ASME, Siemens Gas and Power Collaboration Provides AM Training in Engineering Fields

Siemens Gas and Power and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), in November 2019, announced their collaboration on the development of additive manufacturing (AM) training services offered through Material Solutions, a Siemens Business, as an extension of its additive services portfolio. The agreement laid the groundwork for thecreation of AM training solutions to better support Siemens’ customers on their AM efforts.

Siemens Gas and Power, based in Houston, brings its technical application content as a leading industry user of AM to the partnership, combining it with ASME’s competency model framework and learning and development platform.

The International Titanium Association made arrangements to learn more about this collaboration effort, in order to provide insights into the state of the art for AM. The following is a question and answer interview, facilitated by Monica Shovlin of MCShovlin Communications LLC, Eugene, OR, who does marketing and communications work for ASME.

How did this partnership come about? What’s the mission of this effort?

Arin Ceglia, ASME director of learning and development, said that “Siemens Energy and ASME are partnering to work towards scaling workforce development across the field of engineering. ASME’s agile course development,educational technology and learning science expertise—combined with Siemens broad AM know-how and experience—will enhance ASME’s Learning and Development course offerings.”

Marcus Siebold, vice president of AM at Siemens Power and Gas, said he sees a trend in which design engineers need to get additively manufactured parts designed, manufactured, validated, and developed quicker than in the past. He believes this is primarily because “we are moving from prototyping to serial production. And serial production is all about speed efficiency and effectiveness of implementation. Today, we need to think a lot about how we can upskill and train our workforce given that increased requirement for speed.”

Siebold sees “the need for a holistic company-wide training and education concept that includes everyone from the design engineer at the part identification phase on how to combine different parts into one, how to see the benefits of the technology, the operator who needs to learn how to operate the tools, quality engineers inspecting the parts... all the way to the logistic and procurement people who do things like secure powder.”

ASME courses are built as part of a competency framework, or a learning architecture, which is carefully constructed to roll up to the big picture from every course. Because of this, courses also contribute to completing a stronger picture of a learner’s knowledge capabilities, indicating levels achieved in a set of core competencies, with skills sitting underneath. These competencies are about much more than just a pass or fail. Strengths and weaknesses in one competency or skill can be made visible not just to students and instructors, but also to company management. Employers can track their employees’ progress in these competencies or skills, identifying areas of progress as well as where improvement (and targeted investment) is needed.

Besides the format of delivery, having high-quality industry experts teach the courses gives learners a focus on practicality and application. ASME courses are not static; they deliver takeaways or job aids engineers can implement in their own workflows. The course on design for additive manufacturing, for example, includes an Advanced Manufacturing Flight Check ™, a tangible checklist and on-the-job aid that helps design engineers validate a design before the final build. Engineers can rely on tools like this long after the class has ended.

As a result of this partnership, the engineering community will benefit from an expansive body of subject matter expertise, rooted in more than 10 years of scalable serial production experience in AM. All aspects of AM design, materials, and processes will be covered while connecting the AM ecosystem via Siemens to simplify the collaboration process and streamline new production processes.

Does the partnership focus on specific training and applications for titanium additive manufacturing? Or is it a more general approach that involves other strategic metals like nickel, stainless steel, and aluminum?

When it comes to additive manufacturing, companies are adopting new materials and processes every day to rethink the way they manufacture parts and components. ASME courses ensure that learners gain a clear understanding of the benefits associated with optimizing designs given specific use cases. Many of these use cases showcase parts and components utilizing titanium additive manufacturing.

You mentioned a facility in Florida--does this serve as a training center? How would titanium industry stakeholders become involved in this program? What kind of test equipment are they using at this facility?

The AM facility is based in the University of Central Florida campus in Orlando and is two miles from Siemens Energy headquarters. The additive manufacturing facility is run by Materials Solutions US (wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens Energy) and is co-located with the Siemens Energy Services team in their 17,000 square foot innovation center. “We have run AM training from this center previously and while our collaboration with ASME today is focused on e-learning, we could use this facility for face to face trainings if we develop our collaboration in that direction,” Siebold said. “The AM center today operates Inconel® and aluminum alloys and, as part of the extended Innovation Center, has comprehensive test and inspection equipment including CT scan, thermal imaging, eddy current inspection, and 3D scanning.”

Does the partnership focus on industry specific part production and application areas (such as aerospace)?

“At ASME, we are committed to empowering the global engineering community with practical knowledge and indemand job skills by combining ASME’s industry experts with application-based learning design,” Ceglia said.

ASME’s Additive Manufacturing (AM) with Metals courses are some of the first commercially available Additive Manufacturing on-demand learning solutions dedicated specifically to designing metal parts for production and manufacturing.

“As the industry turns to Additive Manufacturing as a means of staying competitive, exciting career opportunities for engineers trained in AM have been generated,” says Ceglia. “Through these courses engineers and their employers can acquire and apply the knowledge that allows them to play an integral role in the integration of 3D printing in manufacturing.”

ASME’s Additive Manufacturing with Metals courses were designed for individuals or teams in any engineering or manufacturing field who were not trained in the academic program but who are considering beginning or advancing their career in Additive Manufacturing.

A recent press release from ASME stated that “course curriculum covers the end-to-end additive manufacturing value chain.” Can we expand on this and provide details?

