3D printing is the perfect production technique for Industry 4.0. Components can be fabricated directly from CAD data, and the production of single items no longer represents a major cost factor.
BITKOM President Prof. Dieter Kempf has no doubt: “3D printers will revolutionise value chains. Products will be developed and manufactured entirely digitally, with design plans being handled digitally.” 3D printers operate on the basis of a so-called additive process: a product is made by building up material in layers. First the product is described as a virtual 3D model in a data file. When the file is printed, a base material (usually liquid plastic, but also ceramic or metal) is sprayed onto a surface by jets, building up layer by layer, with the base surface being lowered millimetre by millimetre each time a new layer is added. In this way a three-dimensional product is created. 3D printers enable low-cost, customised manufacture of products in very small lots, and as such are a perfect fit with the concept underlying Industry 4.0.
From the prototype to the final component
The printers have already become established tools in the development of prototypes. Whereas new moulds previously had to be cast and models built in processes often taking several weeks, all those tasks can now be done in just a few hours. In some early applications, 3D printers are also being used to fabricate components for cars and other products.
Acist is a manufacturer of medical devices based in Eden Prairie, USA. It uses FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling) technology from Stratasys, a US manufacturer of 3D printers. In FDM, components are built by “spraying on” layers of melt-processable plastic. “We do not restrict FDM to one specific task,” reports Dave Scott, Manufacturing Engineering Manager at Acist, “we like to use it everywhere: for jigs and fixtures, function testing, industrial design, and for final components. FDM enables us to build more complexity, forms and functions into a component than when using conventional methods.”
Flexible component changes
One example illustrates how flexibly a company can produce using 3D printing: while an Acist machine was in use at a hospital, its operators requested that the facility be provided to connect multiple transducer types to it, with the facility to switch between them. To meet the demand, Acist immediately designed a component using its CAD software and printed it on a 3D printer, creating a functional component which can now be used in conjunction with machines all over the world. Acist is integrating more and more 3D-printed components into other mass-produced items too.
Storage is minimised
And 3D printing not only enables flexible manufacturing; it also makes storage much leaner. Acist’s “inventory” is essentially a digital file on a server. The company has no need for warehouse facilities or suppliers. If a component fails, Acist simply produces a replacement on the 3D printer – even five years later if need be – and ships it the next day. Scott calls FDM “the ultimate lean technology”.
(picture credits: IPF (Customer of Stratasys))