Parts On Demand, a 3D printing service provider that specialises in industrial, medical and orthopaedic applications, and AM-Flow, a specialist in end-use workflow automation for AM, have partnered to optimise the identification and sorting of custom series products with minimal deviations and/or unique printed codes.

The partnership is an attempt by AM-Flow and Parts On Demand to produce 3D printed parts in series cost-effectively. The partnership will optimise the automatic recognition of ‘custom series’ production and sorting solutions on the premises of the Parts On Demand’s production facility in Utrecht.

A financial boost from the SME Innovation Stimulus for Regional and Top Sectors (MIT) is allowing the partnership between the companies to take an important step to reduce the cost-per-part in mid to large sized serial production with AM.

Stefan Rink, CEO of AM-Flow, said: “Additive manufacturing is a serious alternative to traditional mass production methods. To produce cost-effectively, the entire digital workflow must be designed optimally, and manual processes must be kept to a minimum. With this collaboration, we will soon be even better able to offer this end-to-end industrialisation.”

AM-Flow and Parts On Demand are also focusing on the automation of the post-production process of 3D printing, as the companies hope to optimise it as a competitive production technology for large ‘custom series’ production.

“Making production fast, local and flexible. That’s what we at Parts On Demand do with industrial 3D printing. As volumes grow and products are more similar, our sorting process becomes more complex and takes up valuable time. The further development of a system to automatically sort and process these types of ‘custom series’ is essential; it makes for a more scalable process. In addition, our colleagues get more time for what they are really good at – improving the products and production of our customers.”

Last year, AM-Flow Chief Commercial Officer Carlos Zwikker came on the TCT's Additive Insight podcast to talk about the demand for additive manufacturing workflow automation.

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