The rise of 3D printing has been compared to the beginning of the industrial era in how deeply it might impact our society. TechSoup, EESTEC and TechforTrade host Dr. Phil Reeves for a 3D printing hack day.

1. Dr Phil Reeves - Managing Director, Econolyst Ltd, UK
The 3D for Development Challenge
-Bucharest -
www.econolyst.co.uk
Friday 22nd June 2012 - Romania

2. Session 1 – the background (1-hour +)
• Personal introduction
• What is 3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing
• What is the current state-of-the-art in 3DP/AM
• What drives companies to use this technology
– Economics, geometries, environment, personalised
products, increased functionality, new supply chains
• The growth of low-end / home consumer 3DP
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3. About Econolyst
• Econolyst is a UK based
consultancy dedicated to the
Additive Manufacturing & 3DP
sector
• Established 2003
• Built on almost 20-years of AM
experience
• Clients in the UK, Western
Europe, Scandinavia, Benelux,
USA, Israel, India, Middle East &
Far East, Africa
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4. What we do at Econolyst
• Help companies implement 3DP & AM
technology (from design to retail)
• Deliver AM focused training & conferences
• R&D project management & delivery
• AM software development
— Establishing supply chain Carbon footprints
— Developing AM part cost and value models
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5. Things that keep my office busy
• Helping the world largest jet engine maker (GE) use AM
• Helping a global sports brand (Nike) to use AM
• Helping India's largest jewellery retailer (Tanqish) implementing
direct metal printing of precious metal into 150 shops
• Advising one of the worlds largest chains of high street chemist
(Boots) on how to use 3DP (glasses, hearing aids, drugs)
• Advising VC’s and Private Equity companies on investment in AM
• Advising the UK government on investment strategies to support
AM R&D
• Advising the UK Ministry of Defence on AM/3DP capabilities to
support security and warfare out to 2030
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6. So what is 3D Printing &
additive manufacturing?
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7. Agreeing terms – setting the context
Additive Manufacturing is the manufacture
of ‘end-use’ component parts using
Additive Layer Manufacturing processes
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8. What is a 3D printing systems
3DP processes are automated systems that
take 2-dimensional layers of computer data
and rebuild them into 3D solid objects
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9. Agreeing terms – what’s in a name
• AM is also refereed to as:
– Generative Manufacturing – Germany
– eManufacturing - Germany
– Constructive Manufacturing - Germany
– Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) – Scandinavia & EADS
– Direct Digital Manufacture (DDM) – USA
– Freeform Fabrication (FFF)– USA
– Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) – USA
– 3D Printing (3DP)- Global
– Rapid Manufacturing – Global (historic)
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10. How does the 3D Printing process chain work?
• Start with a 3D geometry
• Generate STL file
• Orient parts to optimum build
direction
• Generate support structures
• Slice part & supports Link to Video
horizontally
• Consolidate, deposit or cut out
layer
• Index machine down (or up) by
one layer thickness
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11. How does ALM differ from traditional manufacturing
There are Four fundamental manufacturing principles:
• Subtractive
– Material is successively removed from a solid block until the desired shape
is reached (2.5M BC – Hominids)
• Fabricative
– Elements or physical material are combined and joined (6,000 BC –
Western Asia)
• Formative
– Mechanical forces and, or heat are applied to material to form it into the
desired shape such as bending, casting and molding (3,000 BC – Egyptians)
• Additive
– Material is manipulated so that successive pieces of it combine to make
the desired object (1984 – Californians)
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12. So what is the current state
of the art in 3DP/AM in
2012?
