Technologie: Additive Manufacturing

Manufacturing is leaving Earth: what was once science fiction is becoming a strategic field for the future. Falling launch costs and new space industry players are enabling production and services under conditions that are impossible on Earth—from in-orbit maintenance to novel manufacturing processes in microgravity. This issue highlights opportunities, business models, and technological hurdles on the path to value chains in space.

Weightless production—just science fiction or already reality? Thanks to new space technologies, the first production processes are now emerging in space that enable materials and structures to be created that are virtually impossible to manufacture on Earth. From ultra-pure fibers to 3D printing of organs, weightlessness is opening up completely new perspectives for industries—and bringing space manufacturing closer to the present than many people think.

Due to its weightlessness, space offers enormous opportunities for production. The unique conditions of microgravity, for example, can simplify the development of organs and tissues from the body's own stem cells, allowing therapies to be developed in a more targeted manner. Even though many independent initiatives are currently emerging to explore this and other potential applications, their success is not a foregone conclusion.

Digital twins connect physical and digital systems, furthering efficiency, enabling predictive maintenance, and allowing the production of more customized products. Despite these advantages, challenges such as high costs, data synchronization, and security risks hinder widespread adoption. This article explores the potential of digital twins and examines key barriers to integration and implementation, also considering some industrial applications including additive manufacturing as a relevant use case.

Due to the higher customization of products to customer groups and needs, body-in-white manufacturing industries are facing higher variant assembly at the later stages of the production line, thus increasing production costs per unit. Flexible production processes that involve flexible material flows, non-rigid manufacturing sequences, and the automatic reconfiguration of tools are regarded as the pillars of a resilient production system. This article presents a conceptual solution for flexible Body-in-White sheet metal production with autonomous collaborative robotic systems to make product costs affordable for a higher competitive advantage.

Spare parts for older products are often difficult to obtain or cannot be produced in an economically viable way using conventional manufacturing techniques. This article examines whether damping elements for gearbox bearings (in/for the automotive sector) can be manufactured from thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) with the same or compatible properties as the original part alternatively using additive manufacturing.

In additive manufacturing – which is also known as 3D printing – plastic waste is produced, for example in the form of required support structures or faulty prints. One option for resource recirculation in additive manufacturing is direct use in a pellet 3D printer that incorporates fused granulate fabrication (FGF). The elimination of the filament production process step reduces the manufacturing time and the energy required for recirculation.

Finger fractures are usually still casted with plaster bandages. However, to avoid acampsia of the finger joints, flexibility exercises are necessary. Further disadvantages of the rigid plaster bandages are insufficient breathability and water resistance, weightiness and the necessity to apply wet and pliable plaster bandages to the injured patient. This article describes how individually designed hand orthoses without these disadvantages are attainable. With scans, modern software like STL editors (STL: Standard Tessellation Language) or CAD systems (CAD: Computer Aided Design) and additive manufacturing, complex, light weight and breathable structures are possible. Contrary to the solely mechanical art of casting with plaster, the new approach requires expertise in data processing and additive manufacturing seldom found in medical facilities. But this opens opportunities for service providers.