Materialise

Hyundai Motor Corporation, a world-renowned car manufacturer, was facing challenges in managing their Additive Manufacturing (AM) production. The company had to schedule different build jobs, maintain an overview of all build statuses, and ensure efficient information flow among all stakeholders. Previously, they relied on Excel sheets to manage the RP production status, which required frequent manual updates and dissemination of information. Tracking the number of parts produced, savings, and other operational data required manually generated reports. Machine operators also had to invest significant work hours to manually manage the operating plan for each machine and adjust and communicate the planning as soon as changes occurred.

The automotive industry has been facing challenges with the traditional drape forming process, a method used to adhere materials to car interiors. The conventional process uses a metal tool with heating and cooling channels to glue materials like leather onto car interiors. However, the tool, made by milling solid metal blocks, only allows for straight-line drilling of channels, limiting design possibilities. This limitation often leads to long cycle times and inconsistent heating and spreading of the glue, resulting in time and material wastage when the outcome doesn't meet the strict quality standards of the industry. The challenge was to eliminate these issues caused by using conventionally manufactured tools.

FITme, a Korean-based company specializing in manufacturing implants for facial reconstruction, faced a significant challenge in scaling up their processes for mass personalization. The conventional process of fitting a ready-made silicone implant onto bone structure with manual carving was time-consuming and lacked precision. Surgeons had no tool to analyze patients' scan data and relied solely on photographs. This led to side effects such as bending and movement of the implant, resulting in patient dissatisfaction. The medical tourism industry in Korea was rapidly rising, and FITme had to meet higher demands and reduce lead time. The process of designing custom nasal implants that conformed to the variable shape of patient nasal profiles was a daunting and repetitive task for design engineers. It took up to three months to adequately train new engineers in designing patient implants, which was also expensive.