Facilitating Application Identification for 3D Printing in Manufacturing Environments

Abstract

The use of 3D printing technology in manufacturing environments has experienced rapid growth. Manufacturers have realised the potential of the technology. 3D printing enables the reduction of costs and lead-times of parts, components and tools used in production processes. Adoption of this technology is facing various challenges. A major challenge is the identification of suitable parts for Additive Manufacturing technology. Assessing a part’s suitability for 3D printing requires a substantial amount of knowledge of 3D printing technology. Within manufacturing and production environments, a limited group of people is trained to do understand the technology. It is expected that the frequency and quality of applications will increase the value that will be added by 3D printing. This development will be driven by the capability to identify new applications. The more stakeholders are educated in this field and understand the technology, the more opportunities will be identified. Given the above, this objective of this research project is to investigate how production line operators can be more actively involved in the initial stages of the 3D printing workflow. Through extensive literature and contextual research, the potential to enable production line operators to identify parts and problems in their section of the facility has been exposed. Various influential opportunities and challenges in their participation have been established. After a round of internal validation of the research insights, a strategic decision was made to focus design efforts on developing a digital platform. The objective of this platform is to enable operators to participate in the relevant steps of the 3D printing workflow. Through an iterative process, an Application Portal has been designed. This portal is a mobile application that supports production line operators in submitting new ideas. In addition to the above, the system offers the following functions:
1.Active collaboration between stakeholders
2.Exchange of project developments insights
3.Validation of application suitability A prototype is developed in Axure. This software is used to validate the concepts with a variety of manufacturing clients, operators and 3D print experts. The applicability of the concept has been validated for a majority of clients. These results illustrate that the solution offers significant value to achieve active participation. Additional design goals have been achieved to a great extent. The application portal provides operators with a tool to express their ideas. They can actively participate in innovation and take ownership of the applications they have identified themselves. Additionally, the platform offers Ultimaker and its manufacturing clients an opportunity to gather relevant data to work towards a future of automated part identification. Inevitably, the prototype has its limitations. However, this study represents a step forward in the acceleration towards accessible part identification by novice users in manufacturing environments.