ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING | DESIGN
be produced on demand – with no
need to hold any stock – in just nine
hours.
The price of the solution was also
reduced to £84, while consolidating
36 parts into just three.
“The Dynamic Feeding Aid is a
small, but mighty example of how
AM can streamline processes for
businesses – including our own,”
Mini e continues. “From using
3D technology for part assembly,
metal replacement and function
integration in our production printers;
to components for inkjet innovations
in the volume wallpaper production
market; to jigs and xtures in our
toner bottling plants – there are
transformative
examples across
the business
of how we’re
using our
own AM
services
to eliminate manual
assemblies, reduce stock
levels and streamline the
supply chain. This gives us
rst-hand insight to bring to
our customers”
Mini e stresses that,
contrary to common
misconception, 3D printing is about
much more than just prototyping, with
the right manufacturing partner.
“During the design cycle, a
prototype is required for visual
acceptance, to test for t and
assembly, or for test simulations,”
he says. “This historically – and
I’m talking as recently as ve years
ago – would be the only time within
a project where you would consider
additive manufacturing, in order to
produce parts quickly and ensure
errors in expensive tooling are not
made.
“Today, however, things are very
different. With recent technology
and material developments, additive
manufacturing is now more than
ever being recognised as a serious
manufacturing tool for end-use parts.”
While 3D printing undoubtedly
offers greater design exibility,
it is not quite a case of the design
rulebook being thrown out of the
window yet.
He adds: “There are Design For
Manufacture (DFM) guidelines for
additive manufacturing, known as
DFAM,
but due to the
newness and
variety of additive
technologies
and systems
available on
the market
these are still
very much evolving.
“Now the
considerations vary
by what can be achieved
on each individual system in
terms of the minimum feature sizes
and strength of different materials,
due to the anisotropic properties of
3D printed parts.
“Another key factor when
designing for AM is to ensure
warping due to wall thickness is
avoided at all costs.”
One of the trademarks of
the technology is the ability to
manufacture parts within parts. Ricoh
3D works with The Robert Jones and
Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital
in Oswestry which improves patient
rehabilitation through an orthotic
lever produced by printing the
ball joint feature in situ. This
removes the need for a costly
assembly process.
Similarly, the geometry on
the MicroMist Rotary Atomizer
range, which suppresses dust in
industrial environments, could not
be manufactured as one single piece
with any manufacturing technique
other than 3D printing.
Certain sectors have
already embraced the
potential of additive
manufacturing. It’s widely
used in F1, for example,
where development cycles are
being shortened to days
and design modi cations
implemented between
races to gain a competitive
edge.
The same can be said
of aerospace, where weight
is vitally important – it costs
over £15,000 for every kilogram
put into space. The technology is
also revolutionising the medical
sphere, where prosthetics can
be made bespoke to the patient,
and is widely adopted across
architecture for modelling.
But, those trailblazers aside, there
are great swathes of businesses
which are turning a blind eye to the
technology, concludes Mini e: “It’s
time for designers and manufacturers
to switch on the power of AM for their
processes and production.” !
20 WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK | MAY 2020
/WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK