How BMW and EOS will Bring Automation to the Next Level by 3YOURMIND

3D printing will be an integral part of Industry 4.0, but the fact is that most additive manufacturing shop floors are still full of manual processes from order intake (telephone and email)to scheduling (excel) and managing quality assurance information (paper travelers).

Over the past five years, 3YOURMIND has worked with 3D printing services and AM departments at leading manufacturers on their workflow automation. The companies that automate their AM Value Chain usually experience a decrease between 60-80% in time spent managing projects. These automation steps are especially important for repeat orders, digital inventories, and users with little practical AM experience.

The POLYLINE project brings together 15 industry and research partners from Germany to establish a landmark automated factory for additive manufacturing (AM). The 3YOURMIND Agile Manufacturing Suite will be the software layer that connects and manages the entire AM workflow. The goal of the project is to completely automate an AM production line for automotive parts from BMW – from CAD model to 3D printing and including quality assurance. Using the example of POLYLINE, Stephan Kühr will present how typical additive manufacturing workflows can add automation, both in service bureaus and large companies. This will include streamlining communication, optimizing repeat ordering and using digital scheduling to reduce the potential for error and track parts for quality assurance.

Presenter: Stephan Kühr, CEO of 3YOURMIND