IMTS 2022 Conference: DED Manufacturing of Large Critical Components – Pushing Boundaries of Metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) - Today's Medical Developments

2022-06-25 08:32:29 By : Ms. Myra Wang

Learn how metal additive manufacturing can create large, critical components.

This presentation focuses on large metal part additive manufacturing with newly developed multi-nozzle directed energy deposition (DED) manufacturing technology. Recent advances in technology now make large part printing economically feasible and technically superior. The presentation showcases the additive manufacturing of NASA’s RS-25 engine nozzle liner. This part is 111″ tall, has a 96″ base diameter, and weighs about 4,100 lbs. The build approach of this liner is discussed to highlight various challenges to large part printing and strategies adopted to mitigate these challenges. The goal of the presentation is to bring awareness to capability advancement of metal additive manufacturing (AM). This is achieved by demonstrating the ability to print large complex parts with difficult materials while targeting critical industry applications. At the same time, the presentation aims to educate attendees of the various challenges presented by large-scale printing, and how industry partners are working together to solve these problems. Last but not the least, the presentation shows how various industry teams came together with government agencies to advance existing technologies and develop new ones to solve difficult manufacturing challenges and advance metal AM to a new level of manufacturing.

Meet your presenter Bhaskar Dutta is the president and COO of DM3D Technology. Dutta has more than 30 years of experience in the field of metallurgy and metal processing, including 17 years in the AM industry. He has multiple technical publications and presentations in the field of AM, as well as two co-authored books and several book chapters. He also has five patents and five pending patents on metal AM. He is a member of ASM International and AMPM Program Committee. Bhaskar was on the winning team for SME’s Aubin AM Case Study Award in 2021.

Farhad Ghadamli is the lead AM engineer at DM3D Technology. During his professional career, he worked with different 3D printing equipment manufacturers as well as Eaton Polymer and Nanocomposite group and Eaton Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence in Southfield, Michigan. He has experience with various technologies, such as FDM, DLS, DMLS, SLS, SLA, Bound Metal Deposition, Binder Jetting, and Direct Metal Deposition (DMD). Ghadamli has a Master and Bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Davis. In 2021, he was one of the recipients of the SME's Aubin AM Case Study Award as well as SME President's award for his work as the chair of Metro Detroit SME. He was recognized as one of 2015 SME 30 under 30 Future Manufacturing Leaders.

Mark Lewan is a senior engineer at DM3D. He is responsible for design engineering, CAD/CAM software, and the machining department at DM3D. Lewan has 31 years of industry experience, including 20 years in AM. Mark co-authored multiple publications and has three patents and two pending patents on AM technology. Mark was part of the winning team for SME’s Aubin AM Case Study Award in 2021.

Robert Fortuna is the production supervisor at DM3D. He is in charge of all production AM work. He has 41 years of industry experience including 15 years in AM. Prior to DM3D, Fortuna worked in various industries including laser welding machine building and laser welded filter assembly. Fortuna was on the winning team for SME’s Aubin AM Case Study Award in 2021.

Vijayavel Bagavath Singh is senior manager – DMD Systems in DM3D Technology. He is responsible for design and building of DMD Systems. Singh has a Master of Electrical Engineering with 26 years of controls engineering experience. His fields of expertise include Metal 3D Printing, Laser, CNC & Robotic processes. He co-authored multiple publications and has two patents and four pending patents on AM technology. Singh was on the winning team for SME’s Aubin AM Case Study Award in 2021.

About the company DM3D Technology LLC is an additive metal 3D company that uses laser based direct metal deposition technology (DMD) to form functional metal parts directly from 3D CAD data. Unlike other technologies such as laser sintering or binder jetting, DMD technology produces fully dense metal parts with a strong metallurgical bond to the base material resulting in production parts. DM3D’s expertise and innovation, which is protected by its patents and highly proprietary trade secrets, give the company its competitive edge in the marketplace.

A task group will develop the industry MedAccred audit criteria, select subject matter expert auditors, and determine which companies meet the rigorous industry requirements to provide oversight for this critical process area.

Leading medical device OEMs launched a new MedAccred critical process focus area for labeling, printing, and unique device identifier (UDI). This will ensure that medical device information provided to medical staff and patients is reliable, accurate, complies with regulatory requirements and, most importantly, improves patient safety. The new assessment will help the medical device (medtech) industry avoid costly warning letters and recalls by driving the adoption of stringent manufacturing process controls. It comes in response to changing and increasingly complex global requirements which place extra burdens on content management, product labeling, promotional material, and UDI.

Paweena Limjaroen, PhD, senior director, Global Labeling and Packaging, Edwards Lifesciences, is chairing the new MedAccred Labeling, Printing and UDI Task Group to develop the industry MedAccred audit criteria, select subject matter expert auditors, and determine which companies meet the rigorous industry requirements to provide oversight for this critical process area.

