Additive manufacturing, or 3D-printing, enables a paradigm shift for the industry, Additiv tillverkning, eller 3D-printing i dagligt tal, möjliggör ett paradigmskifte för industrin, which provides completely new opportunities for product development and production. But for companies to be able to fully utilize the strength of the technology, support is needed in every step along the supply chain ranging from development of new business models to product design and testing in a real production environment. Therefore, RISE is opening up the Application Center for Additive Manufacturing together with industrial and academic partners.
Additiv manufacturing offers advantages such as mass customization enabling unique tailor-made components that are produced with minimal material waste and that are optimized with regards to their weight.
Despite all the benefits, many companies are still hesitant about the investments required, it is difficult to decide which technology is best suited and how to proceed. That is why RISE, together with industrial and academic partners, is now starting the Application Center for Additive Manufacturing.
– By gathering end users, suppliers of services, technology and materials with our researchers and experts at RISE, the Application Center for Additive Manufacturing enable us to form a robust national ecosystem for additive manufacturing in Sweden, says Seyed Hosseini, Director of Application Center for Additive Manufacturing.
In the center, the industrial partners will have access to the latest research carried out by the research partners, test and demonstrate different additive manufacturing technologies including their pre- and post-operations, as well as access expertise and competence along the supply chain. To be successful in such an environment, collaboration, and cooperation between all partners in the Center is vital as each partner has unique competence and experience. The center creates an independent and open environment for such collaboration to take place in Sweden.
15 partners are onboard from the start. The target group for the center is manufacturing companies, both large and small and medium-sized, but also suppliers of materials, software and equipment for additive manufacturing. The partnership provides the opportunity to take full advantage of the skills and infrastructure that exist and as a partner you also contribute to the center. With the help of the center, the threshold to test and evaluate the technology can be reduced.
– I hope that the results of the evaluations we do within the center will lead us to be mature in making our own decisions about which processes we will roll out in different operations and that we get a good decision basis for our own strategy going forward, says Johan Svenningstorp, Director Research and Technology Development Truck Operations, Volvo Group.
– It is vital for Swedish industry to increase research in the field of additive manufacturing because large parts of the global transport industry invest heavily in the field. We need an expansion of Swedish high-tech industry to get competition on equal terms globally. For Ericsson’s products, additive manufacturing can lead to a reduction of energy needed in the overall development and throughout the product life cycle. We look forward to developing this together with RISE and the companies included in the Application Center for additive manufacturing, says Mikael Wahlén, Project Manager Hardware Research at Ericsson.
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