest automobile manufacturer, and now, thanks to a forward-
thinking plant management team, a significant chunk of its vehicles benefit significantly from 3D printed tooling, jigs and fixtures. The parts manufactured on machines that some might dismissively describe as ‘hobbyist’, are expected to save VW up to €250,000 ($295,000) a year. The particular plant responsible for the innovations was, in 1995, the largest foreign investment ever made in Portugal. VW Autoeuropa is in charge of the assembly of three of the German manufacturer’s range; the Scirocco, the Sharan and the Alhambra - manufactured for its SEAT subsidiary. “The plant decided to invest in this technology in 2014 with one 3D printer,” Luis Pascoa, Pilot Plant Manager told TCT Magazine. “After checking the potential of this technology, the reliability and the ease of use, we decided Ultimaker printers were the best choice for us. Within two months we have a return on investment for all our printers.” VW Autoeuropa’s team now uses a total of seven Ultimaker systems to make more than 1,000 parts per year, all designed to save time and money on the production line. So efficient is the process that the 3D printed tools are considered best practice across the entire VW Group. ›› VOLUME 3 ISSUE 3
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Automotive ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
LEFT: The wheel protection jig
THE FIXTURE LIST
Amongst the thousands of parts that VW Autoeuropa develops, the most effective have been the simplest of prints like the liftgate badge gauge. This jig ensures that the model badging on the rear of the vehicle is consistent across the board. Assembly line workers, place the jig in a Japanese Poke-Yoke style and voila! A perfectly placed Sharan here and Scirocco there. Previously VW Autoeuropa sourced all its tooling, jigs and fixtures externally. A part like the liftgate badge took 35 days to develop, costing up to €400 ($470). Using the Ultimakers, the parts, which have proved just as reliable if not more so, are completed in four days at the expense of a mere €10. “Now our gauges are much simpler and have adjustment capacities that were not present from the (external) supplier,” said Miguel Jose, a Process Engineer at the plant. “When one element gets damaged, previously, we had to scrap the complete part; currently (with 3D printing) we replace only the fragile parts.” With a cost saving of 98% and a time saving of 89%, 3D printing is a no brainer for use on an assembly line. Another part benefitting from a 3D printed overhaul is the wheel protection jig. Designed, printed and fitted to surround the wheel nut cavities, it allows the assembler to
ABOVE: This window gauge used to cost €180 per part - it can now be 3D printed at just €35. Development time shrunk from 8 to 6 days.
Manufacturing aids can now be 3D printed overnight
quickly guide and tested the next morning, which speeds up the development process considerably. and tighten the bolts using familiar heavy duty tools, without scuffing the wheel. The wheel protection jig used to cost up to €800 ($940) per part; the desktop 3D printed one? Just €21, a 97% saving. And the time is down to just ten days from a whopping 56 days when supplied externally. our collaborators on development and Thanks to an open material platform assembly process optimization, all with active the team at VW Autoeuropa is able to participation in the brainstorming exercises. experiment with different materials to add They know that the new jig or fixture will flexibility and stiffness where needed. help the exact moment that they use it and Another beauty of desktop 3D printing is improve quality and ergonomics.” the small footprint; it allows the teams to VW Autoeuropa is a company embracing iterate directly on the shop floor. the mundane, and if it continues to generate “Our people are continuously focusing cost-saving like the €150,000 ($176,000) it on innovation, results and optimization of achieved in the first year and the €250,000 our internal processes,” said Plant Manger, ($295,000) it anticipates year-on-year, then Luis Pascoa. “This technology allows us to we can expect many more automotive have more effective cooperation between manufacturers to follow suit. VOLUME 3 ISSUE 3
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From the editor
FROM THE EDITOR
SECTOR: CONTRACT MANUFACTURING APPLICATION: JIGS, FIXTURES & GAUGES TECHNOLOGY: ULTIMAKER, HP & STRATASYS ISSUE: VOLUME 4 | ISSUE 3
Jabil was another high-profile company to achieve cost- and time-saving gains utilizing Ultimaker’s hardware just months after the Volkswagen breakthrough, and at last year’s RAPID + TCT the company was joined by Stratasys in championing the use of AM for tooling, jigs & fixtures. The contract manufacturer told TCT it planned to scale up its 3D printing of manufacturing aids with HP’s Multi Jet Fusion technology, while Stratasys released a software dedicated to the application. Representatives from both provided their insights on AM’s low-hanging fruit.
“IN THE LONG RUN, ALL FIXTURES AND JIGS WILL BE 3D PRINTED, SOME WILL BE IN PLASTIC, SOME WILL BE IN METAL, BUT ULTIMATELY IT JUST MAKES PERFECT SENSE.”
SAM DAVIES ASSISTANT EDITOR
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Jigs & Fixtures
THE FIXTURE LIST SAM DAVIES RUNS THE RULE OVER NEW APPROACHES TO THE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING OF JIGS AND FIXTURES.
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ohn Dulchinos, Jabil’s VP of Digital Manufacturing, holds his thumb and index finger as close together as possible without them touching, the slight waft of air between the two representing jigs and fixtures' chunk of the $12T manufacturing market. Jigs and fixtures don't have the glamour of final parts, they're not even as sexy as prototypes, but they are a necessary evil that the majority of manufacturing requires. With a slew of innovative thinking in additive manufacturing (AM) there's something of a jigs and fixtures revolution. Volkswagen Autoeuropa won a TCT Award by achieving a 98% cost saving and an 89% time-saving by using a host of Ultimaker systems to print tools directly on the assembly floor. Multi-
billion-dollar manufacturer, Jabil has an army of Ultimakers producing jigs and fixtures in small volumes, as and when required. The results are similarly impressive with an 80% reduction in delivery time and 40% reduction in costs. As the 2018 edition of RAPID + TCT commenced, Jabil announced its Additive Manufacturing Network, which, in the long-term, will see dozens of HP's Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) platforms deployed in manufacturing facilities all around the world. Jabil is serious about leveraging MJF as a volume manufacturing tool to deliver end-use parts to its customers in the aerospace, automotive, medical and consumer goods industries, and such are the capabilities of the MJF machines, foresee manufacturing tooling, jigs and fixtures concurrently to optimize the whole process.
