Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/703077
I DA U N I V E R S A L J u l y -Au g u s t 2 0 1 6 28 new Additive Manufac- turing Factory focuses on a ermarket parts today in preparation for production parts in the future. e day will come when Caterpillar achieves more effi cient part designs thanks to additive manufacturing (AM). at is what this heavy equip- ment maker's team members associated with AM see as the greatest long-term promise of the capability. Subassemblies can be consolidated into single pieces, and component forms can be intricately tailored to achieve each part's optimal combination of functionality, mass and cost. However, the technology is not there yet. A lot needs to happen between now and then. For Caterpillar even more than for other manufac- turers, AM will need to advance well beyond where it is today in order to deliver its full promise. For now, there- fore, those team members are focusing on shorter-term potential benefi ts of AM, one of which is speed at delivering service parts. A fuel fi lter base for an engine family used in motor graders and excava- tors provides an illustration. e intricate aluminum alloy component was origi- nally manufactured through casting, but the supplier is no longer operating. As a result, to support a ermarket customers, Caterpillar is facing a long delay to ramp up a new casting supplier combined with a large minimum order to justify the tooling cost. Or, there is an alternative. A version of the part grown through laser melting has passed all neces- sary functionality tests, and this part requires no tooling, no supplier and no minimum order. With AM, a ermarket parts like this could be grown without delay, and grown as they are needed. us, even though the promise of additive relates to parts that are designed for this process, here is a success involving no redesign at all. at success provides Cater- pillar with an intriguing possibility. If enough short- term successes such as this can be realized – successes perhaps mostly related to a ermarket parts – the savings from these applications might be able to fund and encourage the larger eff ort the company realizes it needs to make. at is, the benefi ts today might help advance the spread of AM knowledge throughout the company, so that Caterpillar is prepared when AM as a mature production resource fi nally arrives. An important step toward this larger goal was the opening late last year of a new Additive Manufacturing Factory near the company's Peoria, Illinois, headquar- ters. is "factory" – which is smaller and quieter than most facilities one would associate with that word – includes 3D printing capabilities, such as FDM, SLA, SLS and material jetting for polymer parts, along with two laser melting machines for metal compo- nents. I visited the site to talk to various Caterpillar team members there, including Deb Conklin, Austin Schmidt and Joe Taylor (more detailed introductions below). Conklin explained one of the more fundamental points underlying this facility. at is, why does AM need its own facility and its own team? AM is Different Why does AM need its own facility? at question is related to this one: Does AM represent a diff erent way of making parts, or does it represent a diff erent way of designing them? Yes to both, says Conklin. As director of the company's emerging technologies portfolio, she has responsi- bility over technologies the company's executives have identifi ed as disruptive. AM is perhaps the poster child of a disruptive technology, because its likely impact touches so many diff erent disciplines within the company. Earlier in her Caterpillar career, Conklin worked in logistics. To her, therefore, AM not only addresses long-standing problems in Caterpillar Lays the Groundwork A is hose clamp was grown in FDM. Like the fuel fi lter base, it also matches a current design. It was printed so that its performance could be compared to parts currently in use.