ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING is the magazine devoted to industrial applications of 3D printing and digital layering technology. We cover the promise and the challenges of this technology for making functional tooling and end-use production parts.
Issue link: https://am.epubxp.com/i/667993
MAY 2016 Additive Manufacturing FEATURE / Business Strategy 32 By Peter Zelinski An AM frm benefting from its connection to sister companies follows opportunities that require commitment to pursue. What is the way forward for an independent manufacturer ofering AM? Adding this capability and developing expertise in it are risky, because the work that is best suited for additive involves parts that have been designed to take advantage of an additive process. The independent shop with AM might wait a long time before it sees parts like this. That is, it might wait a long time before its customers come to appreciate AM and begin to engineer their products to leverage its design freedoms. Matt Hlavin sees a diferent way forward than this, a way that is more active than waiting. However, his way forward also requires a long view. He is the founder and CEO of Rapid Prototype and Manufacturing of Avon Lake, Ohio—or rp+m. (The company exclusively uses lowercase in referring to itself. Because it's not the only frm with those initials in this space, I've decided to keep with that convention for clarity.) This company ofers additive manufacturing capabilities including FDM, DMLS, PolyJet and Binder Jetting, and much of its work on these machines—Binder Jetting in particular—involves parts that do not have a market yet. Instead, much of the frm's ad- ditive work, and much of the attention of its 15-member staf, aims at helping partners to develop the AM-enabled products that will come to market in the future. Tangible Consulting To be sure, there is plenty of traditional, shorter-term 3D printing work as well. This includes prototyping and short- run production for parts that will ultimately be manufactured through some other process. But even this work isn't straight- forward, says rp+m president Tracy Albers. Success involves helping the customer clearly identifying what it most wants to achieve in the prototype part. "The priority might be strength, resolution or aesthetics," she says. Additive can deliver any of the three. However, the ranking of priorities will determine both the choice of process and choices such as part orientation that are made within the process. As Hlavin points out, so-called 3D printing is not just "control-P." The company's service to customers amounts to "tangible consulting," he says—advice on additive that culmi- nates in an additive part. But then, says Albers, there are also those customers that are The Long View on Additive Founder Matt Hlavin looks for opportunities in which additive man- ufacturing can dramatically improve a product. One case he sees is collimators used to direct radiation in medical imaging devices. He is using AM to advance a replacement for the use of lead in these parts.