Giving Design Engineers the Additive Manufacturing Support They Need

Arvind Rangarajan wants to get design engineers inspired about additive manufacturing. The “big opportunity is in expanding what traditional designers can do,” said Arvind Rangarajan, who serves as global head, software & data, HP Personalization & 3D Printing, in a chat with Design News during Rapid+TCT in Los Angeles.

However, “few engineers are designing for additive manufacturing,” he said. “How do we drive adoption?”

Promoting the method’s benefits may be a start. For instance, “If you redesign components for additive, you could substantially reduce their weight,” he said. At its Rapid+TCT booth, HP showcased Ocado’s 3D-printed robots used in grocery fulfillment. “In the case of the Ocado application, the lighter weight components help improve battery life and reduce the weight of support infrastructure,” Rangarajan said. “The company is also able to scale at much lower cost.” 

Users can achieve much more complex designs beyond lightweighting using additive, he added. "Schneider Electric, for example, uses HP Metal Jet technology to manufacture components for its 690 V power filters, which couldn’t be achieved with other industrial manufacturing capabilities due to the shape complexity."

Also on display at the booth were various orthotics and prosthetics (O&P) applications, which Rangarajan called a key vertical industry for HP as the demand for hyper personalization increases. "Here, it’s all about providing end-to-end software that drives transformation across the healthcare supply chain and digitizes the manual work that has traditionally been a barrier to innovation.

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"Tailoring the experience to each individual patient or customer is becoming standard practice," he continued. "Another example of this is the Brooks Exhilarate-BL running shoe, the latest partnership between Brooks and HP showcased at the booth. Additive manufacturing has made it possible to design shoes that are tuned to groups of sizes based on runner data instead of traditional sizing for footwear. The added benefit is optimal cushioning and energy return, the former of which is hugely important for performance runners. Not only is this product at the cutting edge of sports technology, but the Multi Jet Fusion-produced midsoles in the Brooks Exhilarate-BL shoes have been proven to use fewer materials during production and deliver higher energy return than 90% of the midsoles on the market today."

Additive manufacturing could also help manufacturers solve a big challenge—meeting low-volume demand for aftermarket parts.

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But design engineers may need some time to make the leap. “You have to have patience with additive,” said Rangarajan. “You have to let engineers think of the possibilities.”

To support these engineers, HP is partnering with design analysis companies and others “to make essentials for additive design much more available,” he says. “We are going to push additive manufacturing into the tools they’re accustomed to using,” he adds.

One such partnership is with Altair. HP will provide proprietary material information for use in Altair’s Material Data Center to arm engineers designing 3D-printed parts with comprehensive material property data.

HP is leveraging design optimization tools like Autodesk Fusion and Siemens, said Rangarajan. “Topology optimization often creates crude geometries and turns off designers, but we can help them understand it and utilize their engineering knowledge to create additive friendly designs,” he said. “This intelligence is helping industry get there.”

HP is also turning to AI for help. “AI can be used to help nonexperts 3D print designs,” he added. “AI can change the way we can customize designs. And we are creating workflows to support flexibility.” AI’s possibilities were also explored at NVIDIA GTC with the announcement of Shutterstock’s 3D AI generator that enables designers to rapidly iterate on concepts. "HP converts these digital assets to 3D printable models through automated workflows, which are then fed into HP 3D printers to manufacture physical prototypes that help inspire product designs. HP’s 3D Design Services team is also working on additional text to 3D pipelines for automated design generation," he said.

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HP is also working to “make TCO visible early in the design process, such as providing a cost and carbon calculator tool, and making it easy to use,” he said. "This innovative software will allow customers to get a calculation of the carbon footprint of specific printed parts, empowering industries to make informed decisions regarding the environmental impact of their additive manufacturing practices."

There is still more work to do to help design engineers convert existing designs to those suitable for additive manufacturing. This need is apparent in any effort to 3D print spare parts. “We need a way to redesign these parts for additive manufacturing,” he said. A “digital inventory library” could support such efforts, and companies wouldn’t “need to maintain inventory,” he explained. But “design guidelines for converting parts to 3D printed parts” may be needed. “Could a consortium prepare those guidelines? These guidelines would help companies save money.”

The ultimate goal is to provide support to design engineers in applications that make sense. “If we overpromise and you use additive manufacturing where it doesn’t make sense, you’ve shut yourself off for years,” cautions Rangarajan.