It will be enabled by HP’s 380 x 284 x 380 mm build envelope which can print multiple unique parts at rapid speeds. It means Jabil would be able to let tools ‘ride for free’ as end-use manufacturing ensues, and effectively buy the company time. “Jigs and fixtures are less cost sensitive than making a part. We’re always trying to squeeze costs out of the process,” John Dulchinos, Jabil’s VP of Digital Manufacturing tells TCT, “but the ability to get this to do better, faster turns and get a fixture and jig that streamlines the process is more important than ‘can we save a few pennies on fixture and jigs?’” HP 3D Printing’s VP, Global Head of Customer and Market Development, Scott Schiller continues: “There’s way more cost impact in the flow of the production line, and if you have a change notification coming through and you need to change that jig for the whole production line to work, timing is everything.” Jabil's MJF strategy is designed to optimize efficiency, though the Ultimakers will remain for one-off production runs. The new method will require Jabil engineers to get creative with the design of jigs and fixtures to ensure parts are stackable or collapsible. 4
3 SHOWN:
ASSEMBLY FIXTURE DEVELOPED ON HP’S MULTI JET FUSION PLATFORM
Jigs & Fixtures
3 SHOWN:
AN ASSEMBLY FIXTURE MANUFACTURED BY JABIL USING AN ULTIMAKER MACHINE.
part inside the print preparation tool, and within a matter of minutes, have the design specifications for their jig or fixture that they require. “We’re trying to take the brain of someone who has been doing this for ten years, the tools that are in Insight [a Stratasys print preparation software], and the easy user interface in GrabCAD Print, and put them together,” explained Shuvom Ghose, Go-To-Market Engineer, Stratasys.
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THIS 3D PRINTED TOOL, PRODUCED USING TOUGH ULTEM 9085 MATERIAL, MANUFACTURED BY INDAERO, FITS AGAINST THE CURVED PANEL INDEPENDENTLY AND FREES UP OPERATORS TO UNDERTAKE OTHER PRODUCTION JOBS.
From vendors and users of AM technology alike, there’s a concerted effort to enhance an already promising application, proven to yield impressive results, by implementing focused strategies around their development. Stratasys and Jabil are two such companies, and it could have a significant impact on the way we design the tools as well as the way we manufacture them. “If you want to make a jig, it’s got to be accurate,” Phil Reeves, Stratasys VP Strategic Consulting, says. “There’s a whole range of applications where these higher performance materials like ULTEM, PPSF, and PEKK, have a place on that shop floor. Jigs and fixtures is one of them. Until now, the problem has been the people with the prototyping machines haven’t got the software to design the jigs and fixtures. That’s where GrabCAD Jigs and Fixtures software comes in.”
That third design consideration is relevant on FDM platforms too. Stratasys, the company famed for bringing the FDM process to market, has a range of industry players harnessing its technology for tooling. The likes of Boeing and Orbital ATK are among those taking advantage of the potential to streamline operations by making jigs and fixtures quickly and almost immediately integrating them into the manufacturing process, and soon they’ll have a platform to help enhance the design of those tools. With its latest software product release, Stratasys is looking to make the entire process as quick, and as easy, as possible. Driven by customer need, the ‘fundamental bedrock’ of Stratasys’ jigs and fixtures software is to pull in native CAD data, rather than require neutral CAD, to design parts. The company has done away with the ‘Stratasysms’, language that was only relevant to Stratasys products, because ‘that’s not how engineers think,’ instead striving for simplicity. Engineers might want to make things smaller, or stronger, or lighter, and so now they can, using a slider to alter these properties to visualize the change better, or for more precision, input the numbers manually. Then with the click of a button, the design is updated. Users can change the geometry of a
“Companies like Jabil make their living in continuous improvement, lean operations, and so we need to constantly be iterating an assembly jig because it streamlines the workflow. It will be a valuable thing to do,” Dulchinos explains. “Seems to me that, in the long run, all fixtures and jigs will be 3D printed, some will be in plastic, some will be in metal, but ultimately it just makes perfect sense.” John Dulchinos points out Jabil’s implementation of AM mainly centers on the manufacture of functional end-use parts. But Jabil is a company that manufactures millions of parts a year, and not all of them will be 3D printed, meaning during the manufacture of many products, Jabil will need a jig to guide tools in operation and fixtures to hold parts down. Eckhart, Volkswagen, and Ricoh will too. And between them, they will soon have tailored methods enabling them to best-use their preferred 3D printing process for tooling components. Jigs and fixtures might only make up a smidge of the manufacturing market today, but taking into consideration the plethora of benefits, the focus from AM OEMs, and the dexterity of users, it just makes sense that this application grows.
FROM THE EDITOR
SECTOR: AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATION: GENERATIVE AND CASTING TECHNOLOGY: AUTODESK, VOXELJET ISSUE: VOLUME 4 | ISSUE 1
Lightning Motorcycles was able to live up to its name by becoming not just the fastest electric motorbike on earth but beating all its gas-powered counterparts in the process. In an experiment to see how they could strip further weight off their LS18 Bike, Lightning worked with Autodesk on a generatively designed swing-arm, which was 3D printed in sand using a voxeljet system and then cast by a foundry. Not only was the part consolidated from three components down to one and lighter, but it outperformed, or at least matched, its traditional counterpart in all load cases.
“USING THIS METHOD, YOU EFFECTIVELY GET ALL THE VALUE PROPOSITION OF DIRECT METAL ADDITIVE PLUS ALL OF THE ADVANTAGES OF CASTING.”
DANIEL O'CONNOR HEAD OF CONTENT
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IN FULL SWING AUTODESK’S GENERATIVE TOOLS SHIFT LIGHTNING MOTORCYCLES INTO HIGH GEAR
WORDS: DANIEL O’CONNOR ON JUNE 30TH, 2013, RICHARD HATFIELD, CEO OF A SMALL MOTORCYCLE COMPANY, STOOD, QUIETLY CONFIDENT, AT THE FOOT OF PIKE’S PEAK, COLORADO, ALONGSIDE HIS FULLY ELECTRIC BIKE AND RACER CARLIN DUNNE. TWO YEARS PREVIOUSLY LIGHTNING MOTORCYCLES MADE WAVES BY BECOMING THE FIRST ELECTRIC POWERED BIKE TO BREAK THE 200 MPH MARK, AND RICHARD KNEW THE LS-218 WAS ABOUT TO MAKE HISTORY AGAIN IN THE RACE TO THE CLOUDS.