“In today’s ever-changing medical device-labeling landscape, it is more important now than ever to ensure labeling documentation is regulatory compliant. The MedAccred Labeling, Printing and UDI Task Group’s role is to provide medical device companies with structure and requirements to assist in identifying and implementing industry best practices for global market compliance,” Paweena says.

Mary-Zane Addy, director, Label Design and User Information Development, Becton Dickinson, adds, “The MedAccred Labeling, Printing, and UDI Task Group will identify requirements for suppliers to comply with the increasing and strengthening labeling regulatory environment along with its many changes.”

The focus of the new MedAccred Labeling, Printing, and UDI Accreditation is on systems compliance and includes:

The MedAccred Labeling, Printing, and UDI Task Group is open to participation from suppliers and other OEMs within the industry. Companies currently subscribing to the MedAccred program are Bausch Health, Baxter, Becton Dickinson, Boston Scientific, Edwards Lifesciences, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Philips Healthcare, Roche Diagnostics and Stryker.

“This new focus area for MedAccred Accreditation will add to the current areas of Accreditation. MedAccred continues to add up to two critical processes per year to support the medical device industry’s drive to improve product quality and enhance patient safety,” says Connie Conboy, director, MedAccred.

Learn about how next-generation production monitoring delivers insight into unattended operations.

About the presentation Unattended operations are the holy grail for today’s precision manufacturers. Running computer numerical control (CNC) machines without needing additional workers means more output for the factory. The downside is events can happen when no one’s around, and without an observer, it becomes an exercise in sleuthing to determine the cause for issues and stoppages. Unfortunately, first-generation production monitoring requires operator input to provide context around machine downtime and interruptions in production. When operators are required to enter reason codes to deliver understanding about machine states, manufacturers implementing unattended shifts are blind to a lot of issues that happen when nobody’s watching the machines. Next-generation production monitoring systems offer the perfect solution. By connecting to CNC machines and using the data directly from machine controllers, next-gen production monitoring solutions use machine learning to make sense of data in real time. Now, manufacturers can see what happened in an unattended shift for every part produced and downtime or stoppage that occurred. In this session, attendees will learn how next-gen production monitoring delivers insight into unattended operations, including the ability to monitor production in real time.

Meet your presenter Greg McHale founded Datanomix on the premise that the 4th industrial revolution would require turnkey products that integrate seamlessly with how manufacturers work today. He brings enterprise data skills to a market ripe for innovation. McHale held engineering leadership positions at several venture-backed companies and is a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

About the company Founded in 2016 in New Hampshire, Datanomix offers automated production intelligence for precision manufacturers. When we started Datanomix, we met with dozens of manufacturers who were trying to use data from their equipment to optimize operations. Not one company was getting what they wanted out of their existing monitoring systems ? information was either too complicated and cumbersome, or too simple and not insightful. To add insult to injury, the user interfaces on those systems made it look like those companies just didn’t understand manufacturers. Based on their input, we built a system that was designed with a few key principles:

?       The system would require no human input for the data to be useful

?       The information provided by the system would be actionable right now

?       The system should be a “member” of your team, capable of providing answers and insights in the way you think about your business

How sustainability affects your bottom line, tips for obtaining project financing, ways to attract millennials to your workforce, and how to brace for the impact of the silver tsunami.

United States manufacturers are at an important crossroads for innovation. Technology is accelerating at an incredible pace and mid-sized manufacturers must modernize operations to stay competitive. Real-time actionable data from machines is the most valuable ‘currency’ for modern manufacturers by helping them remain agile, implement sustainable practices, and increase efficiency across production lines. 

In response to this industry need, FactoryEye North America, a division of Magic Software Enterprises Ltd., hosted a seminar at the Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland, Ohio, and included Manufacturing Works, Tech-Clarity, Feyen Zylstra, and Bennit. Cleveland is home to nearly 8,000 manufacturers and is one of the most sought-after states for reshoring efforts, so FactoryEye considered it the perfect location for a thoughtful discussion on how to tackle modern industry issues.

FactoryEye showcased their Industry 4.0 prowess and discussed best practices for manufacturers implementing their own smart manufacturing solutions. At this exclusive event, the industry panel of experts discussed important topics such as: how sustainability affects your bottom line, tips for obtaining project financing, ways to attract millennials to your workforce, and how to brace for the impact of the silver tsunami of workers leaving manufacturing. There were several themes that we discussed in detail at the conference (View a recap online).

Implementing smart manufacturing on the shop floor Jim Brown, president and founder of Tech-Clarity kicked off this event as the keynote speaker and shared a recent research study outlining benefits that manufacturers can gain from smart manufacturing solutions. 

