ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING | DESIGN
RDEE-SIMIGANGAINNIDNG MANUFACTURING Additive manufacturing (AM) has the power to
revolutionise both the product development cycle
and full end-to-end manufacturing process, resulting
in optimised designs, vastly improved lead times and
supercharged productivity.
RMIICNHIF IE
Ricoh 3D’s
Senior Additive
Manufacturing
Engineer
According to Rich Mini e,
Ricoh 3D’s Senior Additive
Manufacturing Engineer,
AM gives engineers and
product designers the opportunity to
rethink the design stage of a product,
smashing through the limitations of
traditional manufacturing processes.
“AM allows designers the freedom
to imagine more creative concepts
that can only be realised through this
technology,” he says. “Consolidating
parts, minimising manual assembly
and simplifying or optimising design
– that is the true power of AM.”
Experts at Ricoh have reworked
and revamped several products by
switching their manufacturing method
from traditional to AM. Nowhere is
this more evident than in Ricoh’s own
operations and production processes
associated to their core commercial
printer business.
Something as simple as printing
on envelopes presents industrywide
challenges in productivity, as
it normally means small batches
of envelopes are required to be
frequently reloaded into the printer
paper tray by hand. To address this,
the in-house Solutions department
at Ricoh designed a dynamic
feeding aid manufactured from CNC
aluminium and pressed metal parts,
combined with standard components
which had to be manually assembled.
The Dynamic Feeding Aid
improved productivity by 80%
by enabling the paper feed to be
lled with envelopes. However, the
manufacturing process of the new
device meant that the lead time of the
component was up to six weeks, with
a minimum order quantity (MOQ) of
10 units.
With an average of one order per
month for the feeding aid, the MOQ
was a frustration and the team had
to hold stock of the parts in order to
meet demand and avoid costly delays
to the end customer.
Mini e says: “We could see that
the Dynamic Feeding Aid was useful
and had potential, but it cost £470
and the lead time was too long. It was
obvious that the product lent itself
perfectly to 3D printing.
“Sometimes, if engineers have
used traditional manufacturing
methods their whole careers, it is
dif cult for them to think of solutions
outside of that context. That’s not the
case for people who have worked
with AM from the off. Those barriers
aren’t there.”
The Ricoh team was able to
skilfully consolidate parts to eliminate
the requirement for assembly and
additional xing components.
As a result, the product lead time
was reduced from weeks to just one
day. The product can now simply
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