Integrator Roundtable Discussion: Facing the Future of Automation
STOA 01
1. Additive Manufacturing:
Transforming the Competitive
Arena?
Louis Turner, Chief Executive, Asia-Pacific Technology Network
In Collaboration with
Lawrence Lau, IP Broker at Gemwise Invests
Presentation to Science and Technology Options Asessment Unit. European
Parliament, Brussels, 27 Jan 2015
2. The Underlying questions
• What does Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing) mean for
• the manufacturing process?
• mass customisation?
• The distribution of manufacturing?
• A few caveats – don’t get too swayed by the hype
• Statistically, not yet a massive industry – though growing decently
• Big corporate players (HP etc) are only just starting to enter
• Consumer printing perhaps 5 years away (Gartner)
• ~90% of market is with corporate world
• Industry seems akin to PCs in the early 1980s
• Lots of potential
• …. But some parallels with Desk Top Publishing (subtly complex)
15. Aero Engine Case
• Prototyping
• Sometimes used to take over a year (machine tools needed to be created)
• Today: Concept, Design, Fabrication, Testing in matter of days
• 8 turbine blades can be produced in 7 hours
• 80% reduction in lead time re high-tech parts?
• Fusing of components
• 20 components into one product (Fuel Nozzle)
• Weight reduction + 5 times life extension
• Design flexibility
• No longer constrained by what subtractive machine tools can manage
• Topological optimisation possible
• Honeycomb structures etc
• Current state of play
• 85,000 fuel nozzles to be printed 2016-2021 (re LEAP Engines)
• ….but only start of the design re-think of aero engine manufacture
17. The Impact on Classic Manufacturing
• Aerospace case has lessons
• An industry which is far from mature
• Big Corporate players not yet involved
• Asian competition relatively muted .. But for how long?
• Consumer Market yet to take off
• Entry level machines, but still searching for role
• Will feed into industries needing rapid prototyping
• Pilot line to low-rate production
• Will allow disruptive re-design of some products
18. Impact(ii) - Customisation
• Customisation
• The Strati points the way
• Though totally printed cars likely to be an exception
• Buy show-rooms might have facilities to customise the finish
• Fascia, hub caps, bonnets et al?
• Ability to customise will impact
• Retailers
• Many consumer goods
• iPhone cases already a lively market
• Impact on location?
• Time delays on logistic chains to Asia get punished?
• Need to bring responsive manufacturing closer to end-markets?
20. The international dimension
• US White House-led policy initiatives
• Do we need to worry about Asia?
• Japan
• China et al
• Implications of the loss of patent protection
21. Policy issues
• Should be seen as key part of any manufacturing policy
• Should R&D be specifically stimulated?
• Need to drive into Education
• A third of US Engineering and ICT job ads now ask for 3D Printing skills
• What need for a drive to produce industry standards?
• What issues to do with Intellectual Property?
22. The Way Ahead?
• 3D Printing has the 'potential to revolutionize the way we make
almost everything’
• President Obama
23. ..
• Louis Turner
• Chief Executive
• Asia-Pacific Technology Network
• www.aptn.org
• +44 790 5204 677
• LinkedIn Groups
• Asia-Pacific Technology Network
• 3D Kernow
Editor's Notes
Automotive parts that might take conventional manufacturing hardware eight weeks to produce could roll off a 3-D printer system within a few days, according to Andreas Buchholz, head of research and development at Seuffer. A 3-D printed part could also only cost a small fraction of the conventionally produced part. He projects that the new technologies could reduce prototyping and production costs by more than 90%.