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ext year, you should bring batteries,” Hatfield quipped after the bike smashed not only the rest of the electric field’s times but beat the fastest gas-powered bike by almost 21 seconds. The posted time of 10:00.694 remains a record for an electric motorcycle, in spite of the wet and snowy conditions at the peak 5,000-foot ascent. Lightning Motorcycles had a distinct advantage over some of the more well-established names in motorcycling, all of which were competing to bring the fastest electric bike to the mountain. Lightning was starting from scratch, unencumbered by traditional preconceptions of how one manufactures a bike. Using a suite of Autodesk software and 3D printing technologies Lightning was able to be agile in its iteration process.
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Automotive cover story
“We can make quick changes and have a working part on the bike within a day,” Hatfield said. Amongst the software Lightning was deploying was Autodesk’s Project Dreamcatcher - a demonstrator of its much talked about generative design capabilities, now available as a technology preview with Autodesk Fusion 360 and Autodesk Netfabb. Generative design tools allow you to explore a multitude of design solutions based on goals and constraints, unlike optimization software which only allows for refinement of a known design. By cutting the weight of the bike without compromising performance, Lightning is now aiming to make the LS-218 even faster by deploying new design methods, additive and a manufacturing process that has been around for hundreds if not thousands of years, casting.
shown: THE NEW SWINGARM DESIGNED USING AUTODESK’S GENERATIVE DESIGN TOOLS
Heading up the project on the Autodesk side is Andreas Bastian, whose previous work on a magnesium aircraft seat frame using Autodesk Generative Design and Netfabb, was shortlisted for a TCT Award in 2017. The seat frame recorded a 56% weight saving and is on its way to being approved as flight-safe by the FAA. Lightning had previously attempted to lightweight the bike’s swingarm using composite 3D printing technologies, although the designs worked in theory the material properties were unlikely to withstand the forces required when riding such a powerful machine. For Andreas, it was logical to start with some of the techniques picked up on the seat frame project. “We have looked at the swing arm because it is a nice scale of a problem,” Andreas tells TCT. “It is traditionally made of three parts bolted together, it is made of known materials using known manufacturing processes, and it was developed by engineers, who know a ton about motorcycling.” Previous generatively designed projects had clear goals in that they needed to be both lightweight and structurally sound. However, the swing arm required both those quantitative goals as well as one more qualitative one; maintaining the allusive ‘ride feel,’ that is crucial to experienced riders. It was determined using the simulation tools in Autodesk Generative Design, that there were five primary load cases, and to sustain ride feel the swingarm needed to match as many of these as possible, while at the same time reducing weight. “What’s interesting is you want a different amount of stiffness for different behaviors,” states Bastian. “You need high stiffness for normal operating mode because if you are riding and hit a speed bump and your swingarm is floppy, then you will momentarily lose contact with the road and therefore bike. Whereas under race conditions when banking at angles of up to 50 degrees vertical you need a more deflection.” The generatively designed swingarm matched its original counterpart in four of the five load cases, with the fifth outperforming by as much as 55%.
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Automotive controlled casting with 3D sand printing to produce a fast and reliable method for casting almost any geometry,” he states. “The potential of applying these technologies is vast, and we are working on expanding our capabilities even further to cast products that were previously unachievable.”
CASTING ASPERSIONS While a generatively designed part may look impressive onscreen and perform under Autodesk’s rigorous simulation tools, manufacturing is another issue entirely. Although generative design tools and additive manufacturing (AM) have grown up together, for this particular project, Andreas knew that AM wasn’t going to be able to produce the final part. Enter casting. “We haven’t seen a whole lot of shapes like those of generative design and a manufacturing process like casting overlap,” he comments. “That is largely just cultural; it is not a technical reason. A lot of these new design capabilities are conceptually tied to additive and specifically direct metal additive, but casting has an incredible amount of shape flexibility too.” Casting also benefits from being a mature manufacturing process with qualification pathways for hundreds of materials including application specific alloys. Direct metal additive’s value proposition against casting is centered around lead times and agility but by using what Andreas describes as ‘No Tool Casting’ this argument all but evaporates.
The generatively designed swingarm was printed, cast in A356 aluminum, cleaned, heat treated, machined and inspected within three weeks, with the whole process taking only a few months. This kind of agility of manufacturing gives Lightning its speed on the track before anybody else. “The democratization of technology will enable new ideas to be brought to market quicker and allow startups to compete with large legacy enterprises.” CEO, Richard Hatfield told TCT. Earlier this month an electric vehicle made by Tesla just 15 miles down the road from Lightning’s headquarters in San Carlos, California is hurtling at 24,500mph towards Mars. While we might not match that here on earth, you can be sure Lightning Motorcycles and Autodesk will continue to push the limits of what is possible.
“Most of the lead time and cost in casting is in the tooling,” Andreas states. “The foundry we are working with on this project use a voxeljet sand printer to directly print their molds. Using this method, you effectively get all the value proposition of direct metal additive plus all of the advantages of casting.” Although sand printing for foundries is not new, it is the addition of Autodesk Generative Design that takes this project to another level. The foundry in question is Tooling & Equipment International (TEI), based out of Livonia, Michigan, and its President, Oliver Johnson concurs with Andreas on casting’s future for generatively designed parts.
TOP LEFT: GENERATIVE
DESIGN TOOLS ALLOWED LIGHTNING MOTORCYCLES TO COMPARE MANY UNIQUE DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES
“We have combined advanced simulation and computer-
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From THE the EDITOR editor FROM
SECTOR: DENTAL APPLICATION: ALIGNERS TECHNOLOGY: 3D SYSTEMS ISSUE: VOLUME 4 | ISSUE 6
Align Technology is a perfect example of a company taking risks and reveling in the rewards. The developer of Invisalign clear aligners has been using the stereolithography (SLA) process for more than 20 years and in that time has worked to put together an automated production process around it that churns out 320,000 aligners a day, 1,600,000 a week, and each one of them specific to the patient that will wear them. You mightn’t be operating in the dental or healthcare sectors, but Align Technology’s journey is one that should inspire.
