Policy Brief:

No. 6/2015

3D Printing for Industrial Innovation

How to promote implementation of AM processes in Finnish industry?

How to promote competitiveness of the Finnish industrial ecosystem using AM?

3D Print Finland – National Program, strategy roadmap to promote AM technology in the national industrial context

Project title: Additive Manufacturing and Innovation: Technical, Economic, Legal, and Policy Related Aspects of Raising Technologies "AdManI”

Main Contributors: Iñigo Flores Ituarte Mika Salmi Jouni Partanen Jukka Tuomi

3D Printing or Additive Manufacturing (AM) in the industrial context: promoting competitiveness “AdManI” project has started by exploring how, in the context of Finnish and Scandinavian industries, AM can be used to innovative product development and manufacturing in order to gain competitiveness with a global perspective. This policy brief is connected to the sub-projects defined in work packages 2 “Mapping of current AM Practices in Nordic Countries [Aalto]” and 3 “Benchmarking Nordic practices against the international state of the art [Aalto, Lund]”. To do so, an initial mapping of national and international AM practices has been performed. We develop a unified clustering method of AM industrial practices that can be used to map other countries and group companies depending on their activities. In addition, a formal benchmark of companies has been performed to evaluate the presence and use of the technology at national level. Data has been collected using online channels, specialised industry reports, research and industry dedicated technology roadmaps, Finnish Rapid Prototyping Association FIRPA ry community data base as well as non-structured interview with industry experts and international community of experts. Results of the study show that Finland is not currently in the position to compete at global scale in primary sectors of AM value chain, such as AM industrial machine manufactures and raw material supply. In addition, secondary sectors, such as AM consultancy and technology readiness applications as well as manufacturing service bureaus exist, but are minor in its global impact (see Figure 1). Currently Finland has acted as a trend follower, not leading any business activities which has created revenue growth at international scale. Therefore, short and midterm innovation policies should focus on developing new industrial applications using the existing ecosystem and promoting the technology as an upcoming manufacturing solution for the Finnish industry, in order to take the lead in the development of AM applications at industry level. At national level, there is insufficient awareness of benefits of AM. Thus, potential capabilities are not fully understood and exploited by industry. New policies should focus on promoting funding strategies for AM in the form of a program for national industry. Future funding instruments could be formulated to setup and coordinate specific AM research, development and implementation projects. In addition, policies should be focussed on reducing financial risk for companies by providing outside R&D capabilities to perform technology readiness evaluations and open up more innovation opportunities at the demand side by linking initiatives to an AM technology advisory service.

International collaboration:

Figure 1 - Ecosystem mapping, and strength and weakness at national level. See annexes for more detail reading.

Tekesin Ohjelmatoiminnan strateginen tuki -yksikkö tuottaa innovaatioympäristöä palvelevaa tutkimusta teemakohtaisilla hauilla.

Introduction “AM could disrupt the design and manufacturing value chain, allowing a shift from mass production to full customization. This is why it is essential that this technology is welcomed and developed in a positive light in order to keep the European economy at the forefront of innovation.” In mid and long-term view, AM will replace conventional manufacturing for certain components in cases where significant gain is obtained in the life cycle of the product, in terms of cost, functionality and environmental impact. (RM)

Additive Manufacturing in FP7 and Horizon 2020 AM market, consisting of all AM products and services worldwide, grew 35.2% from 2013 to $4.103 billion in 2014. The average annual growth during the past 26 years is 27.3%, in which half of revenue stream have been linked mainly to Rapid Prototyping (RP) activities, whereas Rapid Tooling (RT) and Rapid Manufacturing (RM) applications cover the other half. Trend-lines show that AM technology is evolving towards production of end use applications, also known as RM. In the near future RM applications will become mainstream in the industry, research roadmaps indicated an untapped potential to replace and/or coexist with conventional design and manufacturing processes in cases were significant gain can be obtained in the life cycle of products. In terms of cost, functionality and environmental impact among other benefits.

AM manufacturing of key components will allow firms to create more competitive products. In this regard, companies will need to adopt the technology to remain competitive.

Figure 2 - Leftmost, percentage of usage of the technology per application. Rightmost, revenue in US$ billion per industrial application. Adapted from, Wohlers report (2000 to 2014).

