Revolutionizing Manufacturing One Part at a Time

Finding available replacement parts for classic cars like the 1950s Mercedes-Benz 300 SL coupé can be almost impossible. So, Mercedes-Benz Classic, a division of Daimler, 3-D prints such parts for the sports car as its rearview mirror base and spark plug holder. Daimler, the German auto, bus and truck maker, has been using the technology

Needing a metal turbine blade that can withstand tons of force, Siemens Oil and Gas, the energy division of German industrial giant Siemens, turned to a manufacturing method it has used for more than 10 years: 3-D printing.

Long considered a tool for prototyping, 3-D printing, also called additive manufacturing, has become a valuable technology in the design and manufacturing of spare and replacement parts, as well as small-scale production. It’s making inroads in new product development and parts consolidation. It’s also being used as a tool to fabricate parts for production-line machines.

Siemens has a three-tiered approach to additive manufacturing that includes a service-provider company, Materials Solutions.

“It’s reshaping the prototype industry — and its future is production,” says Tony Lancione, co-founder and vice president — supply chain solutions at IndustryStar, a managed services and software technology company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The technology has forged into such sectors as oil and gas, automotive, aerospace, construction, consumer products, medical and dental. “Anything that can be molded from plastics can be 3-D printed, depending on its size,” Lancione says. “Early on, one of the disadvantages was part strength — you weren’t able to get the strength you could get with injection-molded parts — but those concerns seem to be subsiding as the technology advances. With high-strength applications, it’s virtually limitless what we can do with it. 3-D printing is a mainstay, definitely in the automotive as well as other industries.”

The technology, however, is still in its infancy: The percentage of companies using 3-D printing is small, says Ryan Martin, a principal analyst at ABI Research. He leads the Oyster Bay, New York-based advisory firm’s manufacturing, industrial and enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) research area. Only about 1 percent of products are developed additively versus reductively, he says. Nevertheless, he says, there is no question that 3-D printing offers companies a competitive edge.

Daimler’s ‘Product Advantages’

Every year, at Daimler AG’s Sindelfingen and Untertürkheim sites alone, about 100,000 prototype parts are produced using 3-D printing. Daimler has long used the technology primarily to produce models, visual aids and prototypes; in 2016, the company started 3-D printing select plastic vehicle parts, followed by metal spare parts the following year.

René Olma, who heads the company’s global communications for the Mercedes-Benz cars and vans, vehicle R&D and sustainable-mobility division, says that because of 3-D printing’s potential in prototype construction, the company is looking to expand its use of the technology. “Through these prototypes, construction and new concepts can already be presented and tested at a very early stage with a high maturity level,” he says.

Pilot projects also help Daimler realize 3-D printing’s value. “We want to help shape the possible use of 3-D printing technology for aluminum and its alloys for various applications at an early stage, as well as introduce automotive-industry standards for series production components,” Olma says. The company also wants to explore the potential for motor-vehicle application, particularly involving reduced process times and costs, he says: “This is why optimization of the entire 3-D printing process chain and the optimal component design play a key role for us.”

In a pilot with commercial and military aircraft supplier Premium Aerotec and German 3-D printing technology provider EOS, Daimler set out to demonstrate the potential for 3-D printed aluminum replacement parts and series production components in the automotive and aerospace industries. The goal of the project, begun in 2017 and called NextGenAM, was to reach up to a 50-percent reduction in cost. While the resulting cost savings was about 30 percent depending on the part, Olma says, “we believe an additional 20 percent might be achieved by using more printers in a parallel-scaled setup or by implementing more production lines to increase the output.”

The first replacement part manufactured at Premium Aerotec — a bracket for the cold start valve of a diesel truck engine — is already in use, Olma says. “For the future, we want to make greater use of the degree of freedom and design possibilities of 3-D printing in order to achieve product advantages,” he says. “We are currently dealing with this topic in the design, calculation and evaluation of various components in the exterior, interior and powertrain areas. However, the number of units will initially be low and in special-purpose vehicles with smaller quantities.”

Maximizing Benefits

As Daimler has experienced, 3-D printing offers companies a host of benefits that include cost savings, parts consolidation, weight reduction, small production capabilities and flexible design. Consider weight reduction, a concern in the aerospace industry. Lighter-weight parts that can be designed to carry out the same purpose as their production-made counterparts can add tremendous value through cost reduction. “In aerospace, every pound you send into space costs about (US)$10,000,” Martin says. “So, weight reduction is a huge benefit.” Other benchmarks are about $1,000 per pound for commercial aviation and about $100 per pound in automotive, he says.

The parts-consolidation capability can enable organizations to reduce their supplier base as well as streamline the parts-assembly process, says Susan Beardslee, ABI Research principal analyst — global intelligent transportation and e-freight research coverage. “You may be able to go from 15, 10 or five parts down to one part” that serves the same purpose, she says.

Parts consolidation results in another benefit, Martin says: “Fewer moving parts means less wear and tear, and better life in the field. So, it improves the cost — the TCO profile — of a given part for products.”

The technology is a boon for small-scale applications — like replacement parts for out-of-production components or for customizable parts, such as the special customer requests that Daimler receives for individually designed interior trim parts of the company’s touring coach.

Having only a few pieces produced traditionally through injection molding is costly, Martin says: “A metal injection molding provider isn’t going to entertain a conversation unless you’re going to produce several thousand units. If you’re a startup, that’s an incredibly high barrier to entry, so you’re unable to get your parts produced.”

Additive manufacturing also can impact supply chain responsiveness. As a prototyping tool, it can cut lead times due to the ease of redesigning the part, Martin says. On the production side, “it is often cheaper and easier to ship data — so the design can be produced through additive manufacturing — than it is to ship a part,” he says.

