SAP collaborates with APWorks to speed up on-demand industrial Additive Manufacturing
July 14, 2016
SAP SE has announced the signing of a co-innovation agreement with APWorks, a subsidiary of Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, which aims to accelerate the adoption and standardisation of industrial Additive Manufacturing initiatives for the aerospace and defence industry.
APWorks plans to use the Additive Manufacturing services recently announced by SAP to operate a bionics network that connects experts and end users. These services will allow APWorks to additively manufacture components such as armrests and brackets, improve fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions. APWorks can also better manage spare part orders in real time to deliver qualified products for safety-critical applications in aerospace and other industries.
The co-innovation agreement between SAP and APWorks plans to address the following areas:
- Digitalization and simplification of the production part approval process
- Screening and validating parts for using the Additive Manufacturing process
- Designing and redesigning of a part or system to optimise for on-demand manufacturing and 3D printing
- Accelerating and standardising the processes for certifying the manufacturing of parts by Additive Manufacturing firms
- Securing an on-demand budgetary price for manufacturing firms to evaluate additive manufactured parts versus traditional manufacturing, including cost components such as tax and warehousing, using the SAP® Product Lifecycle Costing solution
- Covering each stage from production floor to customer door — for seamless routing of the order
“Innovation in on-demand 3D printing is now revolutionising traditional manufacturing,” stated Torsten Welte, Global Head of Aerospace and Defence Industry, SAP. “In the next few years 3D printing will be widely adopted across manufacturing industries. The aerospace and defence market will transform digitally to strive to achieve near-zero unplanned downtime on commercial flights as well as support high production turnaround at a lower cost. What makes 3D printing most attractive in aerospace is the removal of many costs associated with traditional manufacturing like stocking inventory. Users are enabled to print the parts they need, as needed.”
“The ability to 3D print all the possible components of an A350 aircraft could reduce the weight of it by nearly a ton,” added Joachim Zettler, CEO of APWorks. “On-demand 3D printing cloud service from SAP can help us to develop our vision for distributed, on-demand production of aerospace components and still meet the high quality standards necessary to make the aircraft fly.”
