Design World – August 2019

T

Additive Technology

The manufacturing world’s mindset is shifting with the news of 3D-printed, certified-for-flight

components and FDA-approved human joint replacements: additive manufacturing has shown signs it

can produce end-use parts, but making metal additive manufacturing (AM) dependable enough for serial

manufacturing remains an accomplishment of few companies.

Preparing to switch

Benny Buller • founder and CEO • VELO3D

54 August 2019 http://www.makepartsfast.com DESIGN WORLD

How to overcome design-for-additive-manufacturing (DfAM)

constraints that can be deterrents to mass production.

Why is AM still falling short? After all it offers the promise of

less tooling, shorter lead times, and fewer supply chain issues.

Not to mention the enticing vision of consolidating multiple

parts, and even the magic of “innovative designs that can’t be

manufactured any other way.” The short answer is, while the

technology has dramatically advanced in recent years, there

are still many less-visible technology issues to be overcome.

One of these is the complex reality of shifting production

from conventional methods to AM. A manufacturer will

encounter this as soon as they start redesigning an existing part

to ready it for 3D printing. Beware—this introduces significant,

additional risk because it adds a host of new variables.

For one thing, you’re not comparing apples to apples. When

you test old versus new manufactured parts and you see a

difference, is that because of the design changes you made or

due to the manufacturing technology itself? Or maybe a little

bit of both? And when you begin to see financial benefits from

the switch, will you be able to separate the benefits of improved

manufacturing technology versus design changes that reduced

the cost? Maybe not all of those benefits are unique to

AM—will you be able to fend off those people who are

skeptical of your math?

Another point is that redesign might not even be a

viable option for various reasons:

• Does your business have the regulatory
  authorization to redesign the part (Design
  Authority)?


• Does your part have enough volume to justify a
  redesign and have you accurately captured all the
  design considerations that will make the part
  equivalent in operation to the original one?


• How many candidate-parts do you have and how
  much time will it take to redesign them in a way
  that truly makes an impact?


• What about the resources needed to validate
  your redesigns?

from traditional to additive

manufacturing

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