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13. We have an ever increasing range of technologies
High end Mid range
– Stereolithography IPro (3D) – 3D Printing (Voxeljet)
– Selective Laser Sintering (3D & EOS) – Stereolithography Viper SLA (3D)
– FDM Fortus (Stratasys) – Polyjet Eden (Objet)
– Connex (Objet) – 3D Projet (3D systems)
– Perfactory XE (Envisiontec) – Perfactory (Envisiontec)
Lower end (desk-top)
Very low end (home users) – 3D Printing (Z-Corp)
– Ultimaker – Ultra Z-Printer (Envisiontec / Z-Corp)
– Bits-from-Bytes (3D) – 24/30 (Objet)
– MakerBot – FDM Dimension (Stratasys)
– UP personal printer – UPrint (HP / Stratasys)
– Fab@Home – Laminated Objet Manufacture (Mcor)
– PrinterBot – V-Flash (3D Systems)
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14. Today we have a ‘pallet’ of around 200 materials
Organic Ceramic Polymeric Metallic
materials materials materials materials
Waxes Alumina ABS Aluminium
Tissue / cells Mullite Polyamide (nylon) Tool Steel
Zirconia Filled PA Titanium
Silicon Carbide PEEK Inconel
Beta-Tri calcium Phosphate Thermosetting epoxies Cobalt Chrome
Ceramic (nano) loaded epoxies Copper
Silica (sand) PMMA Stainless steel
Plaster Polycarbonate Gold / platinum
Graphite Polyphenylsulfone Hastelloy
ULTEM
Aluminium loaded polyamide
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15. So what drives companies to
adopt Additive
Manufacturing (or be interested)?
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16. The core business drivers to AM adoption
1. Economic low volume production
2. Increased geometric freedom
3. Increased part functionality
4. Product personalisation
5. Improvised environmental sustainability
6. New supply chains and retail models
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17. Lets consider these drivers
with some case studies
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18. 1. Enabling low volume production
• Enabled the economic manufacture
of low volume complex geometries
and assemblies
– Reduces the need for tooling (moulds /
cutters)
– Reduced capital investment &
inventory
– Simplifies supply chains & reduced
lead times
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19. Example – unit volumes of 1
• Bentley is a subsidiary of Volkswagen
• Vehicles from $250K - $1M
• In-house polymeric and metallic AM capacity
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20. Example – Low volume production
• Problem – customer with limited mobility
needed a reversed dashboard
• Production substrate produced by RIM
• Manual modification time consuming
• Solution – Laser Sintered AM part with
leathers and veneers veneers
Images courtesy of Bentley
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21. Example – Low volume production
Images courtesy of Bentley
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22. 2. Maximising design complexity & capability
• AM enables the production of highly
complex geometries with little if no
cost penalty
– Re-entrant features
– Variable wall thicknesses
– Complex honey combs
– Non-linear holes
– Filigree structures
– Organic / genetic structures
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23. Example – Delphi Diesel Pump
• Conventional product manufactured by
cross drilling an aluminium die casting
• Multiple machining operations
• Multiple post processing ops (chemical
deburring, hole blanking, pressure testing)
• Final product prone to leakage
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24. With AM - Design the product around the holes
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25. Example – conceptual Diesel Pump
• Produce the part as one piece using
Selective Laser melting on Aluminium
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26. 3. Increasing part functionality
• AM enabled multiple functionality to
be manufactured using a single
process
– Replacing surface coatings & textures
– Modifying physical behaviour by
designing ‘mechanical properties’
– Embedding secondary materials (optical
/ electrical)
– Grading multiple materials in a single
part
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27. Example – surface design for bone ingress
Material: Ti6Al4V
Build time: 16 cups in Implants (production)
18 hours
• Accetabular cups
Images Courtesy of ARCAM – www.arcam.com
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28. Example – Heat dissipation surfaces
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29. Example – Energy absorption
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30. 4. Product Personalisation
• Individual consumer centric
products, with customer input
– Medical devices
– Consumer goods
– Cultural & emotional artefacts
– Online design tools
– Co-creation
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31. Case study - Hearing aids
• Produced using personal data from
each individual patient
– Produced using scan data
– 20 million made every year by 3DP
– Lower cost than traditional
– Every one is different
– Improved fit for the user
– Lots of medical applications using bdy
scan data, CT & MRI data
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32. The personalisation can be by the consumer
• www.makielab.com
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33. The Internet lets everyone become designers
• Some web offering allow us to become the