The technology certainly offers great possibilities to accelerate innovation processes of organization, compress and simplify supply chains and to reduce material, energy usage and waste in manufacturing processes. In addition, there is an untapped potential to improve two fundamental factors in product development process; Target Cost (TC) and Time-to-Market (TtM). Products can be reconfigured more rapidly and become ergonomically and functionally optimal for each user or technical application. In traditional manufacturing design modifications have a very high impact on TC and TtM, whereas in AM impact is very limited. In short-term, there is an untapped potential to use the technology to decrease Target Cost (TC) and Time-to-Market (TtM) in product development processes as well as to decrease design cycles in product development.

Figure 3 - Leftmost, AM delivery time versus conventional manufacturing process. Rightmost, AM cost breakeven point versus conventional manufacturing processes. Adapted from, Iñigo Flores Ituarte (2012)

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Data Data has been collected using online channels, specialised industry reports, research publications and industry dedicated technology roadmaps as well as non-structured interviews with industry experts and international community of experts. In addition, previous original research, ongoing academic work, knowledge and data gained from research publications as well as outcomes from contract based research projects with Finning industry players have been compiled in this policy brief.

Results Consumer product & electronics and industrial & business machines industrial sectors are present and important part of the national GDP.

Based on the mapping of AM ecosystem and its comparison with Nordic and international trends, in Finland automotive and especially aerospace product development activities are minor. Whereas, Medical & dental, and especially Consumer product & electronics and industrial & business machines are present and important part of the national GDP. The mentioned industrial sectors are driving AM revenue growth internationally, covering approximately 80% of AM applications.

Application design, technology readiness evaluations and R&D activities to support penetration of the technology in the national industrial ecosystem is performed in a non-structured way.

Figure 4 - AM use per industrial sector. Leftmost, historical trend line. Rightmost, 2014 data pie chart.

Consumer product & electronics as well as industrial & business machines sector in Finland use AM mainly for RP. However, there is still an untapped potential for RM and Pre-Series production in SMEs and bigger companies to decrease design cycles, reduce TC and speed up TtM in product development activities. Additionally, AM applications could help industry to promote innovation and create more competitive products. Even though the supply chain of AM service supplier is not mature, expected improvements in the technology reveal a potential cost reduction of about 60% in the next 5 years and another 30% within the next 10 years. These reductions will significantly boost the market for RM applications, and therefore all primary and secondary businesses in the AM ecosystem.

Typically, lessons learned have a limited impact, making the reuse and transfer of the gained knowledge more difficult.

Results of the ecosystem mapping and its comparison show that Consultancy in application design for AM, technology readiness evaluations and R&D activities to support penetration of the technology in the national industrial ecosystem is performed in a non-structured way. Therefore, typically lessons learned have a limited impact, making the reuse and transfer of the gained knowledge more difficult. To encouraging Finnish companies to seek benefits from AM there is a need for case examples from Finnish industry. Activity in AM consultancy to industry is minor and its generally carried out by public agencies (e.g. Aalto University, LUT, VTT and similar), whereas internationally there are dedicated B2B agencies, such as Econolyst UK, Senvol US, Wohlers US, Hyground Consulting UK, 3TRPD UK, Materialise BE, Sirris BE, LayerWise BE etc. These companies work hand to hand with machine developers, service bureaus and key technology industrial users, such as GE, Boeing, Airbus, Aerospace, Medical and Automotive industry in order to develop, test and implement technological innovations in their manufacturing and product development processes.

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Short and mid-term innovation policies should focus on developing new AM applications using the existing industrial ecosystem.

Results of the study show that Finland is not currently in the position to compete at global scale in primary sectors of AM value chain, such as AM industrial machine manufactures and raw material supply. In addition, secondary sectors, such as AM consultancy and technology readiness applications as well as manufacturing service bureaus exist, but are minor in its impact (see Figure 1). Currently Finland has act as a trend follower, not leading any business activities which has created revenue growth at international scale. Currently Finland has acted as a trend follower, not leading or taking risks in any business activities which has created revenue growth at international scale. However, Finnish companies, such as EOS Finland and DeskArtes Oy are exceptions. These companies are representing primary sectors of AM. Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) process was innovated in EOS Finland and the company employees nowadays more than 20 R&D experts in this field. DeskArtes Oy was one of the first companies which started developing software for AM machines. To promote innovation and new business models taking advantage of AM technologies, short and mid-term innovation policies should focus on developing new industrial applications using the existing ecosystem. AM needs to be promoted as an upcoming manufacturing solution for the Finnish industry, in order to take the lead in the development of RM applications. Trend lines such as the one presented in Figure 4 show how globally, industrial business machine industrial sector has adopted the technology recently, representing today 17% of the AM applications. Medical as well as design and consumers products & electronics industry take 30% of the applications and all together represent 47% of the AM applications. Competitiveness of these industrial sectors in Finland can be improved by adopting novel AM design and production methods.

