Industrial Automation Magazine India

Siemens industrialises additive manufacturing with polymers

Published on : Monday 09-11-2020

Siemens presents the first virtual additive manufacturing reference factory for selective laser sintering and industrial post-processing with its partners EOS and DyeMansion.

November 2020 – Under the motto "Partnering for the next step to industrialise Additive Manufacturing", Siemens is going to present at Formnext Connect its Digital Enterprise Portfolio for the industrialisation of additive manufacturing as well as innovations with partners around new achievements in various additive manufacturing technologies. One highlight is the partnership with EOS and DyeMansion. Together, the three companies will present the first virtual additive manufacturing reference factory for selective laser sintering with polymers. Using the example of a midsole for footwear applications in which parameters such as design, fit and colour are individually and economically taken into account, Siemens, EOS and DyeMansion will demonstrate what the next step towards the industrialisation of selective laser sintering with polymers can look like along the entire production chain.

"The automated chain of coordinated production steps from all suppliers, from design and printing to post-processing, as well as end-to-end IT integration, is crucial for high productivity and maximum flexibility. This applies to series parts as well as to a highly flexible lot-size-1 production for individualised products or spare parts," explains Dr Karsten Heuser, Vice President Additive Manufacturing at Siemens Digital Industries, and continues: "With the end-to-end digitisation and automation solutions from Siemens, we have succeeded, together with our partners EOS and DyeMansion, in creating a seamlessly integrated end-to-end value chain for industrial additive manufacturing with selective laser sintering and industrial post-processing solutions using polymers.”

Using a footwear application, Siemens, EOS and DyeMansion demonstrate what the next step towards the industrialisation of selective laser sintering with polymers can look like along the entire production chain.

For volume production, the EOS P 500, which can be seamlessly integrated into an automated production, is being used within this cooperation. Markus Glasser, Senior Vice President EMEA at EOS explains: "Our EOS P 500 manufacturing platform is ideally suited for laser-sintering of plastic parts on an industrial scale: One of the key advantages is the extensive automation capability for comprehensive productivity while maintaining consistently high part quality. This ensures economical component costs and allows the production of additive-manufactured components even overnight". For small, highly flexible AM factory cells, the FORMIGA P 110 systems are being used, which can now also access the Siemens NX design tools directly thanks to the EOSPRINT integration. With the NX design tools, users can design complex lattice structures and, using the example of the footwear application, simulate the digital twin of the created midsole in action on the people who wear it. Starting in December, NX will allow the seamless integration of arbitrarily complex shapes and structures into the design process using mathematical equations in order to make even greater use of the advantages of additive manufacturing for product design.