As additive manufacturing emerges from a long infancy, the industry is grappling with a key challenge: A file format and design tools from the 20th century are being asked to do 21st century jobs.
Burrs, sharp edges, and rough surfaces plague even the most precise metal-cutting or forming process. Deburring and finishing can often be treated as the step-child of a manufacturing process, but its importance is growing as tolerances get tighter and precision devices become the norm.
Until the middle of 2010, first-tier subcontract machinist, JJ Churchill, could produce turbine blades only if they had their fir-tree root-forms preground elsewhere, or if they were subsequently added by another subcontractor. No longer is this the case.
Micro components continue to shrink in size, demanding ever-greater precision and improved handling of parts with sub-micron-sized features. New approaches in micro machining technology include higher-precision systems from traditional micro machining developers, as well as techniques using additive manufacturing processes and semiconductor wafer-scale technology on the smallest of micro parts.
When you walk into the Redeye On Demand facility in Eden Prairie, MN, you enter into one version of the factory of the future. There you will see a bank of 100 high-end Fortus fused-deposition modeling (FDM) machines from Stratasys that provide the capacity to build real, functional parts with production-grade thermoplastics directly from CAD data.
Thermwood Corp. has added a third print orientation to its LSAM Large Scale Additive Manufacturing systems.
Key steps are virtual twins and real relationships.
Sandvik Coromant’s Package Selector Application analyzes a 3D CAD model of a product and recommends the smallest packaging possible using an AI algorithm that calculates the product’s rotation.
While fossil fuels dominate the energy market, expect a new mix of parts as renewable energy and EVs grow in market share.
The most important step in digitizing any manufacturing or supply chain process is analysis of the ROI and business case and being able to demonstrate success to company leaders.
