Additive manufacturing or 3D printing has many potential applications that make sense for the CNC machining job shop — some sophisticated and some very simple. They include making prototypes, shop aids, fixturing and tooling, and end-use production parts. The machines these applications potentially employ range from desktop-size polymer 3D printers to metal additive manufacturing systems comparable to machine tools. It’s a lot, and all these 3D printing applications are advancing. To help job shops explore their possibilities with additive manufacturing, the Elevate Job Shops Series at IMTS includes a half-day workshop on 3D Printing for Job Shops. Learn more and register here.The focus of the 3D printing workshop is independent or smaller machine shops, but metal and polymer AM and large and small 3D printers, as well as hybrid machines, are all part of the program. The topics and speakers include:Jim Snodgrass of Cimquest, a provider of various AM systems, will highlight use cases of smaller CNC machine shops using 3D printing to aid in winning business, delivering jobs quickly and fulfilling orders the shop otherwise would have declined.Innovative 3D Manufacturing is a contract manufacturer that has thrived by developing metal additive manufacturing and CNC machining in parallel. Chris Beck of Innovative 3D Manufacturing will talk about this — specifically, laser powder bed fusion in conjunction with machining for metal part production.Dr. Tony Schmitz of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will explain a fast, cost-effective system for simplifying setup and part location for complex machined parts. It involves temporary references or fiducial objects made on an inexpensive 3D printer.“Hybrid” refers to machine tools capable of both 3D printing and machining in a single cycle. Jason Jones of Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies will discuss AM for small shops, the steps needed after 3D printing to finish parts, and when it makes sense to apply hybrid manufacturing systems to fully automate these steps.One of the most transformative applications of 3D printing for the machine shop is to set machine tools free for production by relying on 3D printing to make tools, including larger tooling produced on larger 3D printers. Gerard Skeberdis of Priint3D will discuss this aspect of machine shop optimization via 3D printing.To join us at the Elevate Workshop on 3D Printing for Job Shops, REGISTER HERE.
