In 2017, CASTOR was launched with the intention of identifying suitable parts for additive manufacturing, streamlining elements of the adoption and application process, and making the integration of 3D printing as painless as possible.
The company describes its software offering as a decision support system for the utilisation of industrial 3D printing. Already, brands like John Deere and Danfoss are said to have benefitted.
Its software works by analysing CAD files and 2D drawings to ascertain which components within a spare parts inventory list or an entire sub-assembly are ripe for additive manufacturing. This takes into account the potential savings it can make across cost, lead time or carbon emissions.
“The problems that we hear is either a supply chain issue, spare parts [for example] that are very hard to send today from Brazil to South Africa; sustainability concern – companies are being measured on reducing warehouses, reducing shipment, reducing transportation; and eventually cost reduction, looking for a cheaper way [to manufacture] the same part with the same performance,” CASTOR CEO Omer Blaier tells TCT. “We’re helping with all of those to automate the process of identifying opportunities that makes sense to use additive.”
Over the last 12 months, CASTOR has become ready to provide some great context in its bid to answer the question of when additive manufacturing makes sense. Between 2019 and 2021, the company has analysed 30,000 parts using data points gathered by its cloud-based software to provide statistical information relating to AM’s suitability.
“70% of the parts weren’t suited to additive,” Blaier says. “20% of the parts were suited for additive with some geometry changes or other changes. 10% of the parts were suited for additive as is. Only half of them were sent a quote, that’s 5%, and [less than] half were sent to print, that’s 2%. So, first, we see where the industry is really at, which is 2% of the parts suit additive if you’re assessing all the considerations technically and economically.”
Within the 2% of parts that did end up being printed were parts of a machine that are used by Stanley Black and Decker to manufacture helicoils in a production line in Danbury, Connecticut. These parts were printed at a cost-per-part of 60 USD compared to 120 USD, and delivered in nine days versus nine weeks. Another case saw Maxion Wheels identify parts that were able to maintain greater longevity as printed components compared to traditionally made components.
“It’s hard to identify parts that make sense,” Blaier says, “but once we’ve found a case – Stanley, Maxion, Danfoss – each part is a big saving.”
In the company’s 2021 Additive Manufacturing Trends Report in which the 30,000 parts were analysed, Blaier’s notes in the introduction suggested additive manufacturing is underutilised and far from reaching its potential. At Formnext, he outlined that this is merely an observation. Working to grow the 2% of parts that were printed to the 30% that were potentially suitable does not fall under CASTOR’s remit.
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“We’re not here to convince engineers to use additive manufacturing, that’s the task of Stratasys or HP or SolidWorks, [for example],” he says. “We’re trying to look at an existing design and, as is, tell you whether there is a business opportunity here. Our mission is not to increase this number, but for the DfAM part, those 20% might be suitable for additive, we’re giving more and more tools to engineers to think in additive when they start to design – parts consolidation, weight reduction, things like that. And in that way, we are educating engineers.”
What does fall within CASTOR’s remit, however, is helping manufacturers identify ways they can reduce carbon emissions when producing parts. At Formnext, the company was beginning to discuss its new CO2 calculator capability with visitors.
“Until today, people were looking at costs or lead time or whether injection moulding can be as efficient or not,” Blaier says. “Now, we [have] another parameter [concerning] whether the part has an opportunity to save on emissions. To do that, we’ve created a calculator, which is now in beta mode with a select number of customers and we developed it with our partners in the market. This calculator is a combination of five factors that takes a look at the whole lifecycle of a part from the raw material it’s being made [from] until the end of life when it’s being thrown away.”
In between raw material and the end of life of the part, CASTOR also takes into account the energy used to print a part versus a traditional method of manufacture, the lifespan of the components – aeroplane parts need to last decades, whereas medical parts might only be used once – and the transportation used to ship the parts.
“We highlight those parameters, and the user immediately can go into the calculator and customise it for their needs,” Blaier continues. “We understand that each country has its own measurement method, each company has been evaluating their contribution to carbon saving differently, so it’s a customisable calculator that we do.”
As the additive manufacturing trends towards production – as pointed out by CASTOR in its 2021 AM Trends Report – and as it continues to be adopted in such industries as aerospace, automotive, healthcare and oil and gas, the importance that existing challenges are solved only intensifies. And though CASTOR has positioned itself within a niche, to identify suitable parts for additive manufacturing, there is still plenty of work for it to do. Up next, tackling legacy parts.
“There is a huge effort we’re doing to assess legacy parts that’s using analysis of 2D drawings, PDF drawings, paper drawings that somebody designed on a yellow paper at Boeing [for example] 30 years ago. There is no CAD file, but it is a legacy part. It’s out there, we need to think whether additive can help,” Blaier finishes. “It’s a huge effort we’re putting into it now, there is a different business aspect of us integrating into other software that comes either before or after CASTOR. It means that CASTOR understands that we’re not alone in the software space, there are PLM tools like Siemens Teamcenter where the parts are being saved, where the engineers are communicating to each other, where the engineers are communicating with their suppliers. We want to be there. It means integration, it means [we have] to create collaborations in the industry.”
