Are we #fAMily? Do we support each other enough to grow collectively?

The mentality of a family that sticks together, manages all daily problems, but also benefits from individual successes is something very wonderful and special.

Why don't we do that also in daily business? Especially the Additive Manufacturing community, also called #fAMily, is very well connected throughout lots of platforms, networks and events.

But as you dig deeper, still a lot of protectionism comes to the surface.

Road to openness in Additive Manufacturing

I am impressed by some AM system OEMs like SLM Solutions with CEO Sam O'Leary or Freemelt that live and push the way of open architecture.?

I think this is the only way to leverage Additive Manufacturing as a whole to a higher industrial level. If we would combine alle the indivdual strengths and experiences as well as reduce inefficiencies through multiple developments, the whole AM market including the end users would profit from it:

• First-time-right additive manufacturing
• Cost reductions
• More industrial applications with functional optimized parts
• Higher productivity and part output with already available hardware
• Decentralized warehouses to reduce supply chain issues
• …

At Rosswag Engineering, my vision towards the opennes started in 2017 with our material qualification strategy. Now, we share all the non IP-protected materials we qualified for LPBF on our website with datasheets, so everybody can have a look at "printable" materials and the corresponding properties. Also, we share a lot of insights into our material qualification framework and application developments.

Solution approach by the AddiMap platform

But the biggest value, I want to see added especially to the Metal AM community, is to be found in the AddiMap project I try to push forward by heart. Think about the endless possibilties, if only a small portion of the already available data points would be accessible in an open digital platform:

• Is the superalloy Waspaloy? already qualified for LPBF and what are the mechanical properties to expect?
• What process parameter sets can I use to increase the productivity of 316L by more than 100 % on my SLM? 280 and still obtain a material density of more than 99.9 %?
• What are the the bending properties to expect, if I use AlSi10Mg, AlMgty90 or Scalmalloy? on my EOS M290 on a thin-walled component?
• What is the fatigue strength of TiAl6V4 produced on my Trumpf TruPrint 3000 under alternating load conditions?
• How do I need to sieve my IN718 powder to obtain a better surface quality in combination with optimized downskin parameters?
• What is a sufficient heat treatment to get the the best surface hardness with my maraging steel on a big injection mould application?
• …

Of course, there are a lot of companies and research institutes, that can answer these questions after conducting a broad parameter and material study. But is this efficient? Certainly not, if there is already anybody that has the data and is willing to sell it.

This delivers an additional business model and an independent revenue stream for the AM community, especially for currently "unproductive data", that is just stored on your servers waiting for any new customer may be coming within the next 5 years for this special purpose.

And if you can reduce the production time of a 8 day build job to 4 days with same quality just by importing an optimized parameter set, why would you not buy it and save money?

I hope the initial start with the AddiMap Marketplace will just be the beginning of something big - there is so much in our minds to that can settle up on the platform approach of AddiMap. Let's industrialize and democratize Additive Manufacturing together as a #fAMily!

Get in touch with us, if you want to contribute anything to the platform setup or test the initial functionality until the platform launch at Formnext this year. Every feedback and contribution is highly appreciated!