In Paris, 2016, employees from different sites around the world gather to establish a roadmap for an emerging technology.
The European Horizon 2020 R&D project has allowed this global company to make a start with additive manufacturing (AM) and senior figures are surveying their bills of materials (BOM) for several candidate applications. With an oversight of the raw materials and components needed for each product, they, with the support of external institutes, are looking for parts that would be easy enough to produce with AM while also enabling greater performance at acceptable costs and lead times.
This is standard protocol, but, on this occasion, it’s almost futile. As Uwe Jurdeczka, Master Expert AM at Alstom, tells TCT ten years on, “We tried BOM screening but found real use cases appear when there is a real need.”
The designated Alstom AM committee took a considered approach to identifying applications, with Lorenzo Gasparoni, Senior Expert in 3D Printing & Program Manager AM at Alstom, noting the immediate focus was on rapid prototyping and jigs and fixtures; typically known as the ‘low-hanging fruit’ but in this discussion referred to as ‘the quick and dirty accelerator’ applications that ‘help to democratise AM in multiple sites.’ Such applications are usually considered thus because of their simplicity and low-cost, but the needs of the business would alter Alstom’s perception. With the integration of a tool that could enable lead time reduction, cost savings and performance enhancements, engineers wanted to waste no time in deploying AM.
“Every time there’s a pain point, it becomes an opportunity for 3D printing to shine,” Stephane Goulet, Senior Expert Additive Manufacturing at Alstom, says.
