Industrial Automation Magazine India

Skilled manpower is the key to any technology to grow from Lab to Fab

Published on : Friday 01-11-2019

Anant Deshpande, Technical Director, Trokut Solutions Pvt Ltd, expresses his views on Additive Manufacturing.

From composite sculptures to metal watches, 3D printing is rapidly evolving – what are the limitations?

3D printing has created a buzz and there are 3D printers for materials ranging from polymers to composites, carbon fibre to metals. However for each of these materials one needs a different kind of printer, as one technology itself cannot print all materials. Also there is limitation in terms of production speed, feature size, build strength, pre or post processing, which are few of the things limiting the technology to get to the next level. With time, I believe that we will have different technologies for different applications and materials and as one technology cannot solve all the issues.

Cost of materials is right now an issue. How can this be controlled?

In metal 3D printing especially, the cost of materials is an issue, as many companies recommend use of their own metal powder and parameters for the process. However this will come down with time, as there are companies such as SISMA and others who are offering open end system, wherein customer can use any metal powder (even their own, if it meets the criteria of spherical morphology and grain size). This is opening up the field for new metal powder manufacturers and in India, powder companies are now getting into manufacturing powders for 3D printing. Also as the consumption of powder increases with increase in number of machines, the cost will also come down.

Skills is another major problem in this area, as in other emerging technologies. Time for a thorough overhaul of engineering education?

Skilled manpower is the key to any technology to grow from Lab to Fab. In India there is certainly a shortage of trained manpower with experience on 3D printers, especially metal 3D printers, be it powder based or laser metal deposition). The reason is that we believe that knowledge of software alone is enough for operation of these 3D printers. However this is not a straight forward process, as most people think. The process involves choosing the right laser power, spot size, scan speed, temperature, material, laser material interaction, etc., which together give a good part or else you end up making a bad part and losing money.  Also apart from 3D printing the pre and the post process involved in metal 3D printing is also one area, which limits the use of these for getting functional parts and it takes time to prove it. There is no comprehensive course offering all of these under one umbrella. However, I believe that with different institutions such as IITs, tool rooms and others, training manpower at different level, in course of time we will have sufficient number of skilled personnel for this technology.

How could companies exploit the potential of Additive Manufacturing to gain an edge?

I believe in India additive manufacturing will be mainly used in medical and aerospace applications and once the production speed increases, in tooling industry. However due to cost factor, companies are still evaluating which and what technology to go for. I believe that in order to gain an edge in additive manufacturing apart from research institutes, large companies too should invest in technical training of manpower and material research. Until and unless companies do not conduct research and have technical manpower, we are unlikely to gain an edge in spite of having the best brains in software.

Experts believe additive manufacturing calls for new business models like leasing of printers and jobshops. Will this work?

Additive manufacturing is right now expensive due to the high cost of technology and low volumes. Also the process is complex and not as easy as it appears. Thus right now I believe not everyone can afford it; even big business houses who can afford it, will have to invest time, money and efforts to get the additive process right if it is for functional parts, as the material properties are the key for the same. However for the non-metal based wherein functional properties are not of much importance, this will work in a big way and already there are so many job shops doing this, even DIY plastic printers are coming at throwaway prices. However for some more time I believe that for metal 3D printing will require a new model of business wherein I believe job shops will be a good model but leasing of printers won’t be a good option. For plastic printers leasing can be a way forward in future, as the process is not that complex, but for metal I believe it won’t work due to complexity of process and costs involved.

Anant Deshpande, M Tech Laser, MBA, has more than 18 years of experience in the field of lasers and laser based applications. He is an active member of LIA, ILAI, AWS, and has been on advisory board of Industrial Laser Solution magazine, contributing articles as well. He has also delivered talks on latest in laser and laser related applications on different platforms such as LWOP, HTS, NIT and others, and offers laser consultancy.