The integration of fused deposition modelling within conventional production processes

Abstract

This thesis report covers the graduation project that is done in cooperation with Ultimaker. The goal of this project was to research the potential of 3D-printing as an addition to traditional manufacturing, aimed at the production of customized and/or small series of products. There are 7 different manufacturers approached and interviewed on this topic. It was found how and through what workflow manufacturers currently applying 3D-printing, and how they would expect to use 3D-printing in the future. Chapter 3 describes how these results were translated to the design challenge of this project; How to help manufacturers with the integration of 3D-printing within their traditional production workflow? External and internal brainstorm let to the development of a provisional concept (Chapter 4); Design optimization and production planning for 3D-printing. The concept was prototyped and tested by applying it on 3 use cases that were provided by two manufacturers; AXA & Attema. Through an agile process the provisonal concept was optimized and validated, and let to the development of the Ulti-Expert. The Ulti-Expert is a software tool that consists of a design optimization plug-in within CAD-software and a production planning web-environment. Through the plug-in manufacturers will be able to get real-time feedback on their design in order to optimize it for production with 3D-printing. They are able to use the production planning environment to estimate what capacity will be needed to produce a specific amount of these parts, calculate its costs and to determine how fast it can be produced.