Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a digital technology able to disrupt traditional industrial production processes, consisting of digitalization of the manufacturing process thanks to continuous dialogue between computers and production plants.
Additive Manufacturing is defined as a production technique that allows the manufacturing of products from the creation and subsequent addition of layers of material. It disrupts the traditional production processes, which are based on the subtraction of material from a solid block. At the same time, this technique leads to reducing the time between the birth of the project and the market rollout, or TTM (Time To Market), thanks to rapid prototyping of the product, and subsequently to a rapid launch on the market in limited quantity. This allows for gathering quicker feedback from the final customers and then applying the necessary modifications to start the mass-scale production.
Additive Manufacturing: advanatages and characteristics
For ABACAAR, Additive Manufacturing represents a key element of Industry 4.0 development, bringing several improvements and interesting characteristics for different applications. The main advantage is the lack of constraints when it comes down to the product shape: the deposit of layers guarantees the creation of unconventional shapes, and possible undercuts can be executed with some supports, that will be then removed. Additive Manufacturing can help in eliminating the issue of production scraps and in reducing manufacturing costs, by realizing an assembled element instead of processing semi-finished products.
ABACAAR has two goals when it comes to supporting clients in Additive Manufacturing: offering its own competence and professionalism, to assist during design and manufacturing phases, for aerospace, automotive and electronic fields, to mention of a few; at the same time, supporting OEMs on optimizing their products, thanks to ABACAAR know-how of the main AM technologies on the market.