Additive manufacturing’s role in the digital thread

贾比尔（Jabil）是一家制造商，公司的目标是成为世界上技术最先进的制造解决方案提供商。为此，该公司在29个国家 /地区的100个设施中不断编织一个数字线程，以新方式将人员，流程和工厂与供应商，合作伙伴和客户联系起来。最近，它在其数字线程中使用了增材制造。

密歇根州奥本山在捷普电子的。的设施,addition to healthcare, the facility supports the specialized manufacturing requirements of transportation, IoT and analytical instrumentation customers. Says Rush LaSelle, Senior Director of Business Development, Jabil Additive Manufacturing, “New technologies, such as 3D printing, completely change the economic value equation because now we can produce a lot size of one as affordably as much larger volumes.”

重新思考传统制造方法

To better address smaller batch sizes and reduced product lifecycles, the Auburn Hills team was early to evaluate and validate the use of additive manufacturing.

Reducing time constraints was one of the most appealing aspects of additive manufacturing with its ability to tailor products without requiring multiple engineering cycles in the manufacturing process.

For example, Jabil’s design engineers often dealt with different cost models as the prices to produce one-offs were significantly higher than producing tooling in larger volumes. The engineers also had to work with customer intellectual property concerns. And finally, conveying designs without much detail about the end product often led to extra design cycles.

Assembly Fixture: Assembly fixture used in production manufacturing at Jabil’s Auburn Hills facility.

Overall, the traditional tooling process often impeded Jabil’s ability to streamline new product introductions because of the multiple iterations needed to finalize fixtures. “We were challenged to get what we needed, when we needed it,” says Karin Alcorn, Operations Manager for Auburn Hills. “We decided to take control of our destiny and develop our own tooling capabilities to better support our customers.”

从几个月到几周：超速推销到市场

Thus, the Auburn Hills team explored 3D printing for producing tooling, fixtures and jigs in-house. The team received training from Jabil Additive’s specialists on 3D printing hardware, software and Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) principles.

“We realized benefits almost immediately,” John Wahl VI, Tooling and Manufacturing Engineer for Jabil Auburn Hills says. “Within three hours of setting up the first Ultimaker 3D printer, we had a job to print spare parts. The alternative was to stop manufacturing until the parts could be produced, but we made them that day using 3D printing.”

Ultimaker Print Rack & Ultimaker Print Rack2: Ultimaker print racks used to produced tooling, fixtures and manufacturing aids at Jabil’s Auburn Hills facility.

成功之后，奥本山（Auburn Hills）为各种用例迅速升起3D打印。

“With 3D printing, there is no minimum quantity, and one-offs are no longer a cost constraint,” adds Wahl. “By locating machines within Auburn Hills, we could dictate the priority, timeliness and printing method ourselves.”

Streamlining production

奥本山（Auburn Hills）的早期增材制造业成功之一涉及一项医疗技术，以寻求简化创新的移动成像系统的生产。贾比尔工程师（Jabil Engineers）看到了灯具美学和产品功能的改进空间，以及简化和速度的生产，同时使运营商的行动更加容易。

在集思广益和白色登机过程之后，团队在一夜之间对3D打印的固定装置和工具进行了建模和生产，然后进行了严格的测试以进行资格和验证性能。快速扭转修订变化的能力对该项目的成功产生了最大的影响。Wahl说：“我们验证了设计更改，然后在数小时内打印了一个完整的工作单元。”“以前，从问题发现到最终解决方案的典型时间表可能需要几个月的时间。通过3D打印，我们在几周内完成了整个过程。”

In fact, Auburn Hills can now produce tooling based on customer product CAD models prior to receiving the actual parts, which gives them a jump on production. As 3D printing has become an integral part of the production process, the list of real-world successes continues to grow.

“3D printing has saved the day on numerous accounts,” Wahl says. “There were several times when something broke or malfunctioned on the production line, but we could quickly replicate the broken part or implement another tool or fixture using 3D printing. Before people even knew the line was down, we got them back up and running again.”

降低成本

Auburn Hills is achieving upward of 30% price reductions in the cost of tooling and an 80% decrease in the time to produce final tools and fixtures. Early customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. “They love everything about it,” says Alcorn. “The fact that it’s flexible, and there’s a faster turnaround time, enables us to deliver better results because we can react immediately to manufacturing opportunities.”

客户欣赏快速和频繁地迭代的自由，因此可以优化工具和支持的工具和制造机，以产生更高的收率。产品设计自由也同样令人印象深刻。“如果您能想到的话，我们可以打印它，” Wahl说。“采取某人的想法并在一夜之间打印它真是太神奇了。在创造力方面，可以更加自由来实现的一切使我们感到惊讶。”

This ability to take any design and produce a 3D-printed solution impacts both ends of the product lifecycle, including Maintenance, Repair and Obsolescence (MRO).

Laselle说：“ 3D打印是总体数字制造雨伞中的重要支柱，因为我们将开始看到数字文件中现场制造的备件。”“这减轻了产品生命周期后端的痛苦。在这种情况下，数字线程的网络效应正在连接世界各地的设计社区。设计民主化的想法来自贾比尔（Jabil）的强大设计能力，这将导致全球构成出色的工程，设计和零件的存储库。”

Jabil
www.jabil.com

Ultimaker
ultimaker.com