In this paper the author looks beyond these „traditional engineering metrics? of process selection, into the socio-economic benefits of RM and how the technology can be used to enable entire new business models and supply chains.

The paper looks at where RM can add value across the product life cycle, from customer engagement and new supply chain configurations to new service and supply models. The paper looks at the environmental and societal benefits of RM and how the technology can and will be used to respond to shifting global demographic and economic patterns, such as the aging population, increasing fuel costs, limited natural resources and ever changing consumer trends.

This paper deals with a few general questions:

• What is Rapid Manufacturing?How Does Additive Layer Manufacturing Work?
• Why is RM becoming so important to the UK Economy?
• Why is RM different to traditional manufacturing?How will RM affect the traditional supply chain?
• How did we get to where we are today?
• The polymeric to metallic RM divide? So what are the processes available for ‘direct’ metallic RM?

Reiner Götzen, microTEC Gesellschaft für Mikrotechnologie mbH, Germany

Article as published for Haifa Conference, with details about RM based micro systems production.

Reiner Götzen & Andrea Reinhardt, microTEC Gesellschaft für Mikrotechnologie GmbH, Germany

Product and technologies overview about RM made mems and small parts. Several applications are shown: life science (polymer lab on chip systems), tooling (gear wheels and grippers), sensors (high integrated pressure and SAW sensors).

Andrys Posthuma and Alfard Jansen, BPO International bv, the Netherlands.

The mechanical properties of most RM materials require new engineering methods. BPO is developing tools for reliable design & engineering of RM products.

Andrys Posthuma and Alfard Jansen, BPO International bv, the Netherlands.

When products are customised, they will become unique. This uniqueness requires new methods for certification, because current certification is based on certification of a small sample of the production series. BPO is investigating the challenges and has come up with new certifications methods for mass customised products.

M. Shellabear, EOS GmbH Electro Optical Systems, Germany / O. Nyrhilä, EOS Finland, Finland

The paper highlights the Direct Metal Laser-Sintering (DMLS) technology and especially materials development for RM. In the past two years the range of materials commercially available for DMLS has greatly increased. Driven by the increasing RM interest, an overview is given on recent metal materials corresponding to materials commonly used in conventional manufacturing.

Vasiliki Stamati & Ioannis Fudos, Department of Computer Science, University of Ioannina, Greece

ByzantineCAD is introduced: a parametric CAD system for the design of pierced medieval jewellery, which is created by piercing, a traditional Byzantine technique. It is an automated parametric system where the design of a piece of jewellery is expressed by a collection of parameters and constraints.

2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Michel Janssens & Jules Poukens, Materialise N.V. & Academisch Ziekenhuis Maastricht, NL

Medicine was already at the very early developments of rapid technologies an interesting and successful field of application. This article looks at recent developments that have managed once more to manouvre within the boundaries of current regulatory affaires: custom made implants and illustrates them with two case studies.

Lodererová Michaela, Steidl Josef, Rybníček Jan, Horník Jakub, CTU, Czech Republic
Godlinski Dirk, Fraunhofer IFAM , Germany
Dourandish Mahdi+, Sharif University of Technology, Iran.

Multi-metal functionally graded specimens of a CoCr alloy and AISI 316 steel were prepared by Multi-Material Sintering and 3D-Printing. Element distribution and interface thickness were determined by  X-ray analysis. Microhardness was measured across the multi-material interface. Optimum processing conditions with regard to porosity and microhardness were identified.

Soumya Banerjee & Prof. David Ian Wimpenny, RP & RM Group, Faculty of Computing Sciences & Engineering, DeMontfort University, UK

Electrophotography, the basis of photocopying and laser printing, is a reliable method of precisely depositing powders to form text or images. The process is highly adaptable to different materials; commercial toners are based on particular polymers, but the potential is shown to deposit other materials including metals and ceramics.

Philip Delamore, Research Fellow London College of Fashion

High performance football boots for professional players have the potential to take the proof-of-concept of an approach focusing on highly individualized products to a market success. At the same time, they point to a long term strategy to enable the development of the manufacturing technologies involved to a cost and performance level that would serve in the production of consumer products on a mass customization scale.

This paper presents the background, motivation and research targets of a research project dealing with various finishing technologies to influence the performance of laser sintered parts with the focus on football boot out soles for professionals.

