Singapore
Earlier this week one of Germany's largest engineering firms announced it was to open a 3D printing facility in Singapore. In the press release for the announcement Mr Lim Kok Kiang, Assistant Managing Director, Singapore Economic Development Board said:
“We are delighted that ThyssenKrupp has chosen to anchor the centre in Singapore. ThyssenKrupp will be well-positioned to leverage our diverse manufacturing base and strengths in Industry 4.0 to serve the needs of customers in Asia Pacific. The investment is further testament to Singapore’s growing reputation as a hub for additive manufacturing research and deployment in the region and beyond.”
That 'growing reputation' is thanks largely to the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster, more commonly known as NAMIC. Since its launch in October 2015, NAMIC has raised more than 30 million USD to initiate 179 projects covering industry technology development, translation, commercialisation, standards development, training and certification, across various industry verticals.
NAMIC's annual summit is one of the ways how the organisation promotes AM within Singapore, and the conference at the heart of that takes a different focus each year. For the 2019 edition, the conference's focus is the industry's latest buzzword (/buzz-acronym), DfAM or Design for Additive Manufacturing.
Taking place at the Marina Bay Sands Expo on Tuesday, 7 May 2019, the NAMIC conference kicks off with a keynote from John Barnes of The Barnes Group Advisors. John will discuss DfAM and the transformative role it can play towards the future of manufacturing.
"People are still struggling with why DfAM is any different than conventional DFM (design for manufacturing) and conceptually it isn’t – it’s just a lot more important," said John in an interview with NAMIC. "Aerospace adopted AM early and it is a weight conscious industry. Other industries looked at that and said ‘weight isn’t as important to me’ but they missed was that weight equals time, and time equals money. So now, legions of engineers need to understand this principal and other nuance which are counter-intuitive to their training.
Other highlights include a talk from the Munich-based serial entrepreneur, Lin Kayser, whose latest venture Hyperganic is building a software ecosystem for advanced industrial manufacturing. Dr. Karsten Heuser,VP Additive Manufacturing Siemens Digital Factory will discuss Siemen's vision for adopting AM across its vast portfolio.
Either side of the event NAMIC is running workshops from the likes of Autodesk, Materialise and Altair, as well as hosting startup forums and arranging industry visits. The full week of programming is designed to showcase how Singapore is advancing AM as part of the National Research Foundation's Research Innovation Enterprise (RIE) 2020 plan.
The RIE 2020 plan has identified advanced manufacturing as a potential growth area for Singapore and has committed $3.2 billion to develop technological capabilities in advanced manufacturing including additive technologies. Although the main focus for AM will come through the RIE's Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering thrust, the $19 billion plan includes technology domains like Health and Biomedical Sciences as well as Urban Solutions and Sustainability, both of which AM may have a role to play.
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Exhibit at the UK's definitive and most influential 3D printing and additive manufacturing event, TCT 3Sixty.
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