Rapid manufacture and GARPA

Rapid manufacture and GARPA

Rapid manufacture and GARPA

I am sure anyone working in RP, either in industry or academia, will be aware that rapid manufacturing (RM) has generated a great deal of interest in recent times. I would also find it hard to believe anyone working in RP does not know of the Wohlers Report. At the time of writing this paper the 2006 version of the Wohlers Report is not yet available, but perhaps at the time of reading it should confirm that RM will have an increasing influence on how RP develops in the years to come. In his report, Terry Wohlers defines RM as “The direct production of finished goods from additive fabrication”. The report attributed 8 per cent of all RP parts manufactured in 2004 to this definition. Whether you agree with this definition or not, it is clear that this sector has grown strongly in recent years. In fact RM did not even exist in most people’s eyes as little as 5 years ago.

As you know, the Global Alliance of Rapid Prototyping Associations (GARPA) was established to provide a means for supporting the development of RP communities around the world. Still very much a voluntary organization, GARPA assists in promoting RP and allows the smaller associations to develop themselves and gain benefit from the larger ones. Regular meetings are held around the world and GARPA compiles case studies, newsletters, conference reports, competitions, and other RP-related material, which is available for all to see on the recently redesigned and updates web site of www.garpa.org. The Rapid Prototyping Journal is also very happy to be the official journal of GARPA.

Since RM is such a hot topic at the moment, it seems appropriate that there should be a GARPA view on this. A review of the literature on RM will show that there are already a number of successful cases paving the way for greater involvement from more companies in the future. The three industrial sectors that have always pioneered RP since the start are aerospace, automotive, and medical. These industrial sectors also seem to be leading the way in RM. The most obvious cases are medical devices, specifically hearing aids and orthodontic aligners. The approach here is to modify existing designs to include patient-specific data to suit individual cases. This is an obvious application area that takes advantage of the ability that RP has to fabricate freeform structures without additional machining overheads. Automotive industry has reported significant cost savings related to parts that were critical to unveiling new car models on time. Aerospace takes benefit from RM because of the low volume of parts that it generally deals with, reducing times and costs by not having to create tooling. Other applications exist in consumer and designer products, toys, jewellery and sculpture, and probably many other areas too. The reasons for these applications stem from the improvements in RP technology in recent years, partly at least from the research carried out by authors and subscribers to this journal.

Geographically it seems that most of the interest in RM comes from the US and Europe. A review of RM activity amongst GARPA members has resulted in the following:

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  The Rapid Technologies and Additive Manufacturing (RTAM) Technical Community of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers in the US has focused on RM for some time now. For example, the annual Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing Conference held by the SME has a regular focus session on “Rapid Manufacturing: Tomorrow’s Manufacturing Today”.

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  The Irish Rapid Design and Manufacturing Network also held a workshop on “Rapid Manufacturing Technologies” in late 2004.

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  The University of Loughborough in the UK seems to have conducted the most detailed and comprehensive studies into RM and researchers from there are frequently invited to talk to the UK and other RP Associations in Europe. In July 2006 there is to be conference on the subject of RM, organized by and held at the University of Loughborough. Examples of industrial and governmental initiatives can be found in the UK in the form of the Direct Write Initiative set-up in 2005 by the UK Department of Trade and Industry and the interest from the Aerospace Innovation Growth Team on RM-based logistics.

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  In Germany the NC Gesellschaft e.V. established a working circle on the subject of RM and held the first workshop on the subject in Ulm, November 2005.

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  In Singapore, the first workshop on RM was held in early 2006 and was attended by around 100 people representing more than 30 companies. A recent follow-up has found that there are already some RM activities in Singapore and an increasing amount of interest, particularly in the aerospace sector.

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  Over 1,000 people attended the TEAMTECH 2006 event in Bangalore in India, where RM was a keynote topic. A meeting will be held in April 2006 between academics and researchers from India and the US where RM will again be a key topic.

So it is clear that there is a large and increasing amount of interest in RM around the world. It is interesting to note that RM, as defined here, is generally not carried out where most manufacturing is carried out; namely in Asia. Could we see RM as redressing the balance, or are we to expect an upsurge of activity in Asia in the years to come? Time will tell.

Ian Gibson and Monica Savalani