The possibilities of Additive Manufacturing in the industry

The industry is facing major challenges this decade. The world population is growing, demand is increasing, but so is competition. At the same time, production costs are rising due to continued weakened supply chains and increases in gas and energy prices. Climate change is also causing difficulties in the industry, through the increasingly urgent need to avoid long transport distances, reduce waste production and save CO2 emissions.

Additive manufacturing certainly can't make these problems disappear into thin air, but it does offer the opportunity to simplify or even overcome some of these challenges.

Already today, many industrial companies are using Additive Manufacturing to improve their production. I don't need to explain to these companies what advantages this type of manufacturing offers. However, there are also enough companies that have not yet made the final decision for a 3D printer and it is precisely these companies that this blog post is aimed at.

I will show you how Additive Manufacturing can simplify, improve and complete your production. From reducing production costs to more innovative product development and reducing your environmental footprint - it's all possible with Additive Manufacturing!

Reduction of production costs

One of the most recurring themes in industrial companies is the reduction of production costs. Whether it is to increase profit margins, improve market position through lower prices, or to enable further investment, low production costs are desirable for any industrial company.

At present, however, a reduction in production costs is hardly conceivable. Exploding energy prices due to the Ukraine conflict, the shortage of skilled workers and weakening supply chains are creating difficult conditions in production.

How can Additive Manufacturing remedy this situation? On one hand, with the possibility of reducing the production personnel required. 3D printing achieves this by allowing production steps to be partially or fully automated. Under certain circumstances, certain production steps can even be eliminated by Additive Manufacturing.

Certainly, a 3D printer also requires personnel, such as maintenance or operating staff. Nevertheless, the use of additive manufacturing will save more personnel than it needs and thus also reduces costs. Through possible additional automation solutions (e.g. robotic arms), these savings can be extended even further.

On the other hand, additive manufacturing ensures increased independence from external manufacturers. The ability to manufacture required components literally "at the push of a button" means that previously outsourced production steps can be transferred to the company's own plant. This relocation also means that adjustments to the product can be implemented more quickly, which saves further costs.

The climate is also protected by this relocation to the own plant. The in-house production of components reduces unnecessary transport routes and thus CO2 emissions.

The savings in inventory costs should also not go unmentioned. Additive Manufacturing perfects the just-in-time process, which eliminates the need for overproduction of components to ensure replacement without delay in the event of possible defects and to keep production running, since defective parts can be swiftly remanufactured and replaced.

This just-in-time process and the elimination of overproduction of components in turn also relieves the climate by reducing waste and requiring less storage space.

Additive Manufacturing therefore offers several opportunities to reduce production costs. Unfortunately, it is not possible to give a universally applicable percentage of savings, as the savings are individual depending on the industry, printer, printing process and utilization of the printing system(s). In general, however, it can be said that additive manufacturing can save up to 70% of production costs!

But cost is not the only essential factor in the industry. The speed of production is at least as important.

Acceleration of production

The speed of production plays an exorbitant role in the success of an industrial operation. Especially at the beginning of the Corona pandemic, we all experienced how unexpectedly certain products can be snatched from the counters. The winners of such situations are always the companies that can quickly adapt to the new circumstances and adjust their production to the rapidly increasing demand.

Additive Manufacturing speeds up production in three areas. First, it provides faster changeover between individual production steps. By placing the 3D printer centrally, time-consuming walkways can be shortened, and by speeding up material changes, 3D printing makes for more adaptable production.

Secondly, Additive Manufacturing enables a simplification of production steps. The ability to interweave certain production steps makes work easier for employees, which can also reduce the error rate.

Additive Manufacturing's ability to work completely without tools also simplifies various production steps.

While we mentioned the word "error rate" - thirdly, by reducing this rate, Additive Manufacturing can further increase the speed of production. By reducing human error, which comes with automation through Additive Manufacturing, misproduction and downtime within production can be reduced, thereby increasing efficiency.

Cost reduction and speed increase - two points that would be enough for many industrial companies to decide to use Additive Manufacturing. But there are even more advantages that 3D printing offers to industry!

Easier fulfillment of customer requirements

Additive Manufacturing opens up a new world of product customization. Customer-specific changes, for example, can be made directly on the digital model to avoid unnecessary faulty designs. Furthermore, there is the option of also using customers' own digital models or, if customers want an exact replica of an existing product, to produce these in combination with a 3D scanner.

