Modern Machine Shop and MoldMaking Technology present ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, a quarterly supplement reporting on the use of additive processes to manufacture functional parts. More at additivemanufacturinginsight.com.
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AdditiveManufacturingInsight.com May 2015 — 11 After its initial investment in 3D printing, Currier quickly discovered uses beyond prototyping, including manufacturing this fxture for a laundry detergent spout used in the quality lab. Currier has pushed the limits of wall and part thickness. For amenity bottles, for example, a bit of trial and error taught the company that the part has a wall thickness minimum threshold of 0.040 inch. Any thinner than this and things get fimsy. Just cleaning it runs the risk of snapping the part or dropping and cracking it. according to Gary Kieffer, VP of new product development. Although the company's additive journey continues, its staff has already achieved considerable insight into implementing this technology for printing in plastics. What follows is some of what this company has learned. First, Currier has realized the importance of recognizing a customer's expectations of its additive manufacturing capabilities to prevent communication breakdowns and part failure down the line. "We have learned how valuable it is to understand the customer's functional expecta- tions for the part, so we educate the customer as we go," Sieber explains. "Many customers do not fully grasp the design for manufacturability (DFM) process, especially as it relates to tooling design and mating components. We take the time to help the customer understand the complexities of form, ft and function." For example, a customer recently received some prototype bottles from Currier and request- ed 24 more, but with a smoother surface fnish. This presented a problem, as the molder does not perform the post-fnishing work (sanding, fnishing validation for a customer. However, the Currier team quickly discovered new uses for the tech- nology beyond prototyping, including to produce quality assurance fxtures, automation fxturing, parts for the production foor, and cutting fxtures for the toolroom and secondary operations. "The sky is the limit," Sieber now says. "On a daily basis, the team asks, 'Can we do this?' and the answer is always, 'Yes, we can.'" For example, after purchasing the frst 3D printer, Currier's design and quality assurance teams collaborated to make a geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T;) holding fxture for a new custom bottle design, which helped to simplify part inspection. On another occasion, an automation engineer who was working on a modi- fcation to a cap-closing station printed the base plate and fipper bar models overnight to validate the redesign. This reduced costs and shaved two weeks from the unit tool's lead time. Today, the Currier team experi- ments not just with its own 3D printer, but with a range of 3D printing options available through suppliers, making this team "worth its weight in gold,"