Anthony Rose
Jabil engineered materials
Jabil Additive Manufacturing experts and chemists mix different raw materials during the formulation of Jabil Engineered Materials
A large cup of coffee to go, an A5 notepad emblazoned with the company’s logo, two colleagues darting back and forth, and in the backdrop, peers hugging their hellos, engaging in catch ups, and resting their feet.
Jabil Additive’s Rush LaSelle, Senior Director of Digital Manufacturing, was experiencing his third, and busiest, Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) Conference where he attended not just as a learner, networker, and customer, but now as a supplier too. It was the company’s first presence at an additive manufacturing conference since the launch of the Engineered Materials business back in January, and a presence stimulated by the change in dialogue, from academic conversations to ones more focused on the de-risking, and returning, of investments.
The company has had 3D printing technologies implemented in its factories for some 16 years. From running them to enable conformal cooling channels in moulds, to now having more than 50 machines dedicated (‘more or less’) to tooling and fixturing, while end use parts ‘begin to blossom.’ As Jabil assesses the situation amongst the near-40 exhibitors and 2,000 attendees at the AMUG Conference, it is encouraged by the progress.
“I’m appreciative that more people are understanding how to make the technology convert to true manufacturing technology, getting it from a technology to a solution. More people have a better understanding of the rigours, the requirements to get something through serial production,” LaSelle summarised. “When we go into our factory, they have to be on point to get 99.8% yield. We’re a six sigma company so we have to get to that level of repeatability, we have to think all the way back up to the material development, and it transcends what you do with the materials when they come out of the printer, not just the part, but the use of material.”
These are important steps towards realising true digital manufacturing, of which productivity and efficiency are the cornerstone. LaSelle notes there are perhaps fewer innovations and product releases than yesteryear, with a promising trend in integration and application emerging in its place: “I think people are absorbing and driving business cases around [3D printing technology]. It’s not just flashy launches which is what we saw two years ago.”
Two years ago, Jabil was much less vocal about its work with additive, as it typically has been about everything. The company prided itself on being the ‘only multi-billion-dollar company you’ve never heard of’ but through its ongoing relations with the top 300+ brands in the world, could have a big say in the implementation of AM as a production tool. As such, Jabil is tailoring its operations to suit.
Additive manufacturing is to have a significant role in its distributed network of manufacturing facilities, of which two more have been added in the last six months – Auburn Hills in Michigan will serve the local automotive hub and an AS certified base in Seattle for the aerospace sector. The Engineered Materials business, meanwhile, will fill a gap in the market, supplementing the offering of the chemical giants operating in the space who produce truckloads of materials, to deliver specialised products based on specific mechanical requirements, “we want a part that does this level of energy return, looks like this elongation.” From here, Jabil considers which process would suit the material best, if they need to tinker with a ready-made material or create something entirely new, which also influences whether the customer owns some portion of the development or whether Jabil can roll the product out to more customers and vertical markets.
"The more machines that are online, the more material going through, the better the cost is, the faster our factories go."
But the close proximity to which it works with these customers is key to how Jabil operates. Materials are already in the hands of partners, and Jabil’s 100+ factories across a range of industries is such that the company is also very much part of its customers’ ‘New Product Introduction’ (NPI) processes, where it can advise on which technologies to harness when.
“We have a concentrated group and the real benefit to us is we’re able to be really intimate with our customer requirements, intimate with their design, intimate with their engineering,” LaSelle said. “We’ve had the luxury of being involved with their NPI process and conversion process, [so] for us [it] has been a lot less about trying to do a substitution for something that would be an injection mould – we have over 6,000 injection moulding machines that we’re not going to turn off so we’re going to continue to feed those with the right applications.
"We're really focused on aerospace right now, ducting and tubing, just doing geometries you can't otherwise do. What it's doing for us and our customers is speeding their process through design NPI, giving them some uniqueness in the marketplace. That's the impact we're feeling right now, and what comes out of that in the back end will be more parts higher percentage of revenue.
“We talk a lot with customers about BOM (Bill of Materials) consolidation, taking many components and turning it into fewer, and I think we’re uniquely positioned seen as we can talk to them about the impact of the assembly costs, not just the component costs. We can do those comparisons, those are a big area focus because if you take ten components, get them down to one or two, you’ve also taken and removed a lot of failure modes in the field. Customers are really excited about that, and there’s value to that that starts to really support the cost of additive, because it’s still a little bit expensive.”
The company recognises by enabling serial additive production, the investment in the technology and consumables can be amortised: “Volume will drive, so the question is how do we get more volume of parts printed?” The materials business feeds in, tailoring materials for specific types of component in automobiles, for example, with the customer adding machines as they come one after another. All the while, time, as it always has, means money. Increasing the speed through the design stage will result in more parts, streamlining the handling of materials and post-processing of parts through automation will increase yield, and the hardware and software harnessed being open platforms will expand opportunities.
Jabil, as a manufacturer itself, is best-placed to understand the desires of its customers, who, as the biggest in the world, are churning products out at mass scale. It has thus began integrating more of its certified facilities into its distributed network, getting printing systems closer to where components are consumed, developing materials to meet their specific needs, and work side by side in a bid to achieve what it sees as true digital manufacturing.
As the conversation winds down, LaSelle readies himself to peel off and join the myriad contemporaries congregating just over his shoulder. Customers, partners, fellow attendees, all of whom, like us, have come for a breather from a users’ group conference in full swing. But the conversation continues, and so does the progress. The pace of innovation on the market might be slower than it was, but the pace of implementation on the factory floor is picking up. Coming-togethers like this, where sharing and learning are at the top of the agenda, go a long way to facilitating that.
“It sounds trite but the whole ‘all boats rise with the tide,’ we fully subscribe to that,” LaSelle concluded. “The more machines that are online, the more material going through, the better the cost is, the faster our factories go. Our orientation is how much more agile and productive can our factories be, and we think this technology is a big part of it, as are all the ecosystem players.”
Hear more about TCT Magazine's interactions at the AMUG Conference in the latest episode of the Additive Insight Podcast.
