"Collaborative Business Models: Additive Production Business Model Modality"

(Area: Collaboration, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Strategy, Technology)

(Reading Material "Advanced Course: Collaboration: Collaborative Business Models and Strategy in the New Era", Hugo Céspedes A.)

Continuing with the series of Collaborative Business Models, this time I talk about the Collaborative Business Models of Additive Production.

We have used printers to make books, newspapers, packaging, and much more. However, now given the technological advances, we have the possibility to apply these new emerging technologies to produce in a different way. This is what this new Production modality known as Additive Production or 3D Printing refers to.

Manufacturing/Additive Production.

Additive Manufacturing, is a new production concept through which the material (plastic or metal) is deposited layer by layer in a controlled manner where it is needed. With this technique, which is commonly known as Industrial 3D Printing, personalized geometric shapes are produced according to the needs of each sector.

Compared to Traditional Manufacturing techniques, this technology reduces intermediate processes such as "the production of tools -utillaje in spanish-" (or various tools that support one or several activities within any type of action in the company), which allows parts to be obtained up to 90%. % faster. What's more, by using only the material to manufacture the part, "no waste is generated", the components "have a lower cost" and "it is produced in a more sustainable way".

3D Printing allows us to convert a digital model into a tangible and three-dimensional object, such as "a piggy bank". How does it work? Let's see this in 3 basic steps:

• Step 1: Start with a virtual design. Some use specialized programs to make an accurate model of what they want to create. This works like a blueprint that the 3D printer will read.
• Step 2: The model is divided into hundreds, even thousands of thin, horizontal layers through a process called "Silicing".
• Step 3: All the layers are sent to the 3D Printer. There are many kinds of 3D printers, but most have a nozzle from which a semi-liquid material, usually plastic, comes out to print each of the layers. The nozzle moves around, printing layer upon layer, following the digital pattern. Depending on the printer and the complexity of the design, this can take anywhere from a few hours to several days.

In this way, we have already printed a 3D object! This is how 3D printing has given engineers, designers and anyone else the ability to create complete objects that could not be made before. Thus, doctors today are using 3D printing to make prostheses, and some companies are using large-scale 3D printing to build buildings and even cars.

As the technology continues to become more accurate, faster and cheaper, its applications will continue to increase.

Aditiva. 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing.

Until the arrival of 3D Printing, there were several techniques to obtain an object: a) Subtraction, b) Flexion, c) Casting, d) Material Molding. These were the most used techniques in the manufacture of objects.

These techniques were effective, but costly and generated material waste.

In 1984 a new technological breakthrough revolutionized the way of modeling materials: Chuck Hull patented stereolithography (-the first commercial technology for rapid prototyping and the STL file format-), the first 3D printing method that allowed solid objects to be produced by successive printing of thin layers of material.

In 1995, two MIT students designed the first 3D Injection Printing model, thus reducing the costs of using stereolithography.

PS: For those who want to learn more about the race to be the first to offer 3D Printing to the 3D Printing technology market, I recommend the documentary film "Print The Legend".

Shown here is the next industrial revolution. is a documentary, where in history format the development of innovation and technology, of controversy and change that 3D Printing means is shown. For the first time in history, the construction of an industry and its inevitable social upheaval is filmed. the result is Print The Legend, a documentary that chronicles the race to bring 3D printing to the forefront of society. It's a compelling look at an industry in the midst of its "Macintosh Moment," recounting the infinite and limitless potential of 3D Printing...as well as the dark possibilities that might lie beneath.

In this way, the Age of Rapid Manufacturing or Additive Manufacturing begins. For Victor Paluzie ávila, (CEO of RMS Rapid Manufacturing Systems) Additive Manufacturing arises from rapid prototyping technologies, which are those technologies that allow shortening the development cycle of a product through iterations that are made on well-functional or formal models. These technologies were reaching greater precision, incorporating highly advanced materials, and some of them wanted to go a step further. They thought in an ideal way how to produce final parts for very demanding industrial sectors.

All of the above has led to the fact that there is now a bit of confusion because there is a series of technologies that, in fact, continue to make prototypes, that try to manufacture final pieces, but their own composition, both in materials and in the type of process as well as the technology they incorporate, do not allow these final pieces to be produced. Therefore, we can say that there are indeed several firms that are entering the industrial sector, with additive technology, Additive Manufacturing (as is the case of Powder Fusion Technologies), which use technology on a bed of powder, melting that powder into through a laser or through an electron beam.

The object is obtained through a 3D Digital Model, as we have mentioned before, a model that can be obtained through design software or using a 3D scanner that allows replicating existing objects. The 3D model is then sent to a special printer, which creates the object by layering layers of bonding material.

