OCT - NOV 20239CHEMICAL INDUSTRY REVIEWKaak/K3D, a pioneer in the Dutch food industry. About seven years ago, they were the first users of Additive Industries' MetalFAB printer. In 2019, I went into the factory with people from K3D and a few of our engineers and handed out post-its, saying, "If you see a part on these two machines that you can make better by 3D printing, stick a post-it on it." Within no time, the two machines--of the 120 variants we are building here--were covered with 45 stickers. Then I knew enough: "We've struck gold."Additive Industries of Eindhoven is the Dutch manufacturer of the printer. The technology was actually invented 25 years ago. "Additive Industries has made the MetalFAB printer so reliable and safe that it can be used industrially. That is why Marel decided to invest in the development of this printer. As a result, we now have a system that we can use immediately in our real-world production environment without having to experiment first."Development phase"3D metal printing is already very important for us during the development phase, to create functionality that doesn't exist yet or to replace cast parts that we can't acquire so quickly. In the development phase, it's more convenient to print and refine. In the production phase, we can still decide to cast certain parts and continue to print the others."Curved holes"I dare say that our application of the MetalFAB is leading in our industry. Of course, there are more 3D metal printers out there, but we really succeed in adding new functionalities to the machines we build, and we reach higher technological levels than ever before. An example can be found in a new Marel deboning machine, where a certain part occurs on all cones. It turned out to be much more efficient to create a curved hole at the blow-out point of that part. Previously, we could only drill straight holes, and the functionality to make such curved holes simply didn't exist. The 3D metal printer allows us to apply technology we couldn't realize before, making our food processing machines even more advanced."Eliminating limitations"3D printing and the production techniques are wonderful. But I think the impact it makes on the way engineers start to think is revolutionary," continues Jeroen van Oers. "Usually, a design engineer is consciously or unconsciously guided by the possibilities available to create a new part. Technology indicates the limits of what you can create.An architect can only shrink the diameter of the pillars of a building to a certain extent because there is simply no material that can bear the load with sufficient stability. So designers always have to make concessions. When designing a food processing machine, it's no different; you have to deal with the limitations of the production technology. If you know how to eliminate these limitations, you can create unique functionalities that solve problems that couldn't be solved before. You can even create value that wasn't there before, and that's exactly what we're doing now. The benefits of the 3D metal printer reach much further than just the new technology.""For years, we bought the parts that we now print because it seemed the easiest. But sometimes, we received a part that was crooked or not exactly what we wanted, and it was simply thrown away. This way of working clearly lacked dialogue.In fact, the 3D metal printer is not the issue here. It's about the moment when a new dialogue emerges between our engineers. They start sparring with each other, after which the 3D printer can print the first result the next day. That is already very close to perfection; only one more thing needs to be adjusted, after which the second print hits the bull's eye. The value we create at that point is priceless, and this is precisely what happens here every day."A different way of thinking"You definitely need visionary people to come up with new ideas. If you don't know what's possible, you can't invent it. The main effect of the 3D printer is that it has changed the way engineers think," concludes Jeroen van Oers. "The printing itself is simply a physical process. But our manufacturing engineer is now much more likely to say, "This might work," where he would have said before, "We'll never manage to do that." What has changed is that we don't think in terms of limitations anymore. In the end, it is not so much the investment in a 3D metal printer that gives us an advantage, but rather the investment in the thinking of our engineers. "If you don't know what's possible, you can't invent it." Additive Industries has made the MetalFAB printer so reliable and safe that it can be used industrially. That is why now we have a system that we can use immediately in our real-world production environment without having to experiment first
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