3D Printer Manufacturing Cells
3D Printer Manufacturing Cells
Can 3D printers be used to produce volume production parts?
3D printers are capable of manufacturing the un-manufacturable.
Traditional manufacturing techniques are incapable of producing many simple 3D printed features that even novice 3D printer users take for granted, and design into their prints on a daily basis. Weight reducing internal voids with lattice support structure were previously impossible. 3D printing requires no tooling drafts, injection points or ejection features.
Negative draft, returns or complex shapes are not a problem. Printed parts require no expensive or bespoke mould tools. They just produce parts one layer at a time.
“Breaking the Mould”
3D printing breaks the convention and constraints of tooling design. Many production parts are compromised on functionality due to tooling limitations and cost of complex multi cavity mouldings.
3D printing is as dynamic as your mind, and the final product is only constrained by the size of your print bed and build volume.
Rapid prototyping in Industry
Additive manufacturing or rapid prototyping as it was previously referred to, was traditionally used to demonstrate an idea or concept, or to produce production intent prototype parts for internal design reviews.
Rapid prototyping was used to reduce risk and give confidence to the manufacturer before committing to expensive and long lead time tooling.
Committing to production tooling is a worrying time for any engineer no matter how experienced.
The rapid prototype parts used to validate the design are either stored for reference or simply thrown away.
Why haven’t printers been used to produce production parts?
Historical issues with 3D printing
Slow production cycles
Non representative material properties
Inconsistent part quality
Lack of understanding or resistance to adopt new technology
Lack of engineering experience to design for additive manufacture
Slow production cycles
Non representative material properties
Inconsistent part quality
Lack of understanding or resistance to adopt new technology
Lack of engineering experience to design for additive manufacture
Recent advances in 3D printers and materials have now solved many of the these issues.
The only outstanding problems to address are the education of engineers to design for additive manufacture, and to speed up production times.
How can 3D printers compete with traditional volume production methods and cycle times?
If we judge a single 3D printer on volume production against a 5 axis CNC machine or an industrial injection moulding tool, a single 3D printer has no chance of competing.
This is a real David and Goliath situation in which Goliath always wins, until now.
20 Benefits of 3D printer manufacturing cells or farms over large CNC machines or traditional injection moulding techniques.
Reduced set up costs
Reduced overheads
Quicker return on investment
Reduced production risk as production is spread over multiple machines
No expensive tooling costs or bespoke tooling
No tool maintenance
No tooling change over times
No tooling storage
No tooling material handling equipment
Reduced energy consumption
Reduced carbon emissions
Printers can produce a variety of different parts for different projects
Total manufacturing flexibility
Reduced production area required for multi part production
Increased part accuracy due to zero tool wear
Lack of tooling reduces design to production part delivery schedule
Future part modifications require no tooling changes
Reduced production down time
Broken printers can be easily swapped out for repair, service, or maintenance
Minimal material waste compared with subtractive manufacturing
Minimal support staff required
Minimal support equipment required
Equipment can react quicker to market requirements, support production assembly lines and JIT processes.
Reduced set up costs
Reduced overheads
Quicker return on investment
Reduced production risk as production is spread over multiple machines
No expensive tooling costs or bespoke tooling
No tool maintenance
No tooling change over times
No tooling storage
No tooling material handling equipment
Reduced energy consumption
Reduced carbon emissions
Printers can produce a variety of different parts for different projects
Total manufacturing flexibility
Reduced production area required for multi part production
Increased part accuracy due to zero tool wear
Lack of tooling reduces design to production part delivery schedule
Future part modifications require no tooling changes
Reduced production down time
Broken printers can be easily swapped out for repair, service, or maintenance
Minimal material waste compared with subtractive manufacturing
Minimal support staff required
Minimal support equipment required
Equipment can react quicker to market requirements, support production assembly lines and JIT processes.
