It’s really only since the turn of this decade that the possibilities and scalability of additive manufacturing have been fully recognised. Additive manufacturing (or ‘3D printing’) is gaining momentum in a range ofindustries and its potential is revolutionising manufacturing.
What makes additive manufacturing so valuable is how it helps manufacturers optimise both component materials and the processes of design and production in a revolutionarily quick way.
By enabling manufacturers to simulate the design and manufacturing processes, material and part characteristics can be evaluated and updated for manufacturability and product optimisation, saving time andwaste. Even more time-savings and cost-cuttings can be made in a manufacturer’s future output, as the metrology process enables cross comparison between the simulated product and the real-world outcome, allowing users to feedback information to identify variance and improve the quality of the system.
The ultimate goal is that continuous improvement, established by interactions and data-sharing between the simulated and real-world models, leads to ‘first time right’ manufacturing. This is reliant on incremental improvements; as illustrated in the demonstration below, simulation-driven design and manufacturing streamlines key transitional gains such as optimising a part.
In this video from Hannover MESSE 2018, we use the example of a bike’s seat tower to show the power of increasing communication between simulated and real-world parts. The tools used in this example are underpinned by a user-friendly monitoring dashboard that even enables non-specialists to easily get information they need.
Watch to learn about the different steps of a simulation-led 3D printing process and how this leads to better products and smarter manufacturing.