designer in an AM supply chain
– Digital Forming.com
– Jujups.com This is a pall point pen
– Sculpteo.com
– Landprints.com This is a bedside light
This is a lemon squeezer
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34. There are lots of new interfaces
Google
Sketch UP
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35. There are lots of new interfaces
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36. 5. Life cycle sustainability
• Product lifecycle improvements in
economic and environmental
sustainability
– Reduced raw material consumption
– Efficient supply chains
– Optimised product efficiency
– Lighter weights components
– Reduced lifecycle burden
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37. Case study – aerospace cabin component
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38. A very different approach to design
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39. Design optimisation for AM production
Topologically
optimised
Machine from
solid billet Complex
lattice
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40. Example – How does the weight compare
Scenario 1 – Machined from
solid (0.8Kg)
Scenario 2 – Selective Laser
melted lattice (0.31 kg)
Scenario 3 – Selective Laser melted
optimised design (0.37 Kg)
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41. To establish sustainability
you have to establish life
cycle boundary conditions
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42. Environmental benefit over product lifecycle
Process Raw Manufacture Distribution Usage Life cycle
Materials CO2 CO2 CO2 Kg CO2
CO2
Machining 100Kg 2 Kg 5 Kg 43,779 Kg 43,886
SLM lattice 16 Kg 5 Kg 1 Kg 16,238 Kg 16,260
SLM optimal 18 Kg 7 kg 2 Kg 20,339 Kg 20,366
• Example based on 90M km (Long haul) application
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43. So how do our lifecycle CO2 compare
Scenario 1 – Machined
from solid (100%)
Scenario 2 – Selective
Laser melted lattice
(37%)
Scenario 3 – Selective
Laser melted optimised
design (46%)
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44. Sunday Times 13th Feb 2011
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45. Example – life cycle economic benefits
• 0.49Kg saving per monitor arm
• $1,500 per annum in fuel savings (today's
prices)
• $45,000 over 30-year aircraft life
• Product life span 5-7 years (estimate)
• Life-cycle economic saving $6.5K - $9K
• Machined part - $500
• SLM Part - $2,500
• Capital investment repaid in 2-years…. 
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46. This is a step change in design thinking
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47. 6. Supply chain realignment
• New lean yet agile business models
and supply chain
– Distributed manufacture
– Manufacture and the point of
consumption
– Demand pull business models
– Stockless supply chains
– Chainless supply chains (home
manufacture)
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48. Stockless supply chains – low barriers
$50.00 each
60,000 month
$36M P/A
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49. Integration with other data sources
$6.2-million (6-machines)
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50. There are online printing portals to buy & sell
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51. These portals have volume traffic
$44 average
price of
products
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52. So what are people designing & sharing
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53. But what do you do with the data? – Home 3D Printing
Makergear
Start-up Growing Established
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54. MakerBot – the ‘market leader’
• Less than 3-years old
• Business based on open source
• 6700 machines sold in 2011
• $1,749 per machine
• 20,000 machines this year
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55. So what are people making
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56. These machines are based on open-source
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57. Other supply chain opportunities for all
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58. Is there a market?
1985 – 2010 = 45,000 machines
2011 = 15,000 machine
2012 = 45,000 machine
2013 = 200,000 machines
2014 = 800,000 machines
2015 = 3.2-million
Moore's law?
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59. The money will also be in the data & content
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60. So is AM the new
Manufacturing revolution
for the digital age?
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61. Not yet - the harsh reality
• Of the 200+ products, components, parts &
business models we have looked at over the last
7-years, 90% were not immediately suited to AM.
– Piece part economics
– Production throughput
– Mechanical property limitations
– Surface finish Next session
– Part accuracy
– Process variance
– Quality assurance & validation
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62. BUT…. We can dream …….
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63. Dr Phil Reeves - Managing Director, Econolyst Ltd, UK
Questions Econolyst Ltd
The Silversmiths
Crown Yard
Wirksworth
Derbyshire, UK
DE4 4ET
+44 (0) 1629 824447
phil.reeves@econolyst.co.uk
www.econolyst.co.uk
Friday 22nd June 2012 - Romania