Innovation in Action
University of Michigan Team makes the case for 3D printing in Manufacturing.
An intern team from the University of Michigan Tauber Institute for Global Operations just finished presenting a case for expanding Whirlpool Corporation’s use of 3D printing at a meeting of manufacturing leaders from each of Whirlpool’s global regions. The team is actively working with Whirlpool’s Global Advanced Manufacturing Engineering department to spread technology innovation throughout Whirlpool’s plants.
“We’ve investigated how 3D printing can be leveraged inside Whirlpool manufacturing plants to produce the tools at the end of robotic arms and how different manufacturing aids across the plant, like fixtures or jigs, can often be more cost effective to print rather than producing them with the traditional machining method,” said Mike London, a University of Michigan MBA candidate on the intern team. London just finished his first year of business school after serving in the Marine Corps for nine years and receiving his undergraduate degree in systems engineering from the Naval Academy.
London is partnered with Justin Lee, who just finished his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan and will start his master’s degree in systems engineering and design in the fall.
“One of the advantages of 3D printing is lead time,” said Lee. “You’re able to iterate one part over the course of a single day instead of a machine shop turning it around in two weeks, and you’re able to create geometries that would either be prohibitively expensive to do conventionally or that are simply not possible.”
The U-M team proved these advantages with a pilot experiment (shown above) by printing two pairs of robotic gripper end-effectors and testing them in an industrial robot assembly cell at the Greenville Plant. Following successful operations of the cell on the day of the experiment, the 3D printed parts will continue in production to demonstrate the wear performance of the grippers over time.
Advanced Manufacturing Principal Engineer Michael Cukier, who is overseeing the work done by the pair, pointed out that there is a different strength-to-weight ratio between parts printed on most desktop 3D printers and the parts they are creating with a special printer leased just for this project.
“Normally, you fabricate parts in a plant’s tool room,” he said. “The material that these students are working with is high strength, so instead of just making plastic prototypes that the machine shop will replicate in aluminum, we’re making the final pieces that will be used on the production line.”
Cukier said that the printer being tested this summer at the Research & Engineering Building produces parts that are reinforced with carbon fiber, making them tougher, longer lasting, and more effective. Cost for using this technology is also a factor. For example, to 3D print a component of a robot end effector might cost 20% of the conventional fabrication costs. It could be reduced by another 50% if you are able to 3D print the part in-house.
Efficiency can be improved as well, according to Cukier. “Our tool rooms are set up to do tool and die work 24/7,” he said. “If we have engineers approaching them to create end-effectors, jigs, and fixtures, we’re stealing them away from their core tasks. Printing those parts rather than having them fabricated will relieve a little bit of pressure on that group.”
According to the student team, other manufacturers — Boeing, Volkswagen, Ford, John Deere, Caterpillar, Jabil — are currently using additive manufacturing technology for tooling, parts, and prototyping. The end product of the students’ project is a decision support tool that helps engineers determine if 3D printing would be a better solution on a case-by-case basis with future robot end-effector and manufacturing aid projects. Their project will finish Aug. 10 with a proposal of next steps for 3D printing expansion across Whirlpool’s manufacturing operations.