With a diverse range of materials, including high-performance materials such as superpolymers, and the ability of some 3D printers to process multiple materials simultaneously, Additive Manufacturing can produce unique geometries, details and component properties. This provides further customization options and more specific adaptation to customer requirements.

Additive Manufacturing also allows to expand the company’s product portfolio through faster product and design development. This expansion can accommodate changes in customer preferences without delay and leads us right to our next advantage for the industry - faster response to market changes.

Faster response to market changes

Thanks to the speed and rapid adaptation possibilities of Additive Manufacturing, market changes can be implemented in the product portfolio far more quickly than with conventional manufacturing methods.

Thanks to this adaptability, new trends can be implemented at unprecedented speed. Rapid prototyping allows the new features of the products, which were previously adapted to the new trends in the digital model, to be tested more quickly and thus also brought to market more quickly.

While we're on the subject of the market, the unique features of components that are possible with Additive Manufacturing also allow new unique selling propositions to be realized that favor the creation of market advantages.

The development of new market segments and an associated expansion of the customer base are also within reach thanks to these unique properties, some of which would be either impossible or very costly and time-consuming in traditional manufacturing.

Rapid prototyping has already been briefly mentioned. This is another major advantage of Additive Manufacturing, because it also supports the industry in the most important part of the product life cycle - product development.

More innovative product development

3D printing allows far greater design freedom for developers and engineers. The ability to create more design iterations in the same amount of time gives a company the chance to give ideas more space, test them faster, and make possible corrections directly to the digital model without much effort.

The workflow can also be improved through the use of Additive Manufacturing. The direct testing of design iterations on the digital model and the possible in-house production of previously outsourced components can increase planning reliability and adaptability for projects and products.

Last but not least, Additive Manufacturing allows ideas to be turned into reality, and thus into a product, more quickly with the help of uncomplicated implementation thanks to digital models. This further increases the productivity and adaptability of industrial companies.

As a final point in this blog entry, I would like to write about the possibility of Additive Manufacturing to make a major contribution to reducing the ecological footprint of companies. This point actually deserves its own blog entry, but we will have to make do with a short version, at least for now.

Reduction of the ecological footprint

CO2 emissions and the climate were already touched on in the first advantage of Additive Manufacturing for industrial companies. Briefly recapitulated: By perfecting just-in-time manufacturing at the company's own plant, unnecessary transport routes can be avoided and waste production reduced.

Around waste production, however, there is another huge advantage of Additive Manufacturing - the reusability of materials.

Waste is generated in every production process. Whether production involves plastics, metals or resins, in any production process a certain amount of the materials used will be left over because they have not been processed completely.

In traditional manufacturing, these materials are in most cases worthless. Reusing the smallest pieces of metal or plastic usually involves additional expense, which is not economically viable. Additive Manufacturing - especially 3D printing with polymer powder - is different.

This manufacturing process also leaves material, namely powder, which has not been sintered or bonded. However, most of these powders can be reused without much additional effort.

The powder is removed from the components and, with the right accessories (e.g. Sinterit's powder handling station), can be fed directly into an automated sieve. This then prepares the powder independently by removing possible lumps. The powder then only has to be removed from the sieve and placed back into the material feed - and the otherwise "wasted" material becomes usable material again.

But it is not only 3D printing with polymer powder that offers efficient reuse of materials. Support structures, for example, which must be used in some printing processes, can often be reused without any problems. For some materials, even the completely printed material can be completely removed from the build plate and reused, e.g. in the case of faulty designs.

In terms of climate protection, Additive Manufacturing therefore offers the opportunity to reduce CO2 emissions, thanks to a reduction in transport routes, and to minimize waste production. In addition, there are many other advantages and opportunities for climate protection - but more on that another time.

Conclusion

Additive Manufacturing offers advantages for almost every industrial company. Whether it's speeding up production, reducing production costs, better positioning in the market or climate protection - Additive Manufacturing offers all of this (and more).

3D printing already serves many companies as a guarantee for efficiency and effectiveness. However, many companies are still struggling with the decision. An industrial 3D printing system is a big purchase and before it is made, many questions must be answered.

What do I need to consider when making a purchase? Which printer is best for me? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different printing technologies? What do I need to consider for the integration of the 3D printer into my already existing production cycle and how do I achieve this integration as efficiently as possible?

Are you interested in purchasing an industrial 3D printer, but are agonizing over these and other questions surrounding its purchase? Then the participation in this webinar*, which revolves around exactly these questions, is highly recommended!

*This Webinar will be held in german