A commercially viable mass manufacturing additive manufacturing technology now exists that disrupts the ways in which micron-tolerance parts can be made, and at the same time promotes part innovation across numerous industry sectors.
Earlier this year, Tel-Aviv based additive manufacturing innovator, Nanofabrica, commercially launched its micro 3D printing technology that reaches micron-level accuracy over a build envelope of 5cm x 5 cm x 10 cm. This ground-breaking technology now provides a viable mass manufacturing alternative to traditional manufacturing processes such as micro moulding, and its characteristics open up the opportunity for significant innovation in product design and development.
It is time for companies involved in the manufacture of micro parts and components or larger parts with micron tolerances to re-assess the possibilities that exist as an additive manufacturing technology enters the micro manufacturing arena.
Nanofabrica’s technology is allowing manufacturers to disrupt the way that a product is designed, developed, and manufactured, key among the possibilities being the opportunity to take advantage of the way in which additive manufacturing allows for the design and production of extremely complex geometries at no additional cost.
Nanofabrica’s technology is also much more agile and flexible than traditional alternative manufacturing technologies, the requirement for no tooling meaning that designs can be altered with little expense, and the potential for mass customization is now open to players in the micro manufacturing sector.
Through the use of a micro additive manufacturing process, manufacturers can also optimize workflow, the technology producing less scrap and fewer tools than conventional manufacturing processes. It also promotes the reduction of iterative process, assembly, and inventory. This means that significant operational cost benefits are now attainable at the micro manufacturing level.
While the Nanofabrica micron-level additive manufacturing process can cater for high volume applications (multiple thousands of small parts and components fitting easily in the machine’s build envelope), the introduction of a 3D printing solution for micro manufacturers also means that OEMs are able to reduce the reliance on economies of scale, as the technology makes full production runs measured in thousands as inexpensive as producing one. The Nanofabrica technology makes low to medium-volume production runs possible that have previously been uneconomic due to the high tooling and set-up costs associated with traditional manufacturing alternatives.
Nanofabrica’s technology is receiving significant interest for optical, semi-conductor, micro electronic, MEMS, micro fluidic, and life science applications. Microfluidics provides a good example of how Nanofabrica’s technology can be a competitive alternative to micro moulding. Micro molding is extremely expensive in terms of tooling, set-up, and assembly operations, and also significantly limits the freedom of microfluidic design. Micro moulding technologies are also unable to manufacture functional substructures which are achievable using Nanofabrica’s AM technology without compromising precision or quality.
Until now, additive manufacturing has not been able to achieve the exacting precision and resolution that is required by manufacturers at the forefront of miniaturization and micro manufacturing.
Nanofabrica’s micro AM technology appeals to an array of manufacturers that up until now have not been able to cost-effectively or efficiently fulfil design intent using traditional manufacturing processes. In addition, being agnostic to part complexity, and therefore allowing the manufacture of hollow structures, holes, complicated interior details, and atypical shapes, Nanofabrica’s micro AM technology is promoting innovation and therefore is accurately described a true enabling technology.
www.nano-fabrica.com