Innovating The Future

USE OF MODERN MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES IS NOW OFFERING ADVANTAGES THAT WERE LIMITED EARLIER

- Little Yadav

GROWING COMPETITION IS FORCING companies that produce and consume manufacturing tools to innovate and adapt to the latest technologies as per their changing business needs. Over the years manufacturing companies have started including new generative design capabilities giving rise to new tools to deal with the challenges that they face in different segments. From reducing the overall cost and increasing production to designing new products, competition is pushing companies towards the innovation of new machining tools to deal with these challenges.

Additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing is one such pathbreaking technology that has allowed manufacturers to create design and prototype with a physical printed part at the end of the design cycle. Earlier, these manufacturers typically would have one chance at making the functional part, which was time-consuming and led to a lot of wastage. In the last two decades, additive manufacturing has evolved beyond its earlier laboratory and rapid prototyping contexts and is now becoming common across all stages of manufacturing.

Ramakant Reddy, MD, LMT Tools India, explained that additive manufacturing can be used for making many types of tools. However, it is more useful for making special tools in small batch quantities. It can even be used to make a single tool or to make a prototype before starting mass production. “With the above criterion, manufacturers are making a variety of tools using additive manufacturing. We at LMT Tools have used this technology for manufacturing our Tangential Evoline Thread Rolling system,” he added.