Up Leftmost. First space qualified aluminum component, 35% less weight than a conventional design and 40% stiffer. Conventional component requires four different components and 44 rivets for its assembly. ESA Up Rightmost. A mapping of functional vehicle components that can be optimized for function. BMW Center Leftmost. Orbital implant produced by DMLS. Helsinki University Hospital and Aalto University Center Rightmost. Functional final part produced by SLS. Courtesy of Genimate Oy Low Leftmost. Case study to integrate AM processes from prototyping to series production. Courtesy of Mendor Oy Low Rightmost. Function optimization of a shot peening nozzle. Courtesy of Alphaform Oy

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Innovation policy challenges Insufficient awareness of benefits.

In Finland there is insufficient awareness of benefits industrial AM, potential capabilities are not fully understood by industry, especially SMEs.

AM technology is not a new technology in RP processes. Nevertheless, using the technology for end use or RM it is. The problem at this point is that RM is seen merely as an extension of RP in industry, and produced parts are not seen as suitable or intended for end use. This “baggage” is probably the larger hurdle to the uptake of AM in industry. It is a fact that final production using AM will be always linked to variables, such as the complexity of the geometry, the intended use of the produced part, production volumes and supply chain factors. Therefore, AM systems hardly will be competitive in scenarios in which the product has been conventionally designed to be conventionally manufactured and conventionally commercialized. Nevertheless, RM will be an enabler for firms to respond quickly to changes in customer requirements and be able to influence product development at any stage, minimizing negative impact in TC and TtM. In the long term, the technology can replace conventional manufacturing in cases which significant gain is obtained in the life cycle of the product, in terms of cost, functionality and environmental impact.

There are successful cases of technology early adopters. However, these companies have limited visibility.

Traditional product development companies should be aware of this scenario and policies should facilitate the integration of the technology, first by targeting potential early adopter and technology enthusiasts, and then expanding the knowledge towards more conservatives and sceptics companies. In this regard, contemporary academic research has identify the need for field research and case research to map the benefits and shortcomings of the technology for industry. Little willingness to cooperate and share knowledge. The disadvantages of field research and case research is that companies will not necessarily share their knowledge, successful applications and study cases will be seen as a commercial competitive advantage against competitors.

Contemporary academic research has identify the need for field research and case research to understand the benefits and shortcomings of AM technology.

Early stages of AM supply chain. At national level, AM service suppliers do not have access to all State-of-the-Arts machinery. In addition, production cost and response time are not optimal. Most of the Finnish service supplier companies are quite young (average 6 years), they have very limited technological capabilities as well as material options. Typically, they use outsourcing to international service bureaus when they do not have access to technology. Weak internal ‘cluster’ structures.

Finnish service supplier companies are quite young (average 6 years), they have very limited technology capabilities as well as material options.

In 1990’s so called Nokia cluster boosted Finnish AM industry and Finland was in the leading edge in above mentioned primary and secondary sectors. For example, Nokia prototyping facility was known as leading AM applications developer and EOS Finland (at that time Electrolux, Rusko, Finland) started its Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) process development, injection molding and metal casting companies developed AM based tooling applications and DeskArtes gained international success as a software vendor for AM ICT processes. In 2000’s Nokia and Nokia supply chain manufacturing operations started to decrease in Finland. At a same time international AM technology and business development started to grow fast. This led to current situation that Finland does not have any specific position in international comparison. Now international attention towards AM has increased exponentially. However, Finish policy makers have not started any AM specific program to gather experienced R&D parties and industry technology drivers to form a clusters for AM technology. Instead, AM has been a subtopic in various programs and calls and the basic structural need to develop an AM network has not been addressed.

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Proposal for action

Policies could promote funding strategies for AM in the form of a program for Finish industry.

