Rapid Manufacturing Using FDM Systems

Abstract

This chapter will explain in detail the use of Stratasys, Inc., fused deposition modeling (FDM) systems in rapid manufacturing or direct digital manufacturing (DDM) to achieve targets of weight reduction, product customization, time to market, and tooling cost reduction, among others.

Most people associate manufacturing with large, expensive, and, often times, polluting, factories. Utilizing FDM to produce components can be carried out in a compact, clean, and cost-effective room and, depending on the machine, typically an office environment.

While mass production of plastic and metal components by injection molding or machining has been the industry standard since around 1868, modern CAD and FEA programs have led to the creation of geometries that are not possible to injection mold or machine. These geometries are appearing more in low-volume, specialized products where tooling costs become prohibitive even with ordinary geometries. This often makes DDM the best choice to meet the desired cost and performance targets of the component.

The FDM technology is also very scalable. If you already have a factory that has a given number of machines and suddenly you need to make twice as many parts per month, you can quickly and even temporarily add machines in order to increase production capacity or do it globally, over a distributed network.