“THEY’RE 320,000 DIFFERENT PARTS, SO THAT MEANS WE HAVE TO HAVE 100% OF THEM MADE, IT’S NOT LIKE WE CAN SAY WE HAVE 95.5% YIELD AND THAT’S GREAT. WE HAVE TO MAKE EVERY SINGLE PART.” SAM DAVIES ASSISTANT EDITOR
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CATCHING UP WITH ALIGN WORDS:SAM SAMDAVIES DAVIES WORDS:
W
hen a company applies for a patent, it does so to safeguard its innovation for a period of up to 20 years. But any firm with the aptitude for originality tends to have visions beyond a generation, and so must evolve, and continue to evolve so when those patents expire the company is in a healthy enough position not to succumb to the increase in competitors that will follow. In 1997, two Stanford graduates, novices in the world of orthodontics, were bringing to market a novel idea. Some 20 years later, the mass production of that idea would be wholly reliant on the advances in 3D printing, data management software, and other pieces of automation technology. Equally, millions of people around the world would be dependent on Align Technology, developer of Invisalign clear aligners. It wasn’t without its bumps in the road. It never is. Profligacy with marketing budgets was one jolt, while a warning from the FDA re the insufficient reporting of serious reactions to its products was another. In between, one of the founders departed, set up a rival firm and an IP infringement battle ensued, with Align and OrthoClear eventually signing a Binding Settlement.
company’s early patents are expiring. Those patents lit the fuse that over two decades has continued to burn bright, culminating in the company’s recent revelation that it has the capacity to manufacture up to 320,000 patient-specific
“STEREOLITHOGRAPHY IS THE BASE TECHNOLOGY WE’RE GOING WITH IN PRODUCTION.” aligners a day – that’s 1,600,000 a (five-day) week. It provides a buffer. As does the fact that those patents relate to the company’s earliest digital treatment planning process, and not necessarily the many iterations that followed, which today includes many of the innovations in Align’s subsequent patents – of which there are now 816 issued worldwide.
SPONSORED BY
“It took us many years to get to this point,” Srini Kaza, VP of Product Innovation, tells TCT, “and we needed to refine as we go. Our technology and process have changed and advanced dramatically since those early patents were written. And there is a substantial experience curve involved.” That process begins with acquiring the patient’s dentition through a one-minute 3D scan, and then administered through a virtual treatment plan which dictates how the patient’s smile should look, whether they have an overbite or underbite, for example. Once this treatment plan is complete, Align communicates with the dental professionals through its ClinCheck software, uploading the treatment plan for them to modify and send it back. This all occurs from the company’s factories in Costa Rica, Chengdu, Cologne and Madrid, and once the go-ahead is given, fabrication commences in Juarez, Mexico, a bona fide manufacturing hotbed, which also houses production facilities for GE Healthcare, Honeywell Aerospace, and Johnson & Johnson, to
The latest potential snag, as reported by Forbes last year, and as you might have worked out if your basic math is up to scratch, is that the
ALL IMAGES CREDITeD TO: ALIGN TECHNOLOGY.
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DENTAL
SHOWN: ALIGN USES 3D SYSTEMS’ PROX SLA 3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGY AS PART OF ITS ALIGNER FABRICATION WORKFLOW
name a few. Align placed itself there to tap into the wealth of engineering talent. And it shows. In Juarez, Align has an automated workflow, featuring modular operations which manufacture, transport, post process and package the products ready to be shipped to the patient. Using 3D Systems’ ProX SLA systems, the molds are printed to the patient’s exact specifications using the CAD data generated within ClinCheck. Each mold has its own unique data label which is read by a digital management system to ensure the product is tracked throughout the entire process and goes through the correct production steps. Once on the assembly line, the printed parts stop off at various manufacturing points, like the forming and marking stage whereby a medical-grade polymer is thermal formed over the aligner mold, and then the mold goes through trimming, cutting and polishing stages, which have been defined by the digital treatment plan agreed upon between doctor and manufacturer. Thanks to the unique ID tags on each product, the aligners can then be located and grouped back together ready to be packaged and shipped to the correct person. The 3D printing aspect is only a single cog in a wheel that draws contributions from a plethora of technologies. Yet, without it, the mass customization of thousands of aligners at a time wouldn’t be tangible. And even then, the fact that each and every set of products to go around the facility’s production carousel is tailored to a different person, only raises the stakes in what is already a massively challenging task. “If we were making 320,000 [of the same] parts a day then I would challenge anybody, ‘why would you use 3D printing? If it’s the same shape, then let’s just use an injection molder or something like that,’” stresses Kaza. “They’re 320,000 different parts, so that means we have to have 100% of them made, it’s not like we can say we have 95.5% yield and that’s great. We have to make every single part. And you have to track every single part, and you have to eventually get them together the right way because they’re all different patients. You’ve got to get the right aligners for the right patient together at the right station, track them, keep control of the data. Taking care of all that is very complex.”
SHOWN: THE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING SOLUTION IS USED TO CREATE SACRIFICIAL TOOLING, WHICH LEADS TO THE CREATION OF THE FINAL, PATIENT-READY ALIGNERS WHICH MATCH EVERY STAGE OF THE PATIENT’S TREATMENT PROCESS
And it’s of the utmost importance too. For 20 years, there has been regular investments on updates and upgrades. Indeed, the news that Align can clock up 320,000 aligners a day came about after the company announced it had increased its investment of 3D Systems’ ProX SLA machines. The stereolithography process has practically been a mainstay in the process, and although evolution will continue, it’s unlikely Align will ever move away from the first commercially available 3D printing process.
be supplemented by an identical base in China which will be smaller and oblige the local customer needs in the local languages. It will harness all the IP in those 800+ patents, and duplicate the automated workflow in Juarez. This concentrated serving of the Chinese market has come about because the country is the company’s fastest growing region. With a new facility, expect another significant increase in output.
