Video: Additive Manufacturing Is a Logistics Solution
UPS discusses its use of cloud-networked 3D printers to provide part-making near the point of end use.
What if, instead of manufacturing a batch of 100 pieces, you could instead manufacture 10 batches of 10, all in separate places that are near the ultimate points of use. Digital manufacturing via 3D printing coupled with cloud-based networking makes this possible. This is the “manufacturing as a service” model now being advanced by UPS’s Global On-Demand Manufacturing Network. UPS VP of Corporate Strategy Alan Amling discusses the idea in this video. Additive manufacturing as a disruption not just to manufactured part designs but also to logistics is an idea I talk about here.
Related Content
-
3D Printing with Plastic Pellets – What You Need to Know
A few 3D printers today are capable of working directly with resin pellets for feedstock. That brings extreme flexibility in material options, but also requires greater knowledge of how to best process any given resin. Here’s how FGF machine maker JuggerBot 3D addresses both the printing technology and the process know-how.
-
DMG MORI: Build Plate “Pucks” Cut Postprocessing Time by 80%
For spinal implants and other small 3D printed parts made through laser powder bed fusion, separate clampable units resting within the build plate provide for easy transfer to a CNC lathe.
-
3D Printed Titanium Replaces Aluminum for Unmanned Aircraft Wing Splice: The Cool Parts Show #72
Rapid Plasma Deposition produces the near-net-shape preform for a newly designed wing splice for remotely piloted aircraft from General Atomics. The Cool Parts Show visits Norsk Titanium, where this part is made.
