Olivier Diegerick, EMEA Additive Manufacturing Portfolio Improvement Government at Siemens Digital Industries Software program shares how the digital thread may help to unlock the complete potential of industrial-scale 3D printing by enabling higher effectivity, high quality, and traceability throughout your entire course of.
The European additive manufacturing (AM) market is experiencing vital progress, with projections that it’s going to attain roughly $28 billion by 2030, rising at a compound annual progress charge (CAGR) of 23.9% from 2024 to 2030. This progress is pushed by rising demand throughout numerous industries, together with automotive, aerospace, healthcare, and client electronics, the place AM options can fill the necessity for customised, on-demand ceramics, metallic, and plastic parts. With the altering international economic system, corporations are additionally seeking to increase their export markets past their regional boundaries.
Nonetheless, AM corporations in Europe can be taught and undertake insights from their counterparts in China and the USA in key areas: printing and course of innovation, adoption of recent applied sciences, market enlargement, sustainable and extra environment friendly manufacturing, in addition to collaboration and partnerships.
For instance, Chinese language corporations have quickly superior in metallic additive manufacturing, pushed by robust nationwide methods and vital investments. European corporations can be taught from China’s deal with creating self-sufficient, cutting-edge applied sciences, and leveraging authorities help. European corporations can undertake related approaches to innovation, specializing in numerous functions and steady enchancment of their applied sciences.
The speedy commercialization of additive manufacturing in China, with many corporations attaining IPOs and vital enterprise capital funding, highlights the significance of strategic market enlargement and attracting funding. European corporations can profit from adopting aggressive market methods and in search of numerous funding sources. U.S. organizations additionally excel in advertising and marketing and commercializing their applied sciences throughout numerous industries, from healthcare to aerospace. European corporations can be taught from their advertising and marketing methods and industry-specific functions to broaden their market attain.
The emphasis on sustainability in China’s additive manufacturing sector, as a part of the “Made in China 2025” technique, highlights the potential for integrating eco-friendly practices and environment friendly manufacturing strategies. European corporations can goal related sustainability targets to boost their environmental influence. U.S. corporations usually deal with lowering materials waste and dashing up manufacturing processes. European corporations can implement these effectivity measures to refine their manufacturing operations and scale back prices.
In the USA and China, collaboration between universities and {industry} in China has been essential for advancing additive manufacturing applied sciences. European corporations can obtain assist from forming strategic alliances and partnerships to boost their technological capabilities and market presence. By studying from the successes and methods of additive manufacturing corporations in China and the USA, European corporations can improve their competitiveness and drive progress within the international market.
Germany is predicted to have the very best a progress charge in European AM manufacturing. Because of this Siemens has been constructing digital thread expertise to help the inevitable enlargement into industrial-scale additive manufacturing.
What’s the Digital Thread?
The digital thread for industrial additive manufacturing interprets to seamless connectivity between printing machines, information analytics software program, and manufacturing unit techniques. It permits a number of software program options to work collectively to handle your entire manufacturing course of – from half design and prototyping to construct setup, supplies optimization, printing, post-processing, and integration into the manufacturing unit for provide administration, on-demand manufacturing, and traceability.
Integrating these options means your entire 3D printing course of in a manufacturing unit, from starting to finish, will be managed inside a single system. This closed loop makes adherence and qualification for requirements simpler with a steady thread of information from begin to end, offering traceability all alongside the best way.
A Digital Thread Flows by way of Design to Put up-Manufacturing
The move of information for the digital thread begins on the design idea. Instruments within the digital move allow utilizing the generative design technique of mechanically creating and evaluating a number of design choices to search out a perfect, best-fit answer. 3D simulation software program supplies the ability to rapidly iterate by way of tons of or hundreds of potential optimized designs.
