3D printing has been used for many years for rapid prototyping, helping to de-risk new designs before committing to expensive production tooling.\u00a0 But the recent arrival of effective metal 3D printing technology provides the opportunity to do more than just make models, but to make real, additively-manufactured production parts.\u00a0 Additive manufacturing (AM) will be a disruptive force in many markets.<\/p>\n
Production and Lifetime benefits of additive manufacturing<\/strong> So how can your business benefit from the disruptive capabilities of AM?\u00a0 A good way to think of this is as a series of levels of AM deployment, illustrated in the ‘staircase’ image above.\u00a0 As you move up through the levels the benefit rises, although so does the associated effort as we increasingly apply Design for AM (DfAM) principles.<\/p>\n Rapid prototyping & tooling<\/strong> Moving up a level, many firms’ first foray into AM part production is in direct part replacement.\u00a0 These are re-productions of existing part designs, which seek to replace complex and wasteful manufacturing processes with a simpler AM process route.\u00a0 This allows firms to gain experience with AM in low risk applications and to start to develop a supply chain for AM parts.\u00a0 The benefits here combine lower cost production with a more responsive service to customers.<\/p>\n The next level is where we start taking advantage of the design freedom that AM provides.\u00a0 Part consolidation can be used to transform assemblies into a single sophisticated component.\u00a0 This can greatly simplify manufacturing, whilst providing performance and reliability benefits in use.\u00a0 Reaching this level requires design authority and the ability to requalify a new part and process for production.<\/p>\n DfAM optimised parts<\/strong> Renishaw can help you to explore innovative new product designs at our new Solutions Centres, opening early next year.\u00a0 Want to learn more watch the video below.<\/p>\n Article by Marc Saunders, Director – Global Solutions Centres at Renishaw, accelerating adoption of additive manufacturing (metal 3D printing)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 3D printing has been used for many years for rapid prototyping, helping to de-risk new designs before committing to expensive production tooling.\u00a0 But the recent arrival of effective metal 3D printing technology provides the opportunity to do more than just make models, but to make real, additively-manufactured production parts.\u00a0 Additive manufacturing (AM) will be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,1],"tags":[159,446,1153],"class_list":["post-7815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-article","category-uncategorized","tag-additive-manufacturing","tag-dfam","tag-rapid-prototyping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe benefits of AM in metals fall into two categories – production benefits and lifetime benefits.\u00a0 Production benefits accrue during the manufacturing process itself and include reduced material consumption, shorter lead times, minimal tooling costs, lower assembly costs and the impact of automation.\u00a0 Lifetime benefits accrue during the use of the product, and come from sources such as reduced weight, higher performance and reliability, as well as better adaptation and a more attractive product.\u00a0 Other lifetime benefits can include service factors such as faster new product launch, improved responsiveness and reduced stocking \u00a0.<\/p>\n
\nThe ground floor is to deploy AM for Rapid prototyping & tooling,\u00a0 Prototypes help to de-risk system designs at low cost (a lifetime benefit), avoiding tooling costs whilst the design is still in flux (reducing production costs).\u00a0\u00a0 AM can also be used for cost-effective manufacture of complex tooling such as conformal-cooled mould tools.\u00a0 The risk at this level is low as there is no intention to use AM to make production parts, but the benefits are constrained by the limited number of parts involved.<\/p>\n
\nFinally, the top level is where all the capabilities of AM are deployed to produce DfAM optimised parts.\u00a0 At this level we create innovative product designs that are impossible to produce conventionally and which create new value for customers.\u00a0 This can be in the form of enhanced performance, greater efficiency or perfect adaptation to the circumstances of its use.\u00a0 It can even spark new business models that provide customised designs, locally produced on short lead times to satisfy latent customer needs.\u00a0 There’s certainly risk here, but this is where real market disruptions will occur.<\/p>\n