“After all these years, we see that stereolithography is by far the most robust process in terms of production,” Kaza said. “We have done a lot of work turning that into a production process so going to the ProX is just going to the next generation of it. That’s how we look at it, just keeping in tune with the latest technology in the area, keeping in mind that stereolithography is the base technology that we’re going with in production.”
What started as a novel idea has grown through time into a mammoth workflow, but one that is never standing still. Over the years, Align has introduced its SmartTrack material, designed to better control tooth movement; SmartForce attachments and features that are tied into the design of aligners to make those movements more predictable; and plenty of other workings of the process. Most are patented, some patent pending.
The 3D printing machines, like the entire production workflow, run around the clock, providing a continuous output to serve the global demand for Invisalign products. Later this year, it will begin to
This evolution doesn’t stop. Align is consistently focused on investing in new technology to improve productivity and squeeze out more cost. Thus, as its early patents expire, there’s no haste or concern: “Someone may try to manufacture clear aligners, but we believe that would be similar to the technology that we had 10+ years ago,” Kaza assessed. Align has put in two decades of ground work to get to 320,000 parts a day. It didn’t come quick, it didn’t come cheap, and it didn’t come easy. Any supposed competitor has a lot of catching up to do.
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From the editor
FROM THE EDITOR
SECTOR: JOB SHOPS APPLICATION: MOLDING & TOOLING TECHNOLOGY: 3D SYSTEMS ISSUE: VOLUME 4 | ISSUE 3
This case study is a perfect example of a traditional manufacturing business adopting advanced technologies to stay ahead of the game. By investing in a single metal AM system, the company was able to achieve cycle time reductions of around 40% and drastically improve the performance of its products. As this story shows, it’s not always about overhauling your entire business or completely replacing traditional manufacturing but identifying where additive fits into your workflow.
“WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO EXCEL AND SUCCEED BECAUSE WE ALWAYS LOOK FOR TECHNOLOGY TO BE THE ANSWER TO HOW WE MAKE THAT NEXT STEP.”
LAURA GRIFFITHS DEPUTY GROUP EDITOR
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MOULDING & TOOLING
MOLDING INCREASES ITS COOL WORDS : LAURA GRIFFITHS
AS A GROWING NUMBER OF MOLD AND DIE SHOPS IMPLEMENT ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING (AM), IT’S TIME THOSE STILL ON THE FENCE TOOK NOTE, AS ONE SHOP TELLS TCT. 3 LEFT:
METAL 3D PRINTED CORES PRODUCED ON THE PRO X DMP 300
6 BELOW:
JARAD RAUCH, B&J SPECIALITY IT & 3D PRINTING MANAGER
A
corn field in Indiana isn’t exactly the first place that comes to mind when thinking about technology, but B&J Specialty Inc., a 35-year old mold, die and build-to-print tooling provider, is showing that you can find innovation in the most unexpected places. Founded as a small shop in a garage by a father and son team to meet the needs of local factories, B&J has grown into a family of organizations that are always striving to be on the cutting-edge of technology. “We have always been able to excel and succeed because we always look for technology to be the answer to how we make that next step,” Jarod Rauch of B&J Specialty Inc. told TCT. “We have seen so many tool shops in our area and the industry, that don't strive to improve and before you know it, they're no more.” B&J invested in a 3D Systems ProX DMP 300 metal 3D printer along with Cimatron mold design and 3DXpert AM software to enable them to create complex geometries and apply conformal cooling strategies into mold designs that would be impossible with traditional methods. In the plastics molding industry, cooling lines and circuits are typically the last things to be incorporated into a design. Traditional methods of cooling a mold have been limited and inefficient, usually done by drilling intersecting holes throughout the geometry and often leading to
defects such as warping, sink marks, and long molding cycle times. “When we build tools that do not have adequate cooling there is a lot of warping,” Rauch explained. “We have to build adjustment into our design knowing that after we get the sample part molded, we'll have to run it across our blue light scan machine and figure out how it defects from the original geometry and then reverse that. With conformal cooling, I’m able to reduce a lot of that warpage so I can get a mold from build into production much faster.” The cooling stage can take up over half of the overall injection mold cycle, so optimal cooling is vital. With metal 3D printing in-house, B&J can create molds in maraging steel, which can be heat treated and machined, and design peak cooling passages inside a part which maintain a uniform distance between the molding surface and cooling lines. “If you take a high-value mold that's going to produce 2.5-3 million parts
and you reduce five seconds per cycle off that - if you break that down, you've just paid wages for somebody for two years,” Rauch elaborated. In some cases, the process has resulted in a 40% reduction in cycle times, 30% production rate increase, improved part quality and increased performance of the tooling itself. In one particular mold cavity test, a conventionally manufactured part had over 132-degree deviation in temperature which can be catastrophic for a plastic mold. With 3D printed conformal cooling passages, the part had only 18-degree temperature fluctuation across the cavity resulting in over 86% improvement in cooling. Currently, AM has penetrated around 2% of B&Js business through not only conformal cooling applications but increased part complexity and removal of material with lattice structures. Rauch believes by educating customers and encouraging an open mindset, that number can only continue to grow. “I see that gaining and doubling and tripling, I would say hopefully in the next five years, if not sooner because once we get one customer on board and their results start spreading throughout the molding industry, other customers are going to jump on board.”
6 BELOW:
MOLD DESIGN WITH CONFORMAL COOLING CHANNELS CREATED WITH CIMATRON
grimm column
PREPARED TO POUNCE WORDS : TODD GRIMM
TODD GRIMM is a stalwart of the additive manufacturing industry, having held positions across sales and marketing with some of the industry’s biggest names. Todd is currently the AM Industry advisor with AMUG
O
tgrimm@tagrimm.com
ops, there it goes—another opportunity to capitalize on additive manufacturing (AM) just passed by you.
