Defence of dissertation in the field of mechanical engineering, future manufacturing technologies, Iñigo, Flores Ituarte, M.Sc. (Eng.)
Advantages of additive manufacturing. Learning from contemporary research and industrial applications.
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The public examination of the doctoral dissertation of Iñigo, Flores Ituarte, M.Sc. (Eng.) will be held on 10 May 2017 at 12.00 at the Aalto University School of Engineering. The title of the dissertation is From rapid prototyping to digitalization: Steps on industrializing Additive Manufacturing.
Additive manufacturing (AM) systems or commonly known as 3D printing have evolved drastically to bring the technology to the spotlight of manufacturing digitalization. Incremental technology improvements offer new possibilities in manufacturing, unlocking a number of serious applications. However, there are still gaps between the technological projections and the practical constrains of the technology. Results of this dissertation show that applying direct digital manufacturing using AM for structural components is feasible, especially in pre-series production and for products with a component of customization. Nevertheless, AM has to be integrated and automated with secondary manufacturing processes in order to drive the technology to industrialization
Production using AM is not always intrinsically at disadvantage in medium and high volume production industries. Factors such as geometry variability and the elimination of tooling in production can reduce the upfront cost as compared to conventional methods of manufacturing. During the coming years firms will need to look at their legacy products to identify potential benefits of AM implementation with a life cycle perspective. However, the big opportunities are yet to come when technology improves and additive methods are taken into consideration early in the design stages as a manufacturing solution
Opponents: Professor Richard Hague, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom (UK)
Supervisor: Professor Jouni Partanen, Aalto University School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Future Manufacturing Technologies
Electronic dissertation thesis: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/49
Contact information: Iñigo, Flores Ituarte, inigo.flores.ituarte@aalto.fi, tel. +358 504 801 322