Here is an excerpt from a recent ASME-sponsored article in Additive Manufacturing magazine:

There can be a number of challenges when it comes to process time, cost, and quality, like:

• Understanding resources needed to start a design from scratch

• How to modify and improve an existing part as an alternative

• Identifying when an existing part needs a complete overhaul

Identifying these variables and others can help you anticipate the challenges before they turn critical. For those exploring AM applications for the first time, defining your process is especially key to pursuing new and profitable opportunities.

Replicate, Adapt, Optimize™ : A New Approach to AM

How can Replicate, Adapt, Optimize™ become a standard solution? What does it mean? These definitive terminologies are becoming part of the additive manufacturing lexicon across engineering communities and businesses alike. Companies have already been using the Replicate, Adapt, and Optimize™ steps in their manufacturing process, but due to a lack of formal naming conventions in the field, they are often not aware of this particular methodology.

• Replicate is about time. Adapt is about cost. Optimize is about quality.

Replicating with AM helped NASA significantly reduce manufacturing time on this engine component.

Source: NASA

(Use cases mapped to the value progression of additive manufacturing)

Source: ASME

• That doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t ready for it. Businesses are beginning to adopt similar methodologies—like Replicate, Adapt, Optimize™—to adjust their workflow and have a clearer understanding of what’s possible given their specific use case. In turn, stakeholders are sharing information across AM communities to communicate best practices, saving both time and money.

Replicate

How can your business benefit from replicating an existing part? Is it a simple process? When a part is replicated using AM, both designers and business owners need to be cognizant of the manufacturing limitations and challenges associated with the adaptation of any additive process.

When it comes to laser-based powder bed fusion systems for example, various design limitations need to be

Replicating with AM helped NASA significantly reduce manufacturing time on this engine component. Source: NASA

considered—such as overhangs, orientation, thin walls, and thick cross sections—all of which can pose unique challenges. Precise knowledge, skills, and tools are needed to reduce manufacturing time and cost, and stakeholders need to rely on informed decision-making by AM specialists.

Adapt

Modification poses significant challenges across the field of AM. Business owners can find themselves using it when they aren’t able to start completely fresh with a new design. Specialists can take certain aspects of an existing design and geometry and improve on it. As a result, a better case can be built for adapting designs for AM, such as:

The cost of a part

• Optimization of a specific part for laser-based powder bed fusion (LBPF)

• Enhanced performance of the part

• Avoiding constraints of traditional manufacturing processes

• Improved value proposition (making a better business case)

• Reduced post-processing needs

When adapting a design for LPBF, it’s important for the stakeholder and specialist to remember that the process isn’t linear. Several iterations of the part design will likely be required during build planning, and different modifications and refinements will likely take place. Each change that is introduced to the part design will affect its overall function, and may introduce a new set of challenges. With the adapt use case the part may be modified for better use of AM but it is not completely redesigned.

Adapt for AM tends to take more time, is more cost efficient, and has some improvement in quality

Source: ASME

Optimization software will generate several design alternatives for a given set of part specifications

Source: Generative Design: "The Road To Production” 2018, Engineering.Com

Optimize

Whether you are an AM specialist starting from scratch, or a business owner reimagining an existing design, optimization provides the most freedom to change the geometry of any given part. As a specialist, optimizing a part allows a “clean sheet” approach—and utilizes skill, knowledge, and innovation to generate new designs that leverage AM’s unique capabilities.

Computer programs and software are critical components of this step, and allow AM specialists to completely reimagine what parts and assemblies (even entire systems) look like in a variety of industries.

Design optimization ensures that the part will print more quickly, provide a cost-effective solution for businesses, and be the most efficient use of metal materials. The optimized use case allows you to completely redesign the part. Benefits of an optimized design include:

• Achieving the lightest weight possible for the part, without compromising function

• The most efficient use of materials by placing it only where it is needed

• Reduced build time and cost

• Generating an optimal design that can withstand specified internal or external forces (loading, pressure, torque, vibration, etc.)

• Optimal design for thermal management

• Minimal post-processing

‘Design for AM with Metals’ Online Course

ASME’s “Design for AM with Metals” online course, developed in cooperation with Tim Simpson of Penn State University, provides foundational knowledge to properly evaluate AM as a potentially viable technology solution, coupled with the in-depth technical knowledge necessary to efficiently shepherd AM parts from design, through post-processing and eventually into commercial market applications. Simpson is a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and co-director of the Center for Innovative Materials Processing Through Direct Digital Deposition at Penn State University’s College of Engineering.

According to information posted on the ASME website, the course provides the key foundational knowledge to properly evaluate AM as a potentially viable technology solution coupled with the in-depth technical knowledge necessary to efficiently shepherd AM parts from design, through post-processing and eventually into the market through three use cases: replication, adaptation, and optimization. For more information on ASME’s training services and the online course developed with Simpson, visit additive.asme.org.

(Editor’s note: Headquartered in New York, ASME is a not-for-profit membership organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing, career enrichment, and skills development across all engineering disciplines, toward a goal of helping the global engineering community develop solutions to benefit lives and livelihoods. Founded in 1880 by a small group of leading industrialists, ASME has grown through the decades to include more than 100,000 members in 140 countries; 32,000 of these members are students. Siemens Gas and Power, with more than 64,000 employees in over 80 countries, provides fully integrated products, solutions and services across the energy value chain of oil and gas production, power generation and transmission.)