Didn’t see it? That’s because you didn’t know what to look for. Saw it but didn’t react? That’s because you were ill-equipped to deploy AM when it was needed. Recognized it but didn’t act? That’s because you allowed status quo to obscure the opportunity. This scenario plays out every day, even for run-of-the-mill applications like prototyping and even within companies that are on top of their AM games. As AM for production makes further inroads and becomes increasingly viable, history will repeat itself unless you begin to prepare for that inevitability. For AM production, and other applications, you must be prepared to pounce. AM is not a drop-in solution that fits neatly within the traditional considerations for design and manufacturing. Integration into current operations is a long journey. Taking full control of AM and acquiring the needed intelligence
to do so is longer still. Insights into technical, operational and financial matters, in advance of deployment, are required to enable your company to act when the time is right. To do nothing in advance—to ignore AM in the present—is a complacent approach that will put you behind the competition. Most can’t, or don’t need to, deploy AM for production today; the vast majority have yet to do this. However, all should be, at a minimum, considering the possibilities and requirements. Inaction will leave you behind or place you in the undesirable position of needing to rapidly catch up to those that invested their resources in advance. To be prepared to pounce requires a deep understanding of AM that is converted into a plan of attack. The plan does not need to be perfect—it will evolve—but it must be informed. Investigation begins with a clear understanding of the potential value that AM offers. This will extend beyond incremental gains versus traditional technologies and beyond the platitudes expressed from the stage and in print. A deep, broad understanding of AM’s effect and impact will lead to strong business cases that have merit and hold promise. Having a strong sense of direction and justifiable use cases will arm you with the rationale for pouncing. Next, you will need to understand how to pounce. Preparatory research
of the AM technology landscape will identify possible candidates and reveal their associated advantages and limitations. This understanding is as much about capitalizing on unique capabilities as uncovering perceived deficiencies. For the things that an AM technology does not do well, the insight supports planning for how to mitigate the challenges and obstacles. AM technology investigation will also reveal the complete workflow, from raw data to finished goods. An understanding of the workflow will then lead to infrastructure requirements, which are rarely discussed but often significant, unseen stumbling blocks. Discovering that you are operationally lacking after initiating AM activities will delay your ability to pounce by months, maybe years. Your understanding of the needed infrastructure will span equipment, facilities, and processes. It will also include human resources in terms of staffing required and skills needed. Convert the infrastructure understanding into a plan, and you are now prepared to pounce. There is a lot to learn and more to discover to prepare for future AM applications. Taking this work on before the need arises or the opportunities reveal themselves is an investment in your future. Don’t wait and don’t fall into the trap of complacency. For if you do, you will be saying ‘Oops, there it goes’ over and over.
WHAT'S THE ALLURE?
grimm column
WORDS : TODD GRIMM
TODD GRIMM is a stalwart of the additive manufacturing industry, having held positions across sales and marketing with some of the industry’s biggest names. Todd is currently the AM Industry advisor with AMUG
tgrimm@tagrimm.com
A
dditive manufacturing’s (AM) allure is obvious, yet its use is not as pervasive as industry participants would like. From machine shops for prototypes and tools to production operations for manufactured goods, many find reason to discount or ignore AM’s obvious benefits. Sure, we could cite technical and financial reasons for the somewhat limited use, but I believe there is a more fundamental obstacle that must be removed. That obstacle is buried deep within the psyche of individuals and corporations. It is the battle between prospective gains and the bias towards the known experience we call status quo. To move forward, with AM and in any aspect of life and business, the motivation to act must outweigh the discomfort of moving beyond status quo. This is represented by a simple equation I call the Allure Quotient. The Allure Quotient is a qualitative measure that adds intangible and non-monetary considerations to a return on investment (ROI) calculation. It is a subjective method to predict action (and resistance) on an AM initiative. If the quotient is too low, it is time to regroup and rethink your plans. If it is high, you will find ways to barrel through the challenges of making the gains a reality. The quotient is basic: divide all the hoped-for value by the combination of investment, effort and perceived risk, and then multiply the result by the number of parts affected. The numerator in this equation is the motivation; how badly does the company want what AM offers? The denominator is the demotivator; how hard will it be to realize the potential. The multiplier is a representation of how broad AM’s impact will be.
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Since this is an expansion of an ROI with qualitative aspects, make sure to add all the intangible benefits to the motivator (value). Think beyond time reduction and cost improvement. Add in part performance gains, improved operational effectiveness, and anything else that you or the company would relish. You will likely need to go beyond time and money to overcome the demotivator because status quo has the upper hand in this respect. For status quo—same process, same material and similar part design—the denominator is one. You have experience and knowledge, which negates risk and avoids the need for research, investigation, training and testing. For AM, the denominator is much, much larger, at least until it has become a staple for the intended application. The effort to understand, characterize, quantify and assess AM is quite a burden. Factor in the wildcard of perceived risk, which exists any time change is made, and the demotivator can stall the best intentions for AM. The Allure Quotient sheds light on why series production with AM is mostly limited to high-value components while tools (jigs & fixtures) are becoming widely used for parts of any value. For production, the multiplier is small
due to low breakeven volumes; the denominator is huge due to the need to characterize everything about the process and the output, as well as the risk associated with product failure. So the numerator must contain substantial gains that aren’t likely with commodity components. Conversely for tools, the multiplier is very large since one jig can influence hundreds of thousands of parts; the denominator is reasonable, primarily because the risk is low. This means that the numerator for tools does not have to be nearly as large. Given plenty of time, the AM denominator will significantly decrease. Maturity will deliver education, experience, information, guidance, standards and hard data. It will no longer be the burden of individual companies to derive the insights and understanding. This will naturally expand the AM applications because it improves the Allure Quotient. But I don’t recommend waiting. Instead, find the high-value opportunities and invest time and effort to gain the understanding and insights, now. Then build on this success to chip away at the demotivators for more demanding applications. So, what’s the Allure? Determining that is the first step in a new, successful AM initiative.
ALTERNATE REALITIES
T
WORDS: TODD GRIMM
ruth is I doubt my opinions and beliefs on what the future holds for additive manufacturing (AM). The doubt doesn’t arise from a lack of confidence nor from a lack of conviction. Instead, it arises because there are many possible realities when it comes to the future. The alternate realities are each based on a set of facts, nuances, caveats and details that must themselves become real. Not knowing exactly how these pieces of the puzzle will come together, it makes little sense to be overly confident and to not re-evaluate my beliefs frequently.