As a result, 3-D printing can have a ripple effect on other parts of a company’s supply chain, like logistics and transportation, Beardslee says. “Say you’re ordering a part that has to be put on a ship and exported. That could easily take 30 days from port to port,” she says. “But if you could make it, even if it took you four hours, that is an exponentially huge difference.” And with production localized, shipping and logistics needs change, she adds.

Design Flexibility

3-D printing also allows products to be designed in virtually any shape. “The new trend in product design is automated design, where you determine the function of the part and software determines what the form ought to be,” says Pete Tiernan, director of market development for Siemens’ additive manufacturing program. “You’ve likely seen additive parts that look almost organic in shape — parts that couldn’t have been manufactured any other way. You scratch your head and wonder how somebody came up with this shape. That’s the additive manufacturing-design software coming into play.”

The software enables users to input such factors as the dimensions of the space the part must fit into, the load constraints, the part’s necessary strength, the way air should flow over it, and the optimum weight and cost, Tiernan says: “It sort of turns engineering on its head.”

In the past, organic shapes that can now be made additively couldn’t be manufactured, he notes. The shape might be constrained by several factors, and designers would have to take those things into consideration, he says: “A milling machine, for instance, can turn only certain ways — it can’t get deeply into a cavity, especially if that cavity is twisting and turning all around. But with additive manufacturing, you don’t have to worry about that.”

Tiernan says that designing a part to be 3-D printed in metal involves other considerations. Among them:

• The best way to fit the part into the machine. A part that lays horizontally, depending on load restraints, might break more easily than if it had a different orientation, he says.
• A support structure must be designed so the part doesn’t distort during printing. Software is available to help designers create that optimum design and support structure, he says.

Siemens’ Approach

Siemens has a three-tiered approach to additive manufacturing: as a (1) user, primarily through Siemens Oil and Gas, (2) service provider and (3) software developer. As a user, Tiernan says, the benefits have included:

• Better performing parts
• Parts that couldn’t have been produced otherwise, due to the shape, design or weight
• Cost reduction
• Increased responsiveness.

“Some of our power and gas customers are out on oil rigs,” Tiernan says. “If a part breaks, traditionally we would have had to go to the service provider to have it manufactured, which could take a long time. Now, however, some rigs have 3-D printers on site and are conducting performance analytics.” Through IoT technology and sensors, they can tell if a part is about to fail, he says: “They can then 3-D print the replacement part and have it ready before the part even breaks.”

As a service provider and software developer, Siemens is helping customers achieve the same benefits, he says.

Barriers to Adoption

Despite its advantages, companies interested in implementing 3-D printing technology face numerous challenges. One is a lack of standardization in the printing process, Lancione says: “When you 3-D print, the next part might not be exactly the same as the first part — there are minor differences.” While companies are used to dealing with this issue with injection molding processes and can set up a tolerance range for a part or specification, “in 3-D printing, it’s harder to standardize that process as of right now. It will get better as machines get better,” he says.

Other challenges:

• Overcoming knowledge gaps, skepticism and a “we’ve always done it this way” mindset
• Intellectual-property issues relating to trademarked and patented designs, and the potential for copying and copyright infringement
• Sustainability and environmental issues, particularly with use of plastics and polymers.

“I think that as 3-D printing becomes more widely adopted, people will bridge knowledge gaps and there will be more standardized processes pertaining to the intellectual property element of these designs,” Lancione says. “But right now, it’s kind of like the wild, Wild West.”

Another issue is that some of the materials used in 3-D printing “are not always at the level we are accustomed to from other manufacturing processes,” Olma says. “Therefore, every new material used must be tested, qualified and optimized if necessary.”

Siemens Oil and Gas 3-D printed a metal turbine blade that can withstand tons of force.

High equipment costs associated with additive manufacturing are one of the biggest challenges to adoption. “Historically, it’s been capital-intensive to work with additive, because for a legitimate production-ready system, you need to spend upwards of $500,000 — and in some cases, more than $1 million — to have a fully integrated system,” Martin says. “Today, there are companies that offer service-based models, where users pay an annual subscription fee that covers everything except the material you use.”

This is an attractive option for companies, especially ones that are just starting to implement 3-D printing capabilities, he says: “I would expect more companies to go in this direction.” And, as with other technologies, the cost likely will decrease over time.

Anything that can be molded from plastics can be 3-D printed, depending on its size. ... With high-strength applications, it’s virtually limitless what we can do with it. 3-D printing is a mainstay, definitely in the automotive as well as other industries. - TONY LANCIONE 

Looking Ahead

As additive manufacturing technology advances, it will get more applications. “The future for 3-D printing is bright,” says Lancione, who forecasts a bigger interest in metal 3-D printing as companies realize the advantages it can provide. “The technology of 3-D printing is going to increase in terms of higher strength and better materials,” he says.

Beardslee expects 3-D printing to eventually enable supply chain consolidation, particularly in the transportation and logistics industry. “Think about a fulfillment center,” she says. “Why would you carry that high level of inventory when you can make things in relative real time while being closer to your customers? Over time, these multi-football-field-sized fulfillment centers will be replaced.”

For Tiernan and Siemens, the ultimate vision is to use additive to create what the company calls autonomous innovation. “You’ve heard the term autonomous robots — robots that can think for themselves. That’s the goal with additive and innovation in general,” Tiernan says. “People will define the functionality of their parts or products, saying, for example, ‘I want this car to go this fast, to withstand this type of force, and for the brakes to be able to break this fast.’ You define the functionality and let the software determine what the optimal parts are, whether it’s an individual part assembly or the entire system.

“You can only do that with additive. (In) traditional manufacturing, you can design the ideal part — but you can’t produce it. Now, you can almost automate the entire process.”