Dr. Martin Hedges, Neotech Services MTP, Germany

This paper, originally presented at the  "Cost Effective Manufacture via Net Shape Processing"  NATO-RTO AVT - 139 conference introduced the Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS)technology for RM, modification and repair of aerospace and defence components in high performance materials such as titanium, nickel, cobalt and steel alloys.           

Ralf Becker, Andrzej Grzesiak, Axel Henning, Fraunhofer Institute Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA), Germany

RM processes provide designers, mechanical and process engineers with a lot of changes and opportunities. It is necessary to show them, how their work and processes will change due to these new technologies.

G.E. Knoppers, J. Dijkstra, W.P. van Vliet, TNO Science and Industry, The Netherlands

RM utilizes the application of different materials in parts by stacking a sequence of layers. Based on the requirements of the part, mixtures of materials, so-called Functionally Graded Materials, can be used to compose the product functionality. TNO developed a new computer tool which enables the user to specify Functionally Graded Materials.

Klas Boivie, NTNU, Department of Production and Quality Engineering, Norway

Roald Karlsen, SINTEF Technology and Society, Production Engineering, Norway

Casper van der Eijk, SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, Metallurgy, Norway

 

Presented at The 17th Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, August 14.-16. 2006, Austin, Texas, USA

 

The Metal Printing Process (MPP) is a novel Rapid Manufacturing process under development at SINTEF and NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) in Trondheim, Norway. This paper addresses some of the most critical material issues at the current development stage of MPP, and the present solutions to these.

Slavko Dolinsek, University of Ljubljana & RTCZ, Slovenia; Chris Lewis Jones, Delcam plc, United Kingdom, Rafael Valero, AIJU, Spain; Anton Gerrits, TNO Science & Industry, The Netherlands

The ambitious scope of the European initiative CUSTOM-FIT, a Framework 6 Integrated Project, is to create a fully integrated system for the design, production and supply of individualized products. Personalized to fit geometrically and functionally the requirements of the citizen for (initially) the medical & consumer goods sectors.

Kenny Dalgarno, University of Leeds, UK

This paper outlines the current state of the art in the customisation of medical devices and implantable parts and systems, presents details of some projects which are ongoing at the University of Leeds, and outlines future research directions in this field.

Edson Costa Santosa, Masanari Shiomia, Kozo Osakadaa Department of Mechanical Science and Bioengineering, Osaka University, Japan Tahar Laoui School of Engineering and Built Environment, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK

 

This paper presents an overview on the various research efforts deployed in the past decade or so towards the manufacture of metal components by different laser processing methods using different commercial machines. The materials and applications suitable to rapid manufacturing of metal parts by these techniques are also discussed.

T. Laoui, S. K. Shaik, University of Wolverhampton, UK E. Santos, K. Osakada, M. Shiomi, M. Morita, F. Abe, University of Osaka, Japan N.K. Tolochko, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Belarus

This paper discusses the influence of various process parameters on the characteristics of medical implants made by laser forming involving both laser sintering and laser melting. The mechanical properties of the laser processed medical implants are reported.

Ana Cruz García, Instituto de Biomecánica de Valencia, Spain

The objective of this paper is to present a new service concept of Simulation Service Provider for orthopaedic surgery (ORTHOSIM), aimed at the health community and implant industry. ORTHOSIM service shall offer virtual analyses the implant behaviour after implantation in a customized implant-patient configuration. It will be presented in e-challenges.

Laura Castillo, AIMME (Instituto Tecnológico Metalmecánico), Valencia, Spain

Study about the rapid manufactoring of complex parts of stainless steel and titanium
(also in English available: Study about the rapid manufactoring of complex parts of stainless steel and titanium)

Laura Castillo, AIMME (Instituto Tecnológico Metalmecánico), Valencia, Spain

Study about the rapid manufactoring of complex parts of stainless steel and titanium(also in Spanish available: Estudio sobre la fabricación rápida de piezas complejas de acero inoxidable y titanio)

Ralf Schindel  FHS Hochschule für Technik, Wirtschaft und Soziale Arbeit, St. Gallen, Switserland

In coöperation: TECAN Group Ltd, Männedorf, and  FHS Hochschule für Technik, Wirtschaft und Soziale Arbeit St. Gallen, Institut für Rapid Product Development