Of the several disruptive technologies that have emerged over the last few years or are just starting to emerge, additive manufacturing may have the potential to be the most disruptive. “Additive manufacturing” refers to manufacturing by “printing” things in thin layers. Here’s an example from India:
t is hard to imagine, with its iconography of billowing smoke and raging furnaces, that a factory would ever be called “brilliant” or “flexible.” But, global behemoth General Electric wants to change the way you think about those far away, smoke-belching buildings and introduce you to a new era—maybe even a revolution—in manufacturing.
In 2015, GE unveiled its first ever US $200 million “Multi-Modal” facility in Chakan, located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, which it thinks will be the agent of this change. It was inaugurated by Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister who is confronted by the huge challenge of delivering jobs to hundreds of millions of youth who lack measurable skills. The factory won’t be solving that gargantuan problem since it staffs a mere 1,500 technicians and engineers, but it’s not meant to, at least not in a direct way. Instead, the factory promises to create an enormous, positive ripple effect both inside and outside India that will impact employment and supply chains, as well as promote radical new designs and industrial innovation like never before.
The factory in Chakan reveals the plan at work. Steam turbines compete for space with water treatment units and jet engine parts in neat rows on a spotless, ultra-modern factory floor.
“The idea is to service a multitude of businesses—from oil and gas, to aviation, transportation, and distributed power—all under the same roof,” said GE’s Amit Kumar, who oversees the Multi-Modal facility.
This could be transformational for GE for several reasons. For starters, the company will save an enormous amount of money—up to ten times as much, say company officials—by not having to construct dedicated factories servicing each business line. Since technicians will be churning out an array of diverse products for different businesses, they will quickly acquire skills across industries and operations, enhancing the value of the jobs and their individual skill sets.
There’s one other pivotal contribution from this Multi-Modal facility—economies of scale. Kumar said that GE contracts a large number of small suppliers who will struggle to meet the demands of such a large factory. Instead, the factory itself will assist in meeting burgeoning demand for certain products until local suppliers scale up their operations over time.
There’s lots of good news here, not the least being that we’re less vulnerable to such technologies. The countries that are much more vulnerable include China and Vietnam. What’s cheaper than a labor cost of $4 an hour per worker? How about zero?
Note, too, what Indian pursuit of additive manufacturing tells us about the country’s plans for the future. Could it be that India plans to skip the “dark, Satanic Mills” phase of its economic development entirely?
But the disruption doesn’t stop with reducing the number of workers needed or the skills that those workers will need. The very way in which things are designed may change:
The undisputed poster child of its efforts in this department is the fuel nozzle.
The fuel nozzle may not have an impressive sounding name, but it plays a critical role in the inferno of an aircraft’s engine in which it nestles while spraying jet fuel into it. So, it goes without saying that the nozzle has to be durable under both high pressure and intense heat (around 3,000 Fahrenheit).
“Before GE targeted it for a reconfiguration, the nozzle was made up of 20 disparate parts procured from independent suppliers that were then painstakingly brazed and welded together. 3D printing completely transformed that process,” said Greg Morris, GE Aviation’s general manager for additive technologies.
[…]
The end result is an engineering marvel, one monolithic piece that has replicated the complex interior passageways and chambers of the old nozzle down to every twist and turn thanks to the miracle of direct metal laser melting where fine alloy powder is sprayed onto a platform in a printer and then heated by a laser, and repeated 3,000 times until the part is formed. What makes the new nozzle so special isn’t just that it has converted a many-steps engineering and manufacturing process into just one. It is also a miracle of material science since it happens to be both 25% lighter in weight, as well as a staggering five times more durable than its older sibling, all of which translates to a savings of around US $3 million per aircraft, per year for any airline flying a plane equipped with GE’s next generation LEAP engine, developed by CFM International, a joint venture between GE and France’s Snecma (Safran).
Not only is that a great increase in strength, it’s a tremendous difference in the amount of material used in the process. Yesterday’s mechanical and production engineers couldn’t even imagine this style of design.
Note, too, what Indian pursuit of additive manufacturing tells us about the country’s plans for the future. Could it be that India plans to skip the “dark, Satanic Mills†phase of its economic development entirely?
Skip that phase and leave all their poor people in the poor house for the foreseeable future, I imagine. They’re going to skip having a sizable middle-/working-class entirely. Much more humane than what the US rulers are doing.
A partner and I have been looking for a seed operation 3-D printer for some time to be a platform. Tough sledding. GE essentially bought up the market over the past few years. Prices are over 30x earnings, so it’s essentially all equity financing. Out of our league. Not complaining; it’s just a fact. We are looking for a traditional shop that can be converted. But tooling centers still go for $2-$5mm a copy.
The metal (and plastics) deposition technology is really just a refinement of welding, where metal is “spit” across the electric arc, or in this case a laser. The real action has been the underlying software. In any event, it facilitates composite-like structures in complex shapes that are stronger per unit weight (hence lighter) and, as one piece structures, less prone to fatigue failure. You can even layer coat for barrier property purposes. Great stuff. I wouldn’t be as gushing as the stars-in-his-eyes article author, but this is truly cool stuff.
Not to piss on it at all, it’s still very expensive so the parts that are candidates for the technology are niche high performance parts. Think aircraft, especially engines, or the power generation turbines mentioned in the article. Think oil and gas (ew, icky). Think automotive or rail engine. (You can see why GE bought up the market.) As cost curves come down additional applications will become economical.
Sort of the buried lead is the fact that prototypes can be made so quickly. Don’t underestimate the ability and value of going from print to part to revised print to revised part in a week rather than months. As far as multimodal factories, it’s a bit of a side show. Traditional machine shops serve multiple industries and parts today.
There has always been a lot of discussion about trades education vs more advanced here. I guarantee you the metallurgists, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers etc behind this are wildly overrepresented by my ilk, MS and PH.D., than tradesman. And the operators won’t primarily be great with a monkey wrench. You need all kinds in today’s economy, but more and more highly trained.
Sort of the buried lead is the fact that prototypes can be made so quickly. Don’t underestimate the ability and value of going from print to part to revised print to revised part in a week rather than months. As far as multimodal factories, it’s a bit of a side show. Traditional machine shops serve multiple industries and parts today.
I thought of this. R&D could be greatly accelerated in certain fields. Imagine what they could have done at Muroc/Edwards with this kind of tech back in the day!