This summer, a new player arrived on the AM scene: the Digital Manufacturing Centre, or DMC. Based on the edge of Silverstone, the UK’s most famous race circuit, home to numerous leading F1 teams, there could be no better place to launch a business aimed at offering AM support to the elite in performance motorsport. Jim Hadfield speaks with the DMC’s CEO, Kieron Salter, to explore how metal Additive Manufacturing is enabling innovation in the booming hypercar industry, and how a truly connected digital manufacturing operation can bring the DMC a competitive advantage in this field and more. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 7 No. 2, Summer 2021]
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In highlighting the vulnerabilities of global supply chains, events such as COVID-19 have inspired renewed interest in alternative forms of organising production. Distributed manufacturing is now seeing early use in fields such as oil and gas and for on-demand spare parts manufacturing. For the first time, large-scale on-demand manufacturing was seen in the supply of emergency PPE at the height of the pandemic. Dr Jennifer Johns discusses how AM can help to address the challenges this new business model presents, and introduces the University of Bristol’s £1 million Brokering Additive Manufacturing project, which seeks to produce a revolutionary new brokering method for highly distributed and diverse manufacturing systems. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 7 No. 2, Summer 2021]
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While the acceleration of metal Additive Manufacturing adoption is seen as inevitable, thanks to its advantages over conventional manufacturing processes for high-complexity, customised or on-demand parts, Sigma Labs CEO Mark Ruport believes that ‘radical collaboration’ is required for AM to reach its true potential. In this article, Ruport discusses how the company is targeting radical collaboration and the implementation of cohesive quality standards across the value chain to grow AM and overcome the challenges posed by true industrialisation. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 7 No. 2, Summer 2021]
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Since 2014, Women in 3D Printing has grown to become a highly visible and influential international organisation. But what does the movement stand for, why is it proving to be so popular, and where does it go from here? Metal AM magazine’s Emily-Jo Hopson-VandenBos spoke with the group’s founder, Nore Toure, and fifteen members about their views of the organisation and the current status of women in the industry. These conversations reveal not only the challenges that we face to improve diversity in its broadest sense, but also the tangible benefits that members are seeing at both the personal and organisational level. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 7 No. 1, Spring 2021]
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As the metal Additive Manufacturing industry evolves towards widespread use for series production, the need for globally-recognised standards is also increasing. In this article, Prof Dr-Ing Christian Seidel, Chairman of ISO Technical Committee (TC) 261 ‘Additive Manufacturing’ and Member-at-Large on the Executive Committee of the ASTM F42 ‘Additive Manufacturing’ Committee, outlines why standards are so important, presents an overview of the current AM standards ecosystem, and highlights current key areas of standardisation activity. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 7 No. 1, Spring 2021]
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It is no secret that metal Additive Manufacturing still faces significant challenges that stand in the way of broader adoption in industry. Aside from AM service providers, very few small- to medium-sized enterprises have brought metal AM in-house; many lack the capabilities, knowledge and resources to do so, even if the will is there. In this article, Olaf Diegel, Noah Mostow and Terry Wohlers discuss the complex, and often multi-faceted, obstacles that stand between AM and its wider global adoption, and how those obstacles can be addressed and resolved in order to clear the path to achieving the technology’s full market potential. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 7 No. 1, Spring 2021]
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China’s Falcontech Co. Ltd. is well on the way to completing its first ‘Super AM factory’, designed to house fifty metal Additive Manufacturing machines supplied by its partner, Farsoon Technologies. Whilst the wider story may take in the dramatic rise of Additive Manufacturing in China over the last decade, at the heart of this ambitious project’s success is the story of a successful partnership between an AM technology supplier and its customer. In this article, Chenlu Fang, Global Marketing Manager of Farsoon Technologies, interviews Shen Yulan, General Manager of Falcontech, and Li Wei, its Sales Director, to tell the story of the company’s rise, its ambitions and the partners’ close collaboration. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 6 No. 4, Winter 2020]
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In October 2020, New York City-based space technology company Launcher started testing its full-sized E-2 liquid rocket engine, designed to deliver the highest performance at the lowest cost for smaller space launch vehicles. That the E-2 features a one metre tall single-piece copper alloy Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) combustion chamber is remarkable. What is even more impressive is the fact that Launcher, a company with less than twenty employees, achieved this in a short time frame and to a relatively modest budget. Metal AM magazine’s Nick Williams reports on the project and Launcher’s close collaboration with specialist PBF-LB machine builder AMCM GmbH. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 6 No. 4, Winter 2020]
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The Additive Manufacturing industry in South Africa has come a long way since the installation of the country’s first AM machine in 1991, with a number of research and commercial initiatives driving the development of world-class applications and knowledge. In this article, Terry Wohlers and Olaf Diegel, Wohlers Associates, present an overview of metal Additive Manufacturing activities in South Africa, from the technology’s life-changing use for medical implants to its development for rapid, large-scale part production and beyond. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 6 No. 4, Winter 2020]
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Whilst Additive Manufacturing as a technology is proving its worth through an ever growing list of innovative, real-word applications, the obstacles faced by players in the current AM supply chain are numerous, ranging from skills shortages to a highly-complex supply chain, high costs and fluctuating product demand. To address this, Neighborhood 91, an end-to-end AM production campus, is being created in the US city of Pittsburgh that, as Laura Ely and John Barnes report, seeks to condense and connect all components of the Additive Manufacturing supply chain into one powerful production ecosystem. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 6 No. 3, Autumn/Fall 2020]
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The use of metal Additive Manufacturing for the production of injection moulding tools that have been optimised by conformal cooling is growing internationally. For many companies, however, the main obstacles to adoption are not concerns about material properties or apprehension about unfamiliar processes, but simply initial cost – the tooling industry is extremely competitive and AM inserts can be expensive. Here, 3D Systems’ Mark Cook and GF Machining Solutions’ Dogan Basic present a case study from leading toolmaker and injection moulding specialist TK Mold that highlights how such inserts, when efficiently manufactured, can reduce overall manufacturing costs and improve part quality. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 6 No. 3, Autumn/Fall 2020]
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The story of Atherton Bikes stands out as a shining example of how metal Additive Manufacturing can be successfully embraced and commercialised by a small, dedicated team of people. In the case of the Atherton family, the technology has not only enabled them to maximise their performance at the pinnacle of professional mountain biking, but has also opened a path to commercial bike production in an industry where frame manufacturing is dominated by Taiwan and China. In an article that will appeal to anyone considering the use of metal AM, the Atherton Bikes team shares its experiences with Robin Weston. [First published in Metal AM Vol. 6 No. 3, Autumn/Fall 2020]
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