Plastics News Europe - September 2019 - 21

additive manufacturing

micromanufacturing
using additive technology
Advances in additive manufacturing technology have
not always led to bigger and bigger builds, as Tel
Aviv-based Nanofabrica demonstrates. The company
has developed an AM platform that can produce
miniaturised products and components with micron
resolution features at volume. By Karen Laird

arlier this year, Israeli additive
manufacturing innovator Nanofabrica commercially launched
its micro 3D printing technology that
reaches micron-level accuracy over a
build envelope of 5cm x 5 cm x 10
cm. The technology offers a viable
mass manufacturing alternative to
traditional manufacturing processes
such as micro moulding, said the
company, and its characteristics
open up the opportunity for significant innovation in product design
and development.
At the macro and micro level, the
additive manufacturing process, if
correctly approached, can lead to
fewer design iterations, less assembly
work as a result of part consolidation
as well as inventory reduction. After
all, if little or even no assembly is required, there is also no need to carry
an inventory of different components, nor for a stock of fasteners
such as screws, bolts, nuts, washers,
and the like.
AM also enables the design and
production of extremely complex geometries, with no complicated tooling solutions required and hence at
no additional cost. And because no
tooling is needed, designs can easily
be modified, paving the way for
mass customisation for the first time

in the micromanufacturing sector.
This means that significant operational cost benefits are now attainable at the micromanufacturing level.

Volume production
3D printing at the micron level brings
high-volume applications within
reach, as thousands of tiny parts and
components can fit easily in the machine's build envelope. "The machine
delivers micron precision digital innovation in every part produced," commented Jon Donner, CEO at Nanofabrica.
For OEMs, therefore, unlike in traditional processing technologies, micro additive manufacturing means
that economies of scale become irrelevant: whether producing several thousand or just one component, the costs
remain low. In this way, the low to medium-volume production runs that the
high tooling and set-up costs associated with traditional manufacturing alternatives would otherwise have made
prohibitively expensive, suddenly become an affordable option.
The micro AM technology developed by Nanofabrica allows - for the
first time - micron-level production
with the precision, resolution and repeatability required in product miniaturisation. It enables a microstructure

Micron resolution over centimetre-sized parts

september 2019

Nanofabrica's technology can be a competitive
alternative to micromoulding

and workpiece accuracy to be obtained that was hitherto only achievable with micromoulding. And because it is agnostic to part complexity,
it allows for the design and manufacture of hollow structures, holes,
complicated interior details, and
atypical shapes which could not otherwise be efficiently or cost-effectively produced.
The innovative nature of the technology is also being recognised by the
industry: Nanofabrica has been shortlisted as a finalist in the TCT Awards
in the category Hardware - Polymer
Systems. The winners will be announced in an award ceremony and
gala dinner during the 2019 TCT
Show, on the evening of Wednesday
25th September.

Design for Additive
Manufacturing
Freedom of design is the hallmark of
AM. However, before designers can
take full advantage of the benefits
offered by this design freedom - at
both the micro and macro AM level
- they must acquire an understanding
of the Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) philosophy.
Currently a hot topic, DfAM demands an entirely different approach
and set of skills to achieve success
than Design for Manufacturing (DfM)
using traditional production technologies - something that is often overlooked, especially with the current
global shortage of professionals with
AM design skills, said Donner.
"The shortage of professionals

➡ Continued on page 24
21

Plastics News Europe - September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics News Europe - September 2019