The design information then can move into simulation instruments for construct preparation, orientation and mesoscale deposition, in addition to half efficiency, thermal and stress evaluation…earlier than going to print. As soon as the design and printing course of has been optimized and examined nearly, the info then flows seamlessly to the machines within the manufacturing unit.
Additive manufacturing manufacturing on the industrial scale have to be well-managed to be environment friendly. This consists of the order-to-shipment course of, but additionally the administration of supplies and machine scheduling. As soon as within the manufacturing unit, the digital thread connects and flows by way of machines from planar powder beds to filament deposition to multi-material and multi-axis techniques. The digital thread permits the 3D printing course of to be built-in into a bigger manufacturing administration system by way of scheduling, execution, and monitoring. This permits full operational visibility to make sure highest quality and effectivity, whereas monitoring materials move to make sure utilizing the correct mixture of recycled and virgin materials for the varied print jobs executed all through the manufacturing unit.
The digital thread of information working by way of seamlessly related software program options ensures a high quality course of that features the manufacturing unit’s techniques of web of issues (IoT) and analytics. Which means that your entire 3D printing course of will be monitored, the ensuing information analyzed, after which acted upon in actual time for half and course of enhancements. This closed-feedback loop feeds insights again into upstream phases of the additive manufacturing course of for next-generation innovation.
The digital thread in essence ensures most effectivity of the whole 3D printing course of from design to industrial-scale manufacturing, maximizing the ROI from an organization’s additive manufacturing funding.
As extra corporations undertake on-demand 3D printing, the {industry} is maturing and an ecosystem of corporations and applied sciences working collectively will allow higher scalability and effectivity enhancements, in addition to sustainable materials processing for the long run.
The Digital Thread Flows by way of Collaborations
Siemens already has years of expertise utilizing additive manufacturing in its personal factories and collaborating with clients to maximise and enhance using their 3D printing techniques. When their shopper LimaCorporate, an Italian-based international orthopedics developer, determined to pursue cementless complete knee arthroplasty, they knew the problem can be troublesome.
There are three parts of a knee implant. The femoral part attaches to the decrease thigh bone, a tibial plate connects to the higher shin bone and a polyethylene insert goes between the 2. The femoral part is strong metallic produced through precision machining. LimaCorporate discovered that the tibial plate can be splendid for utilizing Trabecular Titanium, a proprietary 3D construction that may be repeated in a design and mixed with the strong components of a prosthesis utilizing powder mattress fusion.
The corporate partnered with the Division of Biomechanics of the New York-based Hospital for Particular Surgical procedure (HSS) to review sufferers strolling with a knee implant to find out the most effective location and form for 3 contact factors between the tibial plate and bone.
On the time, they needed to 3D print each change to the design, creating an STL file and bringing it into a distinct software program package deal. Each time there was one other change, it was troublesome to edit the faceted STL recordsdata.
Working with a digital illustration of the TT lattice construction additional difficult design. Having to govern STL recordsdata in an remoted software created a discontinuity with the corporate’s product lifecycle administration (PLM) surroundings. LimaCorporate’s R&D group was accustomed to an built-in, associative digital thread of their standard design to manufacturing processes. However as their additive manufacturing design course of turned more and more iterative, the group started experiencing points with model management, construct dealing with, and scheduling optimization for prototype manufacturing.
So LimaCorporate wanted a brand new strategy to design its tibial plate. That’s after they discovered that the digital thread through built-in and related software program options additionally included additive manufacturing instruments.
Utilizing the digital thread, they decreased 3D printing modeling and job preparation time by 50%. With design optimization, they have been in a position to zero in on candidate designs with fewer experiments. And, with every part in the identical software program ecosystem, errors have been decreased and product reliability elevated. Improvements in information administration with the digital thread continues to help Lima with their intention of giving folks a greater high quality of life.
AI performs an more and more vital function in AM—whether or not in optimizing designs, enhancing course of monitoring, or enhancing decision-making by way of predictive analytics. AI and the digital thread collectively can unlock even higher potential in AM.
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