Why David Irving Calls 3D Metal Printing A ‘Disruptive Technology’ For N.B. Manufacturing
SAINT JOHN — It’s one of the most disruptive technologies to ever hit manufacturing. The biggest firms in the world are all scrambling to utilize it, and the technology to implement it has been quietly sitting in a Saint John shop for a year.
Additive Manufacturing, or 3D metal printing, will eventually transform the manufacturing industry. It’s why the Marine Additive Manufacturing Centre For Excellence (MAMCE) was established in Saint John last year.
The organization is a partnership between government, academia, and the business community that aims to support commercialization and research activities for metal 3D printing.
But Ed Cyr, MAMCE’s Director of Programs and Innovation, says most New Brunswick businesses are unfamiliar with the technology.
Cyr hopes to change that with a new competition that will challenge New Brunswick businesses to find innovative and creative ways to use the technology.
The Additive Manufacturing Innovation Challenge, a partnership between MAMCE and Economic Development Greater Saint John (EDGSJ), with funding from ACOA, will provide as much as $25,000 to six companies who can demonstrate how 3D metal printing will make them more competitive.
As Cyr explains, the potential competitive advantages of the technology are staggering.
He says 3D metal printing (also called additive manufacturing) has potential orders of magnitude beyond the small-scale, plastic 3D printing that first hit consumer markets a decade ago.
“For the last 10 years, 3D printing has all been mostly consumer 3D printing and plastic 3D printing. That’s what everyone thinks of when they think 3D printing. They don’t understand that this is basically like a foundry in a box,” Cyr says.
“You’re creating metallic parts with the same qualities, or better qualities, than traditional manufacturing methods at a fraction of the cost and at a fraction of the lead time,” he adds.
Unlike traditional metal manufacturing, which creates parts by carving or casting them out of hunks of metal, additive manufacturing builds them from the ground up.
The precision of the technology means far less waste and its versatility allows you to completely change what you build from part to part.
This, Cyr says, could allow firms to rethink the size of their inventories, frees them from relying on far-flung suppliers, and can dramatically cut lead times for newly created parts.
MAMCE’s 3D metal printing machine can create a part as large as a basketball out of high-strength or stainless steel. Through its partners, the organization has access to a host of other alloys and the capability to create parts three times as large.
Cyr says major manufacturing centers have already recognized the potential of the technology. New Brunswick businesses compete on the global stage, so they need to follow suit or risk getting left behind.
“Soon you’re going to be competing against shops that have 3D printing capabilities, and if they can quote at a lower cost and a faster turnaround time you can’t compete with you’re going to lose business,” Cyr says.
The province’s biggest global business player, J.D. Irving Limited (JDI), has already recognized that.
JDI company CFM Services invested in the technology early and is a major partner of MAMCE. David Irving, an EDGSJ board member and general manager of the equipment division at JDI, says he’s seen competitors start to adopt additive manufacturing already.
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In the shipping industry, for example, large firms are putting 3D metal printers on ships to give them the ability to print critical replacement parts from the middle of the ocean.
That means they no longer have to waste space carrying a large inventory of spare parts or spend weeks sitting in dry dock waiting on repairs.
“They’ll get the data file, plug in a USB to the printer, print out the part that they need, and off they’ll go, they don’t miss a beat,” Irving says.
“We’re not talking about incremental change with this technology, we’re talking about step-change improvement. This is why we call it a disruptive technology.”
As disruptive as it is, Irving says adaptive manufacturing does bring with it the possibiltiy of new jobs in the region.
Enough 3D printing capability in New Brunswick, Irving says, could create a whole new supply chain “which is incremental above and beyond the existing businesses that we have. That’s more jobs, that’s more opportunities for growth in the area.”
In order to get there, however, New Brunswick businesses need to get more comfortable with the technology.
Irving says many know very little about the technology, and those who do likely think it’s far more expensive and experimental than it actually is.
He hopes the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Challenge will light a fire and get local industry thinking about how to incorporate it into their own operations.
“We want to get people talking about it and thinking about it because to me that’s the biggest hurdle right now. The technology exists, it’s affordable, it’s locally available, it’s just the level of awareness is not there,” he says.
More information about the challenge, including how to apply and what an application should include, is available on the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Challenge website.