How to fully leverage Additive Manufacturing from one-off prototypes to end production.
ANN ARBOR, Michigan, 23 May 2018—CIMdata, Inc., the leading global PLM strategic management consulting and research firm, announces the publication of an eBook titled “Industrializing Additive Manufacturing.”
Hobbyists and early adopters used Additive Manufacturing (AM) machines to make freeform organic shapes they couldn’t make any other way. Now, driven by investments by industrial companies seeking to improve engineering processes and make better products faster and cheaper, attempts are being made to use AM for industrial end-use product production. Big challenges remain such as materials, regulatory compliance, speed, price, and reliability, but momentum in key areas such as material science help improve material print properties such as the build-rate to resolution ratio, meaning end-use production quality parts are now possible.
There is low or no cost penalty for geometric complexity when using AM. What this means is AM manufactured components can have very complex organic-like forms yet cost no more than a much simpler shape. This means engineers need to change from defining the shape features and focus upon the desired function instead.
This eBook introduces some key AM concepts such as Design for Additive Manufacture (DfAM) to identify opportunities to improve both existing and new designs, new organizational considerations including using a Vee Model to map out the end-to-end AM workflow, provides example use-cases of AM, and highlights the often-overlooked area of security.
According to Mr. James White, CIMdata Director, Additive Manufacturing Strategy Consulting Practice, “This eBook highlights the advantages of implementing AM to produce for-end-use quality products, but also some of the barriers. There are many great examples of Industrial AM but generally AM is not being utilized to its full potential; too often being used like an alternative to a traditional molding machine. An holistic approach is needed commencing with requirements gathering, high level and detailed design, performance simulation, and above all, imagination to re-think design since many manufacturing conventions like draft tapers, blend radii, and parting lines are no longer necessary.”
To find out more and to download the eBook on Industrializing Additive Manufacturing, visit www.CIMdata.com.