The most common situation that causes me to reassess what I hold to be true is when I join the audience to hear what a keynote speaker has on their mind. Coming from a pragmatic position, the thought-provoking commentary often disagrees with my thoughts. This causes me to pause and to contemplate what she knows that I do not. Surprisingly, follow-up conversations often reveal that while our predictions are drastically different, our facts are not. Instead, it is our interpretation of the facts coupled with the underlying assumptions that leads to disparate conclusions. A few weeks ago, this situation played out once again. An informed keynote speaker from a large corporation, one firmly rooted in technology, clearly and enthusiastically laid out the future of manufacturing. AM was a key to this future and one that she stated would profoundly impact all companies. She advised preparation for the big changes that were coming, changes that would fundamentally alter manufacturing strategies, plans, actions and control. I stepped up on the stage after her presentation and delivered my message: sweeping change is possible but not probable without significant developments. Lingering in my head as I presented was the voice questioning if I was wrong. The keynote speaker had no hidden agenda and nothing to sell to those that believed her words. Her motivation was pure, which furthered my doubts. So I made it my mission to chat with her, to compare notes, and to discover where my blind spots existed.
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Pleasant, approachable and open minded, she engaged with me in a 90-minute conversation. Our dialogue was exhilarating, challenging and, most importantly, productive. When we ended our discourse, neither of us had changed our opinions of AM’s future, but each of us understood the underlying tenets that led to our conclusions. I found that our thoughts were not that different. Instead, our assumptions about how the pieces of the puzzle would come together were the cause of the divergence. Through the conversation, and others like it, I discovered how we could devise alternate realities while sharing many beliefs. Simply stated, the devil is in the details, and that is the crux of my message to you. To understand how AM can help or harm you in the years to come, you must understand the planks that support the opinion or forecast. Don’t accept others’ positions without first appreciating the details and caveats on which the premise is made.
grimm column
Start by being receptive to ideas that appear to be contradictory, treating each as a possible reality. Then dig in to discover the details that are fundamental to the possibility becoming a reality. Next, determine which of these details are pertinent to your business and then distill this list to the five or so critical elements. Armed with this insight, investigate the current state of each element and the probability of change. Now, you can come to your own personal conclusion, not those of a few pundits, as to what role AM will play and what you need to do to get the most out of it. What the future holds, and how to plan for it, that is up to you to decide. Rick Riordan, a bestselling American author said, “It's funny how humans can wrap their mind around things and fit them into their version of reality.” Don’t get caught up in another’s reality; determine your own. And remember, according to John Lennon, “Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”
TODD GRIMM is a stalwart of the additive manufacturing industry, having held positions across sales and marketing with some of the industry’s biggest names. Todd is currently the AM Industry advisor with AMUG
tgrimm@tagrimm.com
DON’T LET BAD APPLES SPOIL PROGRESS
grimm column
WORDS: TODD GRIMM
F
rom the TCT Show’s main stage, I spoke of being on the cusp of positive change reflected in a shift in attitudes, beliefs and actions. I believe that we are at a transition point from which the AM industry will continue to build momentum that builds in a way that makes advancing into the future easier with each passing day. Essentially, this shift will accelerate the arrival of the promised future. The crux of this observation is that we are experiencing an alignment amongst all the constituents in the industry. Instead of toiling to discover needed information or to make a technology work for the intended application, vendors are now collectively and proactively working to support the user community by supplying real information, real guidance and purpose-built technologies that open the doors to real opportunities. This is in stark contrast to the days of grand visions and bold claims that showed possibility but offered little support in making them a probability. Working in collaboration to meet a shared objective, information is being produced and exchanged and technologies are being developed to address the needs, wants and desires of the user base. Working in concert, possibilities emerge, and the probability of success grows. However, being on the cusp means that we are transitioning, which in turn means that not all of the vendors are abiding by this new discipline. There are still “bad apples” that will exaggerate the truth, mislead through omissions of fact, or blatantly lie. In a very competitive market where it is hard to stand out and be noticed, the motivation to deceive is comprehensible, but it is no longer acceptable. Those that behave badly to serve their interests alone, in stark contrast to the interests of the AM industry, jeopardize progress by undermining the momentum that we are building. While one bad apple won’t spoil progress, if we allow too many to exhibit this bad behavior, we will suffer from their actions. Rather than pushing beyond the cusp, we could roll backwards and have to regain lost momentum. So it is time to put all AM vendors on notice that we, the AM user community, will no longer
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tolerate this behavior. We will not overlook or excuse deceit. As a maturing industry, we expect participants to behave accordingly, maturely. I recognize that there is some degree of salesmanship that will have to be tolerated and that the actions of an individual should not condemn his/her organization. Therefore, I suggest that we start to communicate bad corporate citizenship where misinformation and dishonesties are part of an organization’s DNA. To get this movement started, I suggest that you start by telling your peers when you encounter a bad apple. Don’t keep it to yourself, allowing the same thing to happen to others, which allows the rottenness to spread and infect the perceptions of broad swaths of our user base. Alternatively, tweet your experience using the hashtag #AMBadApple. However, be judicious and don’t act with prejudice. Before conveying an experience, contemplate if the action is indicative of the
organization’s directives or just the character of an individual. For those that want to affect change anonymously, message me through LinkedIn (www.linkedin. com/in/toddgrimm) to share your experiences. I have no intent of exposing deceit based on a single incident, but if a pattern emerges, I will investigate. Where warranted, I will make the information public. Additionally, I will report, without naming companies, the nature of common misdeeds to offer insights on items that must be diligently examined. AM advances with the successes of the user community; solving problems and creating new opportunities. On the other hand, failures, disappointments and letdowns become setbacks. Working together, and working towards common goals, we will experience far more success. Let’s take control by encouraging and supporting AM vendors that are working with us while discouraging bad behavior that erodes the momentum that has been achieved.
