Deputy Group Editor, Laura Griffiths talks to Stacey DelVecchio, Caterpillar, at AMUG 2017 to discuss women in additive manufacturing and how the industrial equipment manufacturer is ramping up its AM capabilities for production.
Meeting with Stacey DelVecchio at the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) Conference was like meeting a friend for coffee. Friendly, open and honest, the Caterpillar Additive Manufacturing Product Manager is a breath of fresh air, partially due to the lack of female interaction common to a week spent at any additive manufacturing (AM) conference, but largely as we get to talk about the most exciting developments in AM and why the trend for women leaving engineering roles is ever present.
“I think it goes a lot to the culture,” Stacey explained. “Women are just leaving engineering. There is a lot of work with outreach, some of the stronger messages are about not forgetting the women you have, don't just put your money towards the 5th and 6th graders, make sure that your programmes are really supporting your women because it's hard to replace someone who's got 20 years’ experience in engineering.”
We meet on the second day of AMUG 2017 where Stacey delivered an engaging keynote presentation on the strategic aspects of applying AM in applications beyond prototyping at Caterpillar, the world’s leading global manufacturer of construction equipment. But before we even get into the business of additive, our conversation goes straight to women in engineering. Having served as President of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Stacey knows her stuff and talks enthusiastically about efforts to encourage more women into engineering and manufacturing roles.
Caterpillar AM facility.
“I am a big supporter of Change The Equation which talks about how we talk about engineering,” Stacey explained. “It's really more about asking, “How do you want to change the world?” not “What do you want to be?” and engineering is really the way to do it. I'm kind of biased! But there are so many facets of engineering so think about how you want to change the world and then figure out how to do that.”
One of the ways Caterpillar is getting involved in influencing change and empowering women and girls is through the Caterpillar Foundation. The Foundation’s goal is to alleviate poverty by placing 50 million people on the path to prosperity by 2020, which sounds like a tall ask, but since 1952 the Foundation has contributed over $685 million towards creating sustainable solutions around the world. On the surface, Caterpillar is using its resources to do what you might expect from an industrial company, build roads and donate tools to communities. But when you dig a little further, the Foundation is focused on breaking the cycle of poverty through a collaborative approach to partnerships that addresses the root causes, which they refer to as Together.Stronger. One of the ways in which the Foundation is working to create sustainable change is through investments in women and girls as they play an essential role in community and economic development. They refer to this effort as ‘To Get HER Stronger,’ a subset of Together.Stronger.
Stacey DelVecchio
“It just gives me the chills,” Stacey says referring to the Foundation’s ‘To Get HER Stronger’ interpretation. “As Caterpillar works to build a stable societal structure, our Foundation is focused on building human infrastructure through programs that support basic human needs, education and the environment. I look at that and I think how could that not excite girls when they want to do more humanitarian things.”
Caterpillar is also championing diversity throughout the business having been named in DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies in 2016 with ambitions to grow its workforce from the current 20% to 30% by 2025.
Accelerating Additive
Stacey began her career at Caterpillar in 1989 as a chemical engineering graduate. She freely shares that one of the reasons she ended up there was to be in the same city as her boyfriend, who also works at the company. He’s now her husband and in all these years, they’ve only ever had one meeting together so it all worked out pretty well. Occupying various roles within the company throughout her career, in 2014 Stacey was elected President of the SWE and put on special assignment in human resources. Upon her return to Caterpillar a year later, she found herself at a crossroads and had to decide either to stay within that area of the business or go back to engineering - that’s where additive came in. Since then Caterpillar has cut the ribbon on its dedicated Additive Manufacturing Factory as part of its 3D Printing & Innovation Accelerator.
“I can't imagine the people that have been here [in additive manufacturing] for 30 years,” Stacey commented. “To think about the people that have done the work all those years ago, it’s definitely exciting and has so much potential. I've never worked with something where so many people, my mom, my brother are asking, “What are you doing this for?” “What is that?” It's a good place to be.”
Caterpillar's AMUG Technical Competition entry.
In fact, Stacey’s passion is so infectious that halfway through our interview, a guy stopped by to say that even though he doesn’t work in construction, after watching the morning’s keynote, if he had to buy a piece of equipment now, it would be Caterpillar. Job done, I say.
Caterpillar has been using AM since 1991 when it first opened its Rapid Prototyping lab in Mossville, Illinois. In Stacey’s keynote, she shared an interesting statistic that 50% of Dow Jones companies, from that same year, have now disappeared from the list. Caterpillar is still there at the top and Stacey pins that down largely to the company’s ability to innovate and adapt, as it has done over the last 90 years in construction and engine development.
In 2015, Caterpillar closed is Rapid Prototyping lab to make way for its Additive Manufacturing Factory designed for prototyping, low volume service tools and functional parts. The facility houses a range of technologies from Stratasys, 3D Systems, SLM Solutions, ExOne and Carbon, the latter of which Stacey is particularly excited about thanks to its acclaimed production-quality material properties.
Fuel swirler
“Being a chemical engineer and coming from the materials and non-metallic background, being able to print rubber is super cool. In the beginning when I would go to these places and they would say “we can print rubber-like material”. That doesn’t make any sense, you're talking to a technical person, why would you use the word “like” in that! The fact that Carbon is founded on materials science is great.”
The wider industry is seeing a lot more collaboration between big players and customers to streamline AM and set the course for production. This application/customer focussed mind-set means that AM machine manufacturers are more willing than ever to listen to the needs of big industrial adopters like Caterpillar to deliver solutions that suit their applications and needs. Recently the company struck a strategic partnership with FIT AG to design and print aluminium and titanium parts, which will give Caterpillar access to FIT AG’s AM technologies and accelerate adoption even further. The key now is to boost the profile of additive’s capabilities to get engineers thinking differently about how it can be applied and build on Caterpillar’s legacy of innovation and invention.
“I talk to engineers at least once a week who don't realise that we can print in metal and that it can get the level of quality and material properties that it can. I'm still impressed by it. People think now is not the time and it will eventually get there but I think, no now is the time.”
