AMtoFlex – Additive Manufacturing of Tooling for Flexible Production and Optimised Product Properties

Project time: 2016 – 2018

Budget: 9 750 000 kronor

Funding: SIP Produktion2030

Reduced lead times and improved performance for tooling through innovative manufacturing and assembly strategies as well as optimised design enabled by use of additive manufacturing (AM).

AMtoFlex will strengthen the competitiveness of the Swedish manufacturing industry through improved production flexibility in the tooling manufacturing industries by novel design, manufacturing strategy, and assembly strategy through usage of emerging and novel technology like Additive Manufacturing (AM). In the tooling industry, the main challenge having a negative impact on the Swedish manufacturing industry is lead time, that on average is about 11 weeks, and for large and complex tools, as used in the automotive industry, can be as long as a year. Through utilization of AM, it is possible to address near-net-shape manufacturing incorporating internal cooling channels and removing time-consuming subsequent subtractive operations, and through digitalized approach work with a flexible supply chain. In addition, the AMtoFlex route will also be beneficial to tool performance; i.e. reducing the cycle times and improving

component quality. AMtoFlex contributes also to sustainable manufacturing through

significantly reducing the material waste, high material utilization in AMtoFlex route, beneficial for circular economy.

 

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