Identify an Additive Manufacturing Use Case

10 years ago, we as process engineers had the opportunity to specifically develop an in depth L-PBF process for a material alloy. Today, we are mainly involved in a "fast track" development process for a customized parameter set (based on an existing one) to qualify customer applications.

Is that a bad trend? From my point of view not at all, in fact I like it very much as we are moving much closer towards product development and that is what the AM industry need. 🤔

"𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴? 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴? 𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘺?"

Just another morning in process engineering. Product development is already on your toes and wants to know where we are in the qualification process, so we can quickly move to the next step in the process chain (III Post Processing).

The design (I) has already been reviewed and approved, otherwise we wouldn't be in process development (II), yet. Now it's up to us to get a process up and running quickly and in a robust way so that we can manufacture the final component without major deviations and a high degree of productivity. 🚀

"𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯?"

That answer will remain as our secret. 😇

I Design - II Print - III Post Processing - IV AM Accelerator

How exactly the process is structured and where we need to pay attention, I had already shown in the last two reels (Design and Print your part). Today I'm talking about the overall concept (see picture below).

It is important for me to mention that for an AM use case the process is only a small piece within a qualification process of the customer's product. Finally, Design and post-processing strategy is as important as the L-PBF process development, so that no defects are subsequently caused due to e.g. warpage of the components.

The AM Accelerator (IV) increases the chances of a follow-up order. Certainly not our task as process engineers to identify customer potential, but we can of course give our opinion and thus clearly influence the focus and prioritization of customer projects.

You will learn what to look for in Post-Processing (III) and how to find indicators of an AM Accelerator in the upcoming Reels.

Stay tuned and enjoy your week! 🦾

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