Challenges Of Production Planning And Control For Powder Bed Fusion Of Metal With Laser Beam: A Perspective From The Industry

Due to technological advance, the Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology Powder Bed Fusion of Metal with Laser Beam (PBF-LB/M) is in widespread industrial use. PBF-LB/M offers the flexibility to generate different geometries in one build job independent of tools. Therefore, exploiting tool-dependent economies of scale is not required for efficient manufacturing of various complex geometries in small quantities. However, PBF LB/M production lines are capital intensive and include post-processing steps. Thus, high utilization and low work in process must be ensured to minimize costs, but reaching high utilization contradicts minimizing work in process and throughput time. In production planning and control (PPC), the trade-off between those production logistics key performance indicators (KPIs) is optimized. The advantage of flexibility to manufacture various geometries in one build job of PBF-LB/M comes with challenges for PPC. In this work, those challenges are analysed to derive implications for improvement, based on interviews with experts from the industry. Results show a need for PBF LB/M specific PPC. The need is higher the greater the technological control of PBF LB/M and the volume of a product program of a company are. Unlike for Conventional Manufacturing (CM), nesting and scheduling cannot be addressed separately in PPC for PBF LB/M. Thus, the optimization of production logistics KPIs is more complex due to more degrees of freedom. Combined with a typically shorter planning horizon for AM, this requires automated optimization software tools for combined nesting and scheduling. Currently, PPC that considers AM characteristics does not address CM steps in the post-process adequately, even though they cause a large proportion of effort and time. Furthermore, high automatization parallel to heterogenous manual tasks require a low number of workers with training in various skills

Development of a Comparative Assessment Method For Additive and Conventional Manufacturing With Regard to Global Warming Potential

Additive Manufacturing (AM) opens new possibilities for producing complex parts while achieving high material efficiency. Besides the technological advantages, AM is considered a key technology for sustainable production. A widely used approach to measure the sustainability of a product is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) by using the impact category of the Global Warming Potential (GWP). The setup of LCA is complex and requires a deep understanding of the process. LCAs carried out so far for AM mainly focused on energy consumption and the printing process itself. GWP caused by other up and downstream manufacturing steps, such as material preparation, has received little attention so far. This requires more comprehensive LCAs, increasing the complexity and effort. Therefore, the GWP is often not considered when deciding whether to use AM or Conventional Manufacturing (CM) for producing a part in the industry. This work presents a simplified method (GWP-method) for comparing AM and CM regarding the GWP by identifying so-called hotspots (the most significant production steps in terms of GWP). Based on the identified hotspots, the assessment scope was narrowed down, and an Assessment Equation (GWPAE) was developed. The GWPAE can then be used for the analysis of produced GWP for other product families and production scenarios for the defined process route. The method is demonstrated for an aerospace part as a case study. Finally, the deviation of the derived GWPAE is checked by directly comparing the results of the GWP of an LCA for another production scenario and lies at 5,9%

Quantified Approach for Evaluation of Geometry Visibility of Optical-Based Process Monitoring System for Laser Powder Bed Fusion

The long-term sustainability of the Additive Manufacturing (AM) industry not only depends on the ability to produce parts with reproducible quality and properties to a large extent but also on the standardization of the production processes. In that regard, online process monitoring and detection of defective parts during production become inevitable. Optical-based process monitoring techniques are popular; however, most work has been mainly focused on capturing images of print abnormalities without taking other influencing factors, such as camera and part position, chamber illumination, and print geometry on the resolution of the captured images, into account. In this work, we present a scenario to evaluate and quantify the performance of an optical-based monitoring system in a Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) machine using the F1 score, considering factors such as scan vector orientation, part geometry (size) and position in a built chamber with a fixed camera position. The quantified results confirm that the F1 score can be used as a reliable means of evaluating the performance of optical-based monitoring systems in the LPBF process for the purposes of standardization. The biggest line width of the test artifact (1000 µm) had the highest F1 score range of 0.714–0.876 compared to the smallest (200 µm) with a 0.158–0.649 F1 score

Modeling MyD88 Deficiency In Vitro Provides New Insights in Its Function

Inherited defects in MyD88 and IRAK4, two regulators in Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling, are clinically highly relevant, but still incompletely understood. MyD88- and IRAK4-deficient patients are exceedingly susceptible to a narrow spectrum of pathogens, with ∼50% lethality in the first years of life. To better understand the underlying molecular and cellular characteristics that determine disease progression, we aimed at modeling the cellular response to pathogens in vitro. To this end, we determined the immunophenotype of monocytes and macrophages derived from MyD88- and IRAK4-deficient patients. We recognized that macrophages derived from both patients were particularly poorly activated by streptococci, indicating that both signaling intermediates are essential for the immune response to facultative pathogens. To characterize this defect in more detail, we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) of fibroblasts derived from an MyD88-deficient patient. The underlying genetic defect was corrected using Sleeping Beauty transposon vectors encoding either the long (L) or the short (S) MYD88 isoform, respectively. Macrophages derived from these iPSC lines (iMacs) expressed typical macrophage markers, stably produced either MyD88 isoform, and showed robust phagocytic activity. Notably, iMacs expressing MyD88-L, but not MyD88-S, exhibited similar responses to external stimuli, including cytokine release patterns, as compared to genetically normal iMacs. Thus, the two MyD88 isoforms assume distinct functions in signaling. In conclusion, iPSC technology, in combination with efficient myeloid differentiation protocols, provides a valuable and inexhaustible source of macrophages, which can be used for disease modeling. Moreover, iPSC-derived macrophages may eventually aid in stabilizing MyD88-deficient patients during pyogenic infections