TCT
Across eight locations, the UK subsidiary of an Italian multinational aerospace and defence firm is looking to engineer a culture of additive manufacturing (AM).
As the company looks to prove out AM’s capacity as a ‘valuable production process’ it has commenced a series of
training initiatives. So far, ten engineers have been put through design for AM training, ten have received tuition around the qualification and certification of critical parts, and ten have been educated in non-destructive testing. Most recently, 17 engineers – who are said to be involved in ‘critical high value projects’ – have been trained in how to build an effective business case for additive.
“This,” Ross Herbert, Additive Manufacturing Lead at Leonardo UK, said at the recent AMADS Conference, “is so important to address the risk factor in the eyes of the program managers. How do you make sure we're managing risk in adopting additive?”
For many business leaders and procurement managers, investing in additive is exactly that: a risk. The technology can be expensive to buy, expensive to run, and expensive to understand. More than that, the technology is still developing, so businesses are also tasked with avoiding obsolescence of their processes.
This has often been a big worry for ADDMAN, a US business comprised of five separate brands offering subtractive and additive manufacturing services. It has, in recent years, expanded its offering to include the polymer 3D printing capacity of Dinsmore and the metal AM proficiency of Castheon, all the while working to ensure its growth is sustainable. That means making some serious considerations and realistic projections before investing in equipment.
To do that, Laser Lines Sales Director Mark Tyrtania offers, all buying decisions should start at the desired customer/end user outcomes.
Working back from there, the buying company should then consider a myriad of factors, from the required facility upgrades to the performance of the OEM supplying the technology. At CIDEAS, another US service bureau, CEO Mike Littrell and his team will assess the power requirements, ventilation requirements, warranty prices, material suppliers and waste stream, before also doing some due diligence around the OEM.
Then, they’ll look inwards to chart a course for how they achieve a return on investment.
For ADDMAN, that’s being organised, conservative and transparent. Projections will be made prior to the purchase of a machine around the volumes the company will be able to print at, bringing customers into those conversations and being honest about the amount of capital required to install new machinery in its factories. Among the considerations for ADDMAN is how quickly projects get launched and how quickly they return the investment that will allow the company to proceed with other capability enhancements. It also looks to fill 50% of its volume before committing to an order.
“Our bar is typically whatever the return math we need to have, we want to have strong conviction on half of that volume as we’re making the investment,” ADDMAN CEO Joe Calmese tells TCT. “So, we’re starting with some momentum, that’s the concept, and then we build out the other half as fast as possible. As you increase utilisation, it decreases the cost of manufacturing on a per unit basis, and so as you decrease the cost, you increase the utilisation and adoption. It’s a great cycle.”
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This approach helps to relieve the pressure of an investment for ADDMAN, with the company knowing from day one that it has filled half of its machine’s capacity for a certain period of time – whether it be one year or five years – from day one. That isn’t that, however.
CIDEAS is a company that deals with customers big and small, old and new. It therefore has to cater for both of these types of client not just in terms of technology and capacity, but in payment terms too. For new customers, CIDEAS requires immediate credit card payment, but there are larger, longer-term clients who are pushing payment intervals from 30 days, through 60, 90 and occasionally 120. This, Littrell says, can be taxing on a service bureau.
“We have an old saying in our shop – ‘Getting the work isn’t the problem, getting paid for the work is the problem,’” Littrell remarks. “At the time of an order being placed, we are allocating the material, maintenance, labour, post-processing, electricity and, more importantly, fixed production time – our most valuable and precious commodity. If we aren’t paid for a large program, it doesn’t just affect our profitability but more importantly, lost capacity that could have been used for profitable ‘paid’ work.”
Across the pond at 3T AM, there is a similar mindset to taking orders. Service providers are there to support OEMs and end users, of course, but only on terms that work for them. So, having invested in expensive AM machinery, every piece of equipment and every staff member operating that equipment at 3T has an hourly rate, helping the company to calculate the real-terms cost of the manufacture and inspection of parts.
3T has gone further still. The company has adopted a slightly different philosophy when it comes to AM, and it’s integral to how it can justify its continued investment in the technology.
“If you’re a metal AM contract manufacturer, you need to expand your internal capability to include all the downstream,” Johns suggests. “It’s the only way you can then optimise your cost to be able to make your parts competitive. If you keep outsourcing your machining, outsourcing your heat treatment, outsourcing all the other ops because you’re only focused on the AM print bit, you’ve been oversold where AM is in the value chain. By outsourcing all those additional operations, you’ve got margin on top of margin on top of margin. You have no control over the cost and time from a delivery perspective.”
Finding a business case with AM and maintaining its viability over the long-term is all about control. And, ADDMAN would argue, know-how too.
“Our approach – our metal additive approach in particular – is a fundamental physics-based approach to additive manufacturing. It’s not completely unique to others, but we do it on a larger scale,” Calmese says. “This fundamental materials property knowledge and ultimate control of the laser disconnects us from the software control and the OEM parameter sets and things of this nature. And since we have such a great understanding of how to manufacture these parts and, in particular, how to produce the material properties that are needed for qualification in these systems, it gives us a great leverage of the technology.”
What can’t be ignored, since most buyers need to understand the pathway to ROI before a purchase is made, is the company a machine is being bought from. In the manufacturing world, that can be from the OEM directly, or more likely, via a distribution partner. Whichever it is, the buying company must seek to understand the position that company is in, the services they offer, the warranties they provide.
You can bring the technology in-house to control the costs of the process, you can get good at understand materials and parameters, but you’re always going to want the support of the supplier.
“Work with a respected and established partner,” Tyrtania emphasises. “We’ve been supplying and supporting Stratasys AM solutions for over 30 years. We have multiple customers that are on their third or fourth generation of 3D printer and many have multiple 3D printers of different technologies to cover off a wider range of applications and uses.”
“While looking at equipment, take note of the available material portfolio and ask the manufacturer what is in the pipeline,” Littrell finishes. “Our customers have been requesting more exotic high-performance materials in rigid and in elastomers. Your needs should align with your current and forecasted needs. Ask the manufacturer about life expectancy and repair part replacement policy after the machine is discontinued or if upgrade paths will be available – and document your correspondence.”