The proposals for action are summarized in the following three points and then compiled in a strategic roadmap. Actions are targeted to intervene at the supply side (i.e. public interventions that seek to support the generation and diffusion of innovation) and at the demand side of innovation (i.e. Education, R&D organizations and industrial ecosystem). Policies should mostly address the needs of the following industrial sector, Medical & Dental, Consumer product & electronics and industrial & business machines industrial sectors. Increasing input for innovation and R&D. At the industrial level, there is a clear need for certification of materials, basic research to increase repeatability as well as reliability of AM systems, and CE marking of products, which needs to be regulated. Long term view supply side policies need to be planned to increase input for innovation and R&D, address these issues as well as other possible areas which may include: research in materials science for diversification of applications, environmental aspects of the technology, standardization and creation of new business models through basic R&D.

Future funding instrument could be formulated to setup a specific AM research, development and implementation program.

Improving and increasing the supply of skill. Supply side policies focused to develop future skilled workforce have been addressed to some extent, for instance 2014 was the first full year for an AM-focused professorship at Aalto University. The mapping of the ecosystem show that universities and applied science schools have adapted their curricula to integrate and update AM related knowledge in manufacturing, product design and product development courses. In addition, in 2013 more than 64 primary schools applied money to buy cheap AM equipment and introduce the technology to early stage students. Ongoing policy actions should be targeted on keeping this momentum. Generating and exploiting connections and complementarities.

Funding platform should be linked to a technology advisory service, to provide technical assistance, AM manufacturing capabilities, consulting, mentoring and other services to support enterprises in the adoption of new AM processes.

Although, innovation policies to develop cooperative research projects between industry and academia have been promoted from the supply as well as demand side (e.g. Fimecs Future digital manufacturing technologies and systems Manu or earlier Tekes projects). The role of AM has been minor or did not reach a big audience yet. Nevertheless, the fast developments of AM applications and capabilities will require policies to promote AM applications. Industrial trendlines as well as technology roadmaps emphasize that future of AM technology is heading towards RM applications. Therefore, special focus should be taken on the study of end use applications for RM, focusing for instance in after sales applications of OEMs, particularly spare parts of obsolete components to allow firm reductions in transportation costs, inventory carrying cost as well as part obsolescence cost. Aligned with this trend, cooperation policies should benefit clearly SMEs to improve competitiveness by using AM at all levels of their product development value chain. Currently main of the technology users in Finland are early adopters, that have understood the capabilities and limitations that AM technology brings to the design and manufacturing processes. Future funding platforms should be linked to a technology advisory services to provide technical assistance, AM manufacturing capabilities, consulting, mentoring and other services to support enterprises in the adoption of new AM processes. Policies should be focussed on reducing financial risk for companies by providing outside R&D capabilities. Comparing international input for AM related strategic funding. Big players, such as US, China or Japan have ongoing dedicated industry programs. For instance, US has funded with $50 million to create “America Makes: National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute”. The UK has invested £15 million into the creation of a national center for AM. Smaller countries, such as Belgium, Sweden or Singapore also have dedicated AM specific funding initiatives.

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3D Print Finland – National Platform and strategy roadmap

A new national funding strategy should double current 3D printing related funding to fill the international gap and gain competitiveness.

In Finland we estimate that 2M€/year is expended in disconnected AM related R&D funding and application research studies. To coordinate activities as well as to fill the existing funding and knowledge gap, a new national funding strategy should at least double this input to 4M€/year in a 5 years interconnected program, thus leading to a 20M€ funding program. A specific action should promote a new “3D Print Finland – National Program” which gathers national level AM expertise as well as target industry actors. We propose that future public funding dedicated to industrial 3D Printing should be distributed more strategically covering the following aspects:

For a more detail reading References Additive Manufacturing in FP7 and Horizon 2020 (June 2014). “Report from the EC Workshop on Additive Manufacturing”. Additive Manufacturing Strategic Research Agenda (2014). http://www.rmplatform.com/ BCG, the Boston Consulting Group. (2011). “Made in America, Again. Why Manufacturing will return to the U.S.” Direct Manufacturing Research Center (DMRC), University of Paderborn (2013). “Thinking ahead the Future of Additive Manufacturing – Innovation Road mapping of Required Advancements” Roland Berger Strategy Consultants (2013). “A game changer for the manufacturing industry?” ESA - Eurostar E3000 satellite to feature Airbus 3D printed aluminum parts Wohlers Report (1999 to 2015), 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing State of the Industry. Annual Worldwide Progress Report Academic publication in progress Iñigo Flores Ituarte, Siavash H. Khajavi, Mika Salmi, Jouni Partanen (2015 Expected). “Steps towards the Implementation of Additive Manufacturing Systems in Product Development Organizations”. International Journal of Production Economics

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