“One of the things we did in the manufacturing industry, is that we stepped down from this higher-level view of a digital transformation, and we asked a wide variety of manufacturers how important you think the implementation of smart manufacturing or Industry 4.0 is to the long-term success and profitability of your manufacturing business?” Brown says. “When 19% of those surveyed say it is critical and another 28% think that is it really important, then what we are seeing is that this is not just another trend that is going to come and go. But people are starting to say, if you don’t get this next step in Industry 4.0, you are not going to be ready for what comes beyond that and the continuation of this process.”

Real-time data analysis One of the key benefits of implementing Industry 4.0 into the manufacturing process is having the ability to track what is actually happening on the shop floor in real-time.

Jake Hall from Feyen Zylstra says, “We worked with one manufacturer that had Individual machines that weren't tied together to a central network.  So, they had all these machines that were producing their own components and parts, but the manufacturer never knew where their bottleneck was within those processes.

“When were those machines down? How many parts did they actually produce per hour?   We were able to implement an inductive automation that allows them to better track every single individual machine and then build a network that allows them to act on that data, to address issues that are doubt.”

When asked about the different ways that manufacturers can improve productivity by implementing smart manufacturing, Tim Stuart, president of Visual Decisions says, “When looking at maintenance issues, manufacturers ask, ‘How can you provide autonomous maintenance instructions to the operators on the day that they're supposed to? How can you get a machine that's currently down, up and running faster again? How can you prevent that downtime from happening in the first place?’

“Whether that's through normal, preventative maintenance activities that are informed and optimized by the data or whether it's through predictive maintenance technologies from an operator perspective of producing parts and so forth, how do you give them the proper work instructions? The goal is to eliminate variation from the process as much as possible that will also help quality as you go through and produce more.”

Are you accurately measuring scrap? Nancy Finnegan, vice president of Sales, FactoryEye, says, “One common theme we see across manufacturing is how do we measure scrap and rework. We see that as one of the most manual areas of capturing data in the industry throughout the production process. 

“It's very interesting. One company we worked with had recorded their scrap as 3% for almost two decades straight. It was almost folklore. This is what our scrap is. But when we started to pull in those data parameters, we really started to understand that it was nowhere near 3%, but closer to 8%. Having access to real-time data helped them to correlate the data between what they thought they were producing and what they were actually producing and the actual quantity of their waste.

“And from there, we really started to analyze, which processes needed to be reworked and how they could bring that scrap back into the bottom line,” Finnegan concludes.

Implementing Industry 4.0 FactoryEye’s passion for spreading smart manufacturing insights through its Strategic Partner Program and in-person seminars is here to stay. FactoryEye’s commitment to smart manufacturing initiatives for mid-sized manufacturers will continue across the United States, bringing Industry 4.0 knowledge to a new generation of workers.

“FactoryEye is there to help, no matter what stage a manufacturer is at, or what equipment they have on their floor,” says Ken Patsy, president and executive director of Manufacturing Works. “We’re big believers of learning and sharing ideas, and we find that companies like helping each other out, so we facilitate that.”

Learn how to use technology to fill the experience gap created by the machinist shortage.

About the presentation Manufacturing shops have been facing a shortage of experienced manufacturing professionals for years. While the push to develop additional paths through education and training is underway, what can shops do in the meantime to collect and protect their current machining expertise while meeting increasing demands for speed, quality, and innovation? One solution is adopting advances in technology to develop smarter machining processes. Advancements in manufacturing include verification, simulation, optimization, and more. These advancements have made it easier for shops to verify toolpaths, simulate machine movement to avoid crashes and unexpected behavior, and verify NC programs and feed rates. This ensures cuts are performed at optimal levels without breaking the cutter or causing undue wear – all without requiring NC programmers and machinists to have expert machining experience. The presentation explores the benefits of using software to establish "smarter" manufacturing processes and enable more quality production with fewer resources.

Meet your presenter Gene Granata, director of product management, joined CGTech in 1992. With more than 30 years of CNC manufacturing experience, Granata is responsible for planning development of CGTech’s flagship software product VERICUT and associated CAD/CAM and Tooling interfaces. Prior to his role as director of product management, he was the technical support manager. He wrote technical documentation, designed many general-purpose and customized training courses, and provided manufacturing consulting services to hundreds of companies in several industries.

About the company Headquartered in Irvine, California, CGTech specializes in numerical control (NC/CNC) simulation, verification, optimization, and analysis software technology for manufacturing. CGTech was founded in 1988. Since then, our main software product, VERICUT®, has become the industry standard. With offices worldwide, VERICUT software is used by companies of all sizes, universities/trade schools, and government agencies.