Wherever you are on your additive manufacturing journey, the Formnext Forum Austin has experts and connections to accelerate your adoption and innovation. Taking place August 28 – 30 at the Palmer Events Center in Austin, Texas, the program features leaders from nearly every sector of industrial 3D printing. Utilizing additive manufacturing provides opportunities for innovation throughout the process. Many may ask where they should begin.
For Troy Olson, director of operations of the additive manufacturing division at rms Company, the key was to begin with commitment, patience, and support from the parent company. Focused only on medical device development and production, rms watched the technology develop and the value it could bring to efficient production as well as enabling innovative orthopedic device designs. “We didn’t know what we didn’t know when we started,” Olson explained why they needed to be prepared to “fail fast and stay humble.” He will share the rms additive manufacturing journey including ways they pursued excellence at every step, timelines of their development, and how the integration of artificial intelligence will enable rms and the medical device industry to expand the use of patient-matched devices.
Carolyn Seepersad, professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has pursued a deeper understanding of the entire additive manufacturing process for 20 years beginning with her PhD program. This “process-aware design” approach means “finding as much information as you can about an AM process and bringing it into the design process as early as possible,” according to Seepersad. She added that this means having “more quantitative data for materials properties, dimensions, and design allowables, including uncertainty quantification.” This data can be used by every sector of industrial additive manufacturing. Seepersad will present examples of process-aware design that reflects growing expertise in the additive manufacturing process and remaining challenges during presentations on both August 29 and August 30.
Understanding materials and processes is critical for aerospace applications. Brandon Ribic, director of technology at America Makes, explored these needs with the space industry during a recent workshop. “There is a clear and pressing need for domestic capability to develop new alloys for many applications; near term for air breathing and longer term for nuclear propulsion,” Ribic observed. He added that this includes “how to qualify processes effectively, quickly identify different sequences, value streams, identify what’s critical and scale it for materials and structure.” Ribic will explain what aerospace’s priorities mean for the additive manufacturing ecosystem including the promising collaborations forming and development of the industrialized supply chain on August 29.
With a full lineup of experts like these three, find ideas and solutions for your innovation at the Formnext Forum Austin, August 28-20, Austin, Texas including developments within the oil and gas sector, operational strategies, approaches to workforce development, and more.
Register for Formnext Forum Austin to learn more at formnextforum.com. Use the discount code: FFAIMTS.