TODD GRIMM is a stalwart of the additive manufacturing industry, having held positions across sales and marketing with some of the industry’s biggest names. Todd is currently the AM Industry advisor with AMUG
tgrimm@tagrimm.com
grimm column
B CKET LIST A
dditive manufacturing (AM) presents a wide variety of technologies to help us achieve our goals. Far from being stagnant, this dynamic industry continues to offer an ever-increasing list of options. But this falls in the category of ‘too much of a good thing’. With so many options, it can be quite overwhelming, and sometimes a bit confusing, when attempting to absorb and comprehend all of the technologies available. However, having a firm grasp on the AM landscape is critical in making the best decisions, which are supported by deep investigation of the technological candidates. To maintain control, and to perhaps preserve your sanity, I suggest that you consider the bucket-list approach. In the everyday context, a bucket list is an optimistic roster of actions or dreams to fulfill before one’s time ends. For AM, I am suggesting a bucket list that is expansive while being practical and sensible. I am suggesting a method, one that I have had to use out of necessity, for organizing and managing the vast number of AM solutions. The bucket list is a categorization system that helps you to retain all the options that you are exposed to while keeping you focused on those that present the best opportunities to succeed. It has just three buckets into which AM solutions are deposited. The first bucket, ‘Investigate’, holds the options that are of high interest and are to be actively pursued through investigation. The second bucket, ‘Monitor’, contains the options that are worthy of further consideration at some time in the future. The third bucket, ‘Ignore’, is for all others. If done wisely, this approach should remove 75%, or more, of the options from your active consideration. Using my personal criteria, Ignore includes poorly differentiated me-too products and those that I don’t believe have much promise. Monitor is where I place interesting solutions that I believe need a bit more time to mature and advance. Investigate is for those solutions that are commercially viable and ready for general release to the industry. I recommend that you also use technology readiness as a factor in TODD GRIMM
is a stalwart of the additive manufacturing industry, having held positions across sales and marketing with some of the industry’s biggest names. Todd is currently the AM Industry advisor with AMUG
tgrimm@tagrimm.com
040 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 5 ISSUE 1
determining which bucket to place a solution. However, all of my other criteria will not work for you since they must be defined by your needs, goals and applications. Before you start your bucket list, decide what is important, what is critical and what would be nice to have. Make these decisions with consideration of your intended applications and product types coupled with the needed materials, output characteristics and performance traits. With this clarity, you can now start your bucket list by contemplating your requirements with respect to what a solution is known to offer. Then, as you are exposed to new companies, new machines, new materials, and new software, pause for a moment and reflect on whether they should be Investigated, Monitored, or Ignored. It is tempting to get caught in ‘paralysis by analysis’ as you drop items in the respective buckets, but don’t over-analyse and overthink. Instead, rely on your intuition and what you know to be true. Organization is what is important, not perfection, because your bucket list will evolve as new information comes forward. An item that currently resides in the Ignore bucket is not lost forever; it can be moved when new information presents itself. Using the bucket list, you will have command of the AM landscape while focusing attention on what matters most. It provides rationale to what can be ignored or investigated later for peace of mind, sanity and confidence. It is also a great defense of your approach when someone, often in upper management, inserts themselves into your AM efforts after reading the latest headline and asking if you have considered this new solution. Simply turn to them and state that you have taken a look at it, but it does not deserve further attention and support that statement with your one sentence rationale. There are many paths to AM success. A good bucket list separates the dead ends and arduous paths from the easiest and most direct routes.
grimm column
THE WORD OF THE DAY
T
here has been yet another tweak to the additive manufacturing (AM) lexicon. If it weren’t for my review of the news released over the past six months, in preparation for keynotes and presentations, I may have overlooked this trend. But when you read hundreds of news items back to back, it becomes glaringly obvious. What am I referring to? The liberal use of the word “industrial.”
In the context of industrial-grade, one would presume operational capabilities that make the machine a dependable workhorse, on par with the 10-year-old 3-axis mill that has been churning out parts with low scrap rates. Rugged, tough, repeatable—and a whole host of other adjectives—could be presumed to be characteristics of the industrial 3D printer. Although we are moving towards these characteristics, I believe that most 3D printers would not meet these expectations.
After the hype over consumer 3D printing died down, machine suppliers had to carve out new markets. And the obvious choice was in the engineering and design departments within companies that created new products. To be recognized as a potential solution, 3D printing companies latched on to a simple word, “professional”. For many of these suppliers, nothing changed with the machines, there was just the substitution of the word “professional” for “consumer”.
When assessed against a company’s chosen metrics for industrial equipment, for example overall equipment effectiveness, I believe the results will not be favorable for most, if not all, AM solutions. If it is found that the AM machine doesn’t measure up, the effects can be damaging. If discovered during an evaluation, progress may be halted. If discovered during implementation, someone will be held accountable. And if discovered by those that are resisting change, they have evidence that AM isn’t all that it is claimed to be; evidence that AM isn’t on par with traditional manufacturing solutions; evidence that AM should not be considered.
So now that “professional” has become ubiquitous suppliers have adopted “industrial” as the word of the day. The other motivator for this word choice is that engineering and design applications are so passé…so 2015. While the bulk of AM use continues to be in this application area, suppliers now are hungry for a piece of the manufacturing tool, mold and die, and production markets. The issue I had with “professional” and now have with “industrial” is that the words serve two purposes. One is to convey who should be interested in the product. I can live with that. The other purpose is to convey that the machine performs to the standards expected for a professional-grade or industrial-grade printer. This is where I have an issue. Dictionaries state that “industrial” is defined as “of or relating to factories.” Therefore, AM suppliers can legitimately claim that they supply industrial machines if they are placed within a factory setting. As previously stated, I am fine with that. The problem arises when “industrial 3D printer” is assumed to mean industrial-grade or when suppliers explicitly state “industrial-grade 3D printers.” This is misleading and often a blatant mistruth. TODD GRIMM
is a stalwart of the additive manufacturing industry, having held positions across sales and marketing with some of the industry’s biggest names. Todd is currently the AM Industry advisor with AMUG
tgrimm@tagrimm.com
052 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 5 ISSUE 2
To protect your interests, first ask the AM supplier how it was determined that the product is industrial-grade. Without a satisfactory answer, strike the word industrial from your thought process. Simply evaluate it as an AM solution without any qualifiers. With a satisfactory answer, proceed to put the AM machine to the test and measure it against your performance metrics. Alternatively, you can do what I have now done: ignore the word industrial unless a supplier proactively offers proof of this claim In the not-to-distant future, the word of the day will once again change. It will be interesting to see what marketing types come up with when AM is generally established as an industrial solution but the word has lost its luster. Perhaps they will follow in the footsteps of the automotive industry to give us “heavy-duty” solutions followed by “super-duty” machines.
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