One of the first Advantages of 3D Additive Manufacturing: There is no waste of disposable material. However, this is not the only advantage. By obtaining/creating an object from a 3D model, a prototype can be obtained quickly and with minimal production costs. By modifying your digital model, we can quickly adapt the prototype to the specifications required by the client.

PS: Watch the video on Youtube "5 metal 3D Printer Manufacturers To Watch in 2021".

Moldes, Prototipos, Prótesis Médicas, Moda, Joyas, hasta comida e incluso edificios enteros, casi todo parece poder ser elaborado a partir de una Impresora 3D.

We have the case of the EOS company, an organization founded by Dr. Hans J. Langer, which has focused its production process on laser synthesis for 12 years in order to produce direct functional parts for industrial sectors. Currently, this objective is beginning to be achieved, since a series of important clients have been identified, such as General Electric (in the aeronautical sector where component parts for real engines are being produced). Applications for personalized implants have also been identified in the medical sector. And in the dental sector, it is a reality that 5 million pieces a year are currently being produced worldwide with this technology.

In Spain, for example, we can say that it is where the largest fleet of 3D printing machines was being installed compared to the rest of the countries in the world.

Producing larger components, with higher precision and resolution at higher speeds, with increasingly lower costs, with a greater number of applications, is already becoming a reality. For Eduardo Chamorro González-Tablas (technical and commercial director of CESA, a Spanish aeronautical systems company), he shows in an interview "a piece of a latest-generation aircraft" (holding it in one of his hands) for European civil transport, which is a piece that they are creating for planes that have been flying for a year.

Then he shows another piece, which is totally different from the piece he previously showed.

The previous part is an example of a machined part and although it is not so expensive to manufacture it, they want to take a short time to manufacture it (due to competition issues in the market). He argues that, with this new method, what they do is manufacture using less raw material (which is what makes manufacturing more expensive with this new procedure), so this new process allows them to reduce production time and weight. .

PS: Watch the video on Youtube below ("Airbus 3D Printing Technology Transformation Underway")

Here (in the video) Airbus shows how it is at the beginning of an Innovation revolution using 3D Printing technology. The 3D plastic parts are already flying on a commercial A310 and A350 XWB test aircraft. They also show how metal parts for the wing slats, a section of the rear wing and the door hinges have been 3D Printed. In the coming years, the technology will allow manufacturing costs to come down, while lighter parts will mean less fuel consumption for airlines.

I also recommend that you also watch the report on "3D Printing of Human Tissue".

Finally, I recommend you watch this DW report "3D Printing: A Revolution (Documentary)".

3D Printing is shown here (in the video) as promising absolutely new possibilities for a more sustainable and local production. Will 3D Printing improve everything? The documentary shows how Innovation modifies the world of merchandise. Is Product manufacturing on the brink of the next revolution? Where milling, casting and gluing are still used today, 3D Printing will soon replace traditional production and save amounts of material, waste and energy. Airbus is already taking advantage of this new production method. As of 2020, the A350 airliner flies with printed door block springs. Where until now ten pieces had to be installed, today only one is needed. Many production cycles are saved. Bionic principles, which are also found in nature, are applied in the construction. In other words, with the help of 3D Printing procedures, the efficient construction plans of nature can be imitated. With conventional manufacturing methods this was almost impossible. The advantage of the new technique is that the pieces are much lighter and more stable, and it is possible to save materials during their manufacture. But in the Airbus Development Division they are not yet fully satisfied. The printed partition of the A350 cabin is 45% lighter due to its new biometric structure, but it is laborious and expensive to manufacture. 900 hours it takes to print just one brick. A problem that printer manufacturers have not yet been able to solve. This technique is already being used at Adidas as well: The shoe manufacturer is today, according to its own statements, the world's largest manufacturer of 3D-printed components. The next step is to make sustainable materials such as artificial resins from bio-products, which do not require petroleum and re-liquefy without compromising quality and are therefore fully recyclable. This documentary presents the multiple possibilities of applying 3D Printing.

PS: I will go deeper into the topic in my Advanced Collaboration Course.

(PS: For those students of the course, go back to the course and follow the instructions to assimilate the knowledge delivered).

Sources: "Qué es la Impresión 3D y Cómo Funciona", GCFGlobal: AprendeLibre (Youtube); "Impresión 3D y la Fabricación Aditiva", Ministerio de Industria, Energía y Turismo (Youtube); "Tecnología Emergente 2015: Fabricación Distribuida", World Economis Forum; "Chuch Hull", Wikipedia; "Generación Distribuida", Wikipedia; "13 Tecnologías que Marcan un Hito en la Era de la Impresión Láser de Metal", Visual Tech (Youtube); "La Impresión 3D: Una Revolución", DW Documental (Youtube); "Stephen Hawkins: Science of the Future 1 of 6 Virtual World", National Geographics Channel; "5 Metal 3D Printer Manufacturers To Watch in 2021", Leo Tech Flow (Youtube).