Prototypes building, 3D printing is best low-cost technology for manufacturing

June 9, 2021 2:18 pm

It is critical for SMEs and MSME to focus on implementing factory automation in a variety of applications.

Ragesh Kumar, Product Manager: Low-Cost Automation, igus India, and Nitin Prakash – Product Manager, iglidur®, igubal®, xiros®, Tribo Printing, igus India, in a discussion with OEM Update, discuss the challenges with 3D printing and robotics. They also have key suggestions for efficient and low-cost manufacturing.

With the advent of 3D Printing, AI, robotics, connected data enterprise, what are the major areas where the industry witnessed transformations and business prospects?

3D Printing, AI, robotics all these technologies have helped most of the industries to reconsider their new developments, major areas which witness transformation from robotics are from the logistics and supply chain related industries, companies with serial production assembly lines etc. Aerospace industry has seen major transformation with the help of 3D printing but in general, medical, packaging, design houses, have been benefitted with new advancements of 3D printing technologies.

Witnessing the transformation igus have expanded its capacity and services with self-lubricating components, up to 50-times more abrasion-resistant than regular 3D printing materials. Tested: Up to 50 times longer service life compared to conventional 3D printing materials. More than 5,000 active customers around the world rely on our wear-resistant 3D printing polymers. Replacement parts, prototypes and series parts in batch sizes from 1 to 10,000 ready to ship in one to three days with our online 3D printing service

How is AI, 3D printing, machine learning and robotics bridging the manufacturing technology gap in Indian industries?

For sure 3D printing, has helped in reducing production times and costs, as it does not require any expensive tools to be built before production. For prototypes building, 3D printing has proven one of the best and low-cost technology. Faster prototypes mean faster movement in your development projects.

Robotic system allows you to automate manual work steps quickly and easily. They automate repetitive tasks, reduce margins of error to negligible rates, and enable human workers to focus on more productive areas of the operation. igus has ready to use robots like delta, robolink, gantries those are helping hands for humans in factories.

What are the challenges for the SME and MSME sector in adopting factory automation, digitisation and robotics for efficient manufacturing processes?

SME and MSME industries are facing many challenges like shortage of manpower, human error in repetitive tasks, consistent quality of the product, production efficiency and so on. It is very important for SME / MSME to focus on implementing factory automation in various applications. Process development team from SME/MSME must think that automation solutions will be reliable for their process, they should get service support and should be easy to maintain.

igus thinks about all requirements from SMS/MSME and are offering Low-cost automation solutions like Delta robot, Cartesian robot and Robolink. igus products are tested in large testing facility at Germany and the data base is helping customers to offer service life calculation. Since igus use high performance tribo polymers offers maintenance free, Lubrication free solutions and so on. Most importantly igus offer FASTER RETURN OF INVESTMENT in Low-Cost Automation products.

Nitin Prakash – Product Manager: iglidur®, igubal®, xiros®, tribo printing, Phone: +91 7760368383, nitin@igus.net

Ragesh Kumar – Product Manager: Low-Cost Automation, Phone:+91-9606449648, rkumar@igus.net