Vulcan Enhances Printer Uptime Using IoT

To date, key challenges have stood in the way of 3D printing becoming a manufacturing tool for the automaker. The first issue is a fundamental one — conventional 3D printing technologies make parts layer-by-layer, slowly crafting one layer at a time, creating parts that aren’t nearly as robust as those stamped or injection molded. While the slow speed of this process is a major drawback, the bigger problem is that the parts produced are not isotropic and not durable enough to be used in production vehicles. In addition, most parts used in vehicles today must withstand temperature extremes from the hottest desert to the coldest Arctic environments and still maintain their integrity. With only a handful of stock materials available for 3D printers, meeting the automaker’s unique demands has not been possible.

For industrial applications such as process and machine control to run smoothly, there is a need to ensure that there is low communication latency and minimal jitter in order to meet closed loop control requirements.

Planetary Resources expects that the Arkyd spacecraft will eventually be mass-produced at cost significantly lower than current spacecraft, so weight must be minimized to the greatest extent possible.

Vauxhall set out to introduce a modified process hanger with a new part that would be used to support each vehicle body throughout the production process. This part is a critical piece and had to perfectly fit both the machinery and the auto body to create correct clearances and avoid damage during production.

Bekaert, a major player in the steel wire industry, was facing significant challenges in its manufacturing operations due to outdated data platforms. The company was unable to trace genealogy beyond a week's data and lacked diagnostic analysis of plant operations, which severely hampered decision-making. The absence of automation in benchmarking operations and extensive reporting on plant management further complicated the situation. To enhance efficiency and effectiveness in multiple focus areas, Bekaert needed a modern data platform capable of managing large volumes of data and generating actionable insights. The company aimed to drive quality, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), and plant productivity based on these insights.

Malvern Panalytical, a UK-based hi-tech electronics company, was grappling with the challenge of decentralized data storage. The company had a vast amount of unstructured data scattered across various platforms, from hard drives to emails and floppy disks. This made the data searching process extremely cumbersome and inefficient. The company's rapid growth, from 200 to over 1,000 employees in a decade, and expansion across three continents further exacerbated the need for a more structured and centralized data system. As a company involved in electronics manufacturing and software development, it was crucial for Malvern Panalytical to find a platform that could structure all their data, track all modifications of documents in real time, and provide clear visibility of the internal information flow across all its facilities.