Additive World Design Challenge finalists announced
February 14, 2018
The finalists have been announced for the Additive World Design for Additive Manufacturing Challenge 2018. According to Additive Industries, organiser of the award, the six finalists were selected from a group of fifty-two international contestants from diverse fields such as aeronautics, automotive, medical and high-tech industries.
Daan Kersten, CEO of Additive Industries, stated, “This year’s redesigns demonstrate again how product designs can be improved when the freedom of 3D printing is applied. It’s not only about topology optimisation anymore, but about eliminating manufacturing difficulties, minimising assembly and lowering logistical costs. These redesigns are really demonstrating a broad range of applications.”
The winners of each category will be announced by Erik de Bruijn, Co-founder of Ultimaker, during the Additive World Awards Dinner in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on March 14, 2018.
Professional category
An entry from Intech DMLS, India, shows how avionics can benefit from Additive Manufacturing, focusing on part count reduction for lightweighting and increased efficiency.
3D-medlab, France, entered an optimised design for a medical part gripper, demonstrating the potential for extended applications even in fields – such as medical prosthetics – where AM is already in use. Here, the team chose to redesign the impactor, which holds products such as acetabular cups during use.
An Italian team, from Aidro Hydraulics, have used AM to reduce a part’s production time and size, as well as optimising the flow performance of a hydraulic manifold designed for Additive Manufacturing.
Additive Industries also gave an honourable mention to non-finalist Fabian Baum, EDAG Engineering, Germany, for the LightHinge+. Using bionic principles, Baum minimised stresses and deformations caused by applied loads and achieved a 50% part weight reduction. In addition, by optimising the model’s orientation and support structure, the necessary support volume was reduced to 20% of the overall building volume.
Student category
Philipp Kaindl, from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, is a finalist for his ‘Gasification Burner’, a novel coal swirling mechanism produced by AM which increases thermal efficiency. His design incorporates function integration and optimised fluid paths.
Yogeshkumar Katrodiya, from Fraunhofer IGCV, Germany, submitted a functional integration design of a shaft and gear with conformal cooling channels, creating better cooling efficiency by allowing the flow of a sufficient quantity of lubricant through the part.The combined weight of the original gear and shaft was reduced 50% by topology optimisation.
Cassidy Silbernagel, University of Nottingham, UK, winner of the previous two Design Challenges, is recognised for his upgraded ‘multi-filament Ultimaker 2+ all metal hot end’, with enhanced part cooling. Silbernagel is said to have wanted to demonstrate how an existing product can be greatly improved at the same time as being made more compact and functional.
