Companies combine to revolutionize additive manufacturing

With 207 additive manufacturing machines and 80 conventional manufacturing platforms, Stratasys Direct Manufacturing is a key provider of additive manufacturing (AM) services.

CEO Joe Allison explains that Stratasys Direct Manufacturing offers services that aid every stage of product development. In recent years, the company has experienced a dramatic increase in demand for AM end-use parts across the aerospace, medical, and automotive industries. Allison expects this trend to continue since AM can efficiently produce high-quality, lightweight parts.

In addition to AM services, Stratasys Direct Manufacturing uses traditional manufacturing techniques, such as CNC machining, urethane casting, and tooling.

“When you have all technologies and materials under one roof, customers can streamline production because they only need one partner throughout their product development process, potentially leading to greater efficiencies and cost savings,” Allison says.

In the Stratasys Direct Manufacturing joint effort, each company provides a crucial piece of the 3D technology puzzle to advance design development.

• Solid Concepts: Stereolithography (SL), 3D print investment cast patterns, ID-light, PolyJet, fused deposition modeling (FDM), laser sintering, Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), cast urethanes, injection molding, tooling, and CNC milling and machining
• Harvest Technologies: SL, Laser Sintering, FDM, and DMLS
• RedEye: FDM and PolyJet

“All three companies brought

AM services with highly advanced materials to the mix, as well as professional finishing and part assembly. Harvest Technologies and Solid Concepts also brought some conventional manufacturing services to the table,” Allison says.
 

Breaking from tradition

AM offers numerous ways for engineers to break away from traditional manufacturing constraints.

“The design freedom AM affords is one way engineers can avoid the assembly restrictions and limitations of traditional manufacturing methods,” Allison says. “By being built layer by layer from the ground up, 3D-printed parts allow for complex designs not possible with manufacturing techniques like injection molding or CNC machining.”

Since tooling is not an issue with AM, engineers are not penalized for multiple design iterations. If a design is modified, the engineer simply updates the CAD file and reprints the part. The risk for design changes or errors is eliminated.

Part consolidation is another key asset of AM. Complex parts that would otherwise require multiple subassemblies can be combined into a single component, minimizing or eliminating assembly time and simplifying inventory management.

“AM enables engineers to build parts with custom density as well. Parts created through SL or FDM technology do not have to be solid, so the interior structure of a part can be adjusted to save time and money,” Allison says. “Stratasys Direct Manufacturing has developed a proprietary process for these technologies called ID-Light. ID-Light builds SL or FDM parts with an interior lattice-like structure. This feature accelerates a part’s print time while decreasing its weight, expense, and amount of material needed.”

In addition to design flexibility, Allison explains AM can serve as a bridge to tooling product development validation.

“For technologies that utilize tooling, such as injection molding, there’s a significant capital investment in creating tools and for making any adjustments to them after the fact, but with AM engineers can just print a single part to determine if a design is viable or not,” Allison says. “This is a game-changer for low-volume production industries, such as aerospace and medical.”
 

Design & materials

Allison believes it is essential to embrace new ways of thinking about design to fully leverage the benefits offered by AM.

Design decisions can be made with AM to maximize part strength, optimize aesthetics, or combine multiple part components into one build. Parts that start out with the same design can end up with different material properties, based on the orientation of the build or slice thickness.

Stratasys Direct Manufacturing works closely with its customers to select the right material for each project with several resources to help guide the material selection process.

“Design possibilities for medical technology are limitless thanks to AM’s customizability, design freedom, and lack of manufacturing constraints,” Allison states. “For the most part, devices are not one-size-fits-all – patients sometimes need devices custom tailored for their bodies. Doctors can also use 3D-printed models and prototypes to better understand each patient’s unique organs prior to conducting a complex procedure.”

In a recent partnership, the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute is using Stratasys Direct Manufacturing’s 3D-printed heart models produced from CT scans to improve the understanding of patients’ unique heart rhythm disturbances prior to surgery. These 3D-printed models allow doctors to analyze patient conditions and assess procedural options before surgery in a way CT scans can’t.

“AM allows medical technology companies to advance innovation aimed at developing new solutions to some of the most challenging medical conditions to, ultimately, help improve patient outcomes,” Allison says.
 

Beyond prototypes

AM is still a relatively unfamiliar technology for in-body applications. Allison says it’s still a new territory for the FDA, but the promise of AM is a great catalyst for certifying and verifying the technology as safe for such applications.

“Recently, there was a story about a 3D-printed airway splint that treated a collapsed bronchus in an infant. In addition, the FDA ran public workshops last year on AM and medical devices where the FDA, medical device manufacturers, AM companies, and academics discussed the technical challenges and solutions,” Allison says. “I believe we’re going to see some exciting developments in this arena because AM is able to perfectly mimic the organic and intricate aspects of the human body in ways conventional methods simply can’t.”

Allison says AM is moving beyond just prototypes and models and into the realm of end-use parts, specifically for parts that interact with the human body. In its recent collaboration with InTouch Health, the company created end-use parts to administer technology-enabled services to healthcare providers.

“We worked together to build RP-VITA, a telemedicine robot that is being used in healthcare facilities across the country,” says Allison. “The robots can be programmed to autonomously check on patients, aid nurses by auditing non-critical conditions, and act as a liaison between specialists and patients.”

The robot’s casings were manufactured at Stratasys Direct Manufacturing using 3D printing, a cast urethane manufacturing process called QuantumCast™, and eventually moved to the companies injection molding and tooling department.

“With the number of breakthroughs we witness on a nearly daily basis, we foresee the next three to five years being incredibly exciting for AM advancements in the medical industry, both at Stratasys Direct Manufacturing and in the AM industry as a whole,” Allison says. “With AM, the only limitation an engineer faces is the depth of their imagination.”

Stratasys Direct Manufacturing Inc.
www.stratasysdirect.com

About the author: Arielle Campanalie is an associate editor for TMD and can be reached at 216.393.0240 or acampanalie@gie.net.