Mass customization enabled by industrialized additive manufacturing

At the ongoing Siemens Digital Enterprise Virtual Summit, there was a session on industrialized additive manufacturing. How is mass customization enabled by industrialized additive manufacturing? This session is a follow-up on presentation "From head to helmet – How mass customization is enabled by industrialized additive manufacturing"?

Julian Waldmann, Business Development Manager, Additive Manufacturing, Siemens AG showed a product. He said air is flowing from one side. There are 13 industrial parts that are now connected as one part. There is a digital twin of product. The same software can do all the necessary work preparation, and send to the real world. We produce all digital parts. Another product shown had parts made of aluminium. The digital twin enables creating this product.

Dr. Karsten Heuser, VP Additive Manufacturing, Siemens, said it took only two days to commission the machine on the shop floor. One example, if you have been working with CNC, the machine can do CNC and additive. The CNC machine is part of the post-processing.

Waldmann added that you can rethink business and manufacturing. For business, you can do individualization and personalization, have zero inventory, for on-demand printing, design anywhere and print anywhere, and accelerate innovation. For manufacturing, you can eliminate molding/casting/tooling, eliminate or simplify the assembly process, reduce supply chains, and have affordable low volume production. You can have manufacturing transformation, and shift from prototyping / experimentation.

Dr. Heuser showed the latest 3D printer. It can significantly improve the performance of the flow. If there is a seamless integrated workflow, it will work. Siemens has over 200 industrial machines working at over 45 locations. Additive is on the journey to further industrialize.

Dr. Heuser added that if you want to invest in additive, you want to be connected to the world of machines. We have the additive manufacturing network that started last year. There are things like engineering consultancy, software vendors, materials vendors, machine vendors, part suppliers, part buyers, etc. The platform is designed to streamline and digitalize the end-to-end.

Waldmann said there is the additive manufacturing network. You have to design for AM, do AM design validation, build simulation, build preparation and do generative engineering. Post processing, there is scheduling and execution, intelligent automation, machine connectivity, process monitoring, and machine monitoring. Additive manufacturing is still a young technology. You can play around different machine scenarios. You can predict the optimal setup and layout.

He added that you can increase the workflow efficiency by seamless integrated software and data consistency. Printing can be done first time right by the digital twin of the product, production, and performance. You can increase the machine quality, efficiency and provide worldwide service by the TIA portfolio. You can accelerate the industrialization with value-add services and digital ecosystem.