Atlas Copco has reported manufacturing price reductions of 30% and lead time reductions of 92% since transitioning to in-house polymer additive manufacturing.
Putting in an EOS P 396 3D printer, Atlas Copco has stated it has been in a position to shorten its provide chain and decrease its environmental affect, along with the fee and time financial savings.
Atlas Copco gives know-how, merchandise, and options to many industries, together with automotive, the place it designs and produces over 70 forms of self-piercing rivets, related tooling and gear for a variety of automotive producers.
Eighteen months in the past, Atlas Copco commenced a ‘dash challenge’ to benefit from new market alternatives in, for instance, the electrical automobile area by bringing 3D printing in-house. In doing so, the corporate hoped to turn into extra agile and cut back lead instances for its prospects.
EOS and its technical consultancy, Additive Minds, had been introduced in to assist the challenge early on, working intently with Atlas Copco to assist price per half evaluation and information preparation. In addition they helped to determine essentially the most appropriate machine and workflows, which coated powder choice, colouring, design switch and post-processing methods. Coaching programmes had been developed for workers and EOS supported with the transition and ramp-up to full polymer AM-based serial manufacturing.
Because of this course of, Atlas Copco put in an EOS P 396 machine, with assist for 14 supplies and 26 parameter units. Combining the machine with the DyeMansion DM60 colouring resolution, the EOS P 396 system is supporting manufacturing and new product designs, with the dyeing step permitting Atlas Copco to spotlight the place sure security gear needs to be utilized by operators on automotive manufacturing strains.
By bringing the know-how in-house, Atlas Copco wants fewer third-party parts, has lowered provide chain lead instances and transport delays, and reduce lead instances of as much as 12 weeks right down to 3-4 days. By slicing out transport steps, it has lowered its affect on the atmosphere, and the corporate additionally now has extra exact management over manufacturing schedules, that means it could assist buyer with unplanned orders which have fast turnaround necessities. Along with this, Atlas Copco has lowered provide chain and person-hours, whereas eliminating retooling delays. This has resulted in a 30% discount in manufacturing prices. Waste is claimed to have been reduce to zero from round 7%.
“We needed tighter management over our manufacturing that might result in shorter lead instances, decrease prices, and the power to quickly prototype new merchandise,” stated Jason Edwards, Technical Supervisor at Atlas Copco. “Working with EOS and Additive Minds has given us a turnkey resolution, and helped us adapt our processes such that we at the moment are in serial manufacturing with a number of parts, are quickly prototyping a whole bunch extra, and achieved ROI in simply 18 months.”
Atlas Copco is now utilizing an iterative prototyping course of to transition its product stock, while additionally creating new merchandise with a new-found design freedom. The staff have weekly conferences to debate design adjustments that may then transfer instantly to printed prototypes for testing, whereas AM know-how can also be serving to the staff simplify merchandise. One instance is a spool provider, which was beforehand a casting that needed to be machined and assembled. The brand new design is now a single printed element, significantly lighter, and prices much less to fabricate.
Nathan Rawlings, Gross sales Supervisor at EOS UK, provided: “This challenge exhibits how vital the belief and collaboration is between all events if an organization is to embark on such a dramatic change to its core manufacturing enterprise. No firm ought to really feel that it can’t transition to AM, and EOS helps organisations to verify it’s a success via robust communication, cooperation and a unified staff spirit.”
“AM has been transformative for us,” Edwards added. “We’re profitable new contracts throughout the globe as a result of we will provide immediately, at decrease price and with quick lead instances. In EOS, now we have a associate that has supported us all through our transition, gives us speedy assist, and continues to advise us on designing parts to attain the most effective end result with our 3D printer.”
