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Today’s environmental and social challenges demand action. As technology experts, we are committed to accelerating the world’s transition to Responsible Manufacturing with industrial 3D printing. This podcast delivers insights into projects, concepts, and ideas on how to make Responsible Manufacturing the new normal. Meet Björn, our Head of Sustainability, and his guests. from customers, suppliers, research institutes, NGOs, and EOS colleagues. Join us on this exciting journey of exploring Responsible Manufacturing!
Hello, and welcome to episode number 7 of Blueprint, our responsible manufacturing video blog of EOS. My name is Björn. I'm heading the sustainability department at EOS, and I'm hosting this show. Today, we're at a very special, location, as you can see here. We're in the Additive Manufacturing experience center of Siemens in Erlangen, in the heart of Germany. We want to discuss how to set up and scale the digital and sustainable production environment. And for that, I'm really happy, to have Jens Hübner with us today. Who is our guest and expert. Jens, welcome. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for hosting us here. Before we start into the topic, may I ask you to please introduce yourself shortly and also your role at Siemens? Bjorn, first of all, very glad to have you here.
Jens:Welcome to our additive manufacturing experience center here in Erlangen, where we believe additive is the future, and we show it to our customers and partners. I've been in the additive industry for now 7 years, and I've seen a transformation from a prototyping industry to now becoming really a production industry. And we believe that now is the right time to also look at sustainability and to drive this, in the direction of sustainability. Yeah.
Björn:Thank you very much, Jens. This is really a wonderful occasion. Looking forward to have a look maybe later on, as well, and we can really see that Siemens takes it seriously here. Can you tell us what role additive plays for Siemens?
Jens:So here at Siemens, we believe additive manufacturing is extremely important. We have 11 technology fields, where we at Siemens strive to be the technology leader, because we believe that those technology fields are of utmost importance for us and our customers to be successful in the future, and additive manufacturing is one of them. So digital production is really at the heart of Siemens.
Björn:Mhmm. So you mentioned digital production, digital manufacturing. Can you tell us why is this at the heart? What is the, where are the benefits for the manufacturers?
Jens:Sure. So we see 5 benefits, really. The first benefit, which is supply chain resilience. So we all heard about the supply chain prices. So localizing production, digitizing your warehouse is one of the key benefits of additive manufacturing. The next one is, why not use our products, longer through repair and not use the products as we used to use them, but also have the ability to use additive manufacturing to somehow tune the products in the repair process. So this is the next big point we see. Another one is performance improvement of the products. So gaining more performance out of your product, being more efficient, saving money, saving energy, being more sustainable. The next one is improving your factories through the use of additive manufacturing, by using jigs, fixtures, tools. And the last one is individualization, getting really to the customer needs, individualize your products, to the customer liking. And underneath all of these key major drivers lays sustainability. And many of these key drivers even enable a sustainable production.
Björn:Okay. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. And also glad to hear that sustainability plays such a big role in in in additive and for Siemens. Can you, elaborate a bit more on that? So why is it important for Siemens?
Jens:Yes. We think there are 2 two ways of looking at it. 1 is enabling a sustainable additive production, so really looking at the production side. The other one is enabling an application that then, later on, pays off in terms of sustainability. So let me give you, two examples to be a little bit more concrete. For example, what I mean by enabling sustainable production through additive manufacturing is We need to look at the machines. We need to under we need to look at the process. We need to look at the process chain, how to make it more efficient, how to make it more energy efficient, for example. We also need to look at the material side. So what are materials that we can, use, and how can we bring down, for example, the carbon footprint of such materials? And then on the application side on the one on the other hand, this means how can we benefit, for example, through lightweighting a part? So lightweighting a part is a really easy exercise for additive manufacturing, and we deliver software with Siemens NX that allows for topology optimization for using lattice structures. This brings down the mass of the part. And then later on the benefits are when this part is moved, you will save energy. For example, if it's in a plane, if it's in a rocket, or if it's in a car. Another example would be performance improvement through, optimizing a part, to get better performance. And we have an really nice example from our dear friends at Siemens Energy that optimize certain parts of a gas turbine. It's really incremental, improvement, but over the a lifetime of such an asset, it really pays off. We're talking about tons of CO2 that we can save with, those minor improvements. Mhmm.
Björn:So it's very interesting. You have a holist seems to have a holistic approach, to that and a lot of benefits in in various ways. Do you have a concrete example, concrete application you can share with us and maybe also quantify the numbers a bit more with?
Jens:Sure. We have. So what we have here is a gripper that can be used in a battery pack assembly line. So, usually, those grippers are made of aluminium, out of steel, or many parts. So they are pretty heavy. I don't know if you have ever lifted such a gripper. I guess not. But if you try to do so, they're really, really heavy, and they are, most of the time, heavier than the payload that they want to try to lift. And we thought, that's a little bit strange. Right? Why not reduce the weight? And we have this technology on our hands through our software solutions to do so. And what we achieved here is by using topology optimization, reducing the weight of such a gripper by over 90%. And this goes hand in hand with a carbon footprint reduction, where we look at cradle to gate, just the production of the gripper, with over 90%. So pretty impressive numbers. And we saved 80% of the parts that are that would be needed for a conventional gripper. So also when assembling such a gripper, you save a lot of time in the assembly of a gripper, and the supply chain becomes a lot easier for the end user. And you're more flexible to adapt to different changes of your production line with such a modular gripper design.
Björn:Those are really impressive, numbers that you just mentioned. Can you tell us a little bit more on how you actually achieved those numbers, those improvements?
Jens:Yes. It all starts by understanding the status quo, as I said. So what is, the application? What does the application need? So here, it's lifting a battery pack or it's lifting a battery cell that goes down in the battery pack. So we have a certain defined payload, and then we looked at the materials that we had a choice, and we, choose a polymer, a PA 12 in that case, to, to, change from a metal to a plastic. I reduce this immediately reduces the carbon footprint of such an application. The next thing is, getting rid of all the material that is not needed. And we do this through topology optimization. We use our NX software, our topology optimization, and simulation of the process to our SimCenter portfolio. Also, we can then simulate the process itself. So what I mean by that is not the production process. We can do that as well, but what I mean here is how the gripper operates then in the production environment when it's mounted to, to a robot. And we can determine what robot class is needed. And by reducing the weight, you can go to smaller robot classes. That means you can save energy. Now you can save also money, of course, by using a smaller robot. And saving money is also a pretty important part because going to such a 3 d printed design, the benefits is not only that we are more sustainable, we are also more cost efficient, to be honest, with this application. So it's a win win situation. So we're saving money, and we're saving energy, and therefore saving carbon footprints.
Björn:I think that's actually the best case, to be more efficient in the production, but also on the carbon footprint side. And you you said you're using PA 12 as a material, and also really happy that we're not only using PA 12, but the PA 12 Carbon reduced, one of our new EOS responsible products with a reduced carbon footprint. Can you tell us why you were one of the first customers using that new, or that new property, of of that material?
Jens:Bjorn, it's really obvious. The, carbon footprint for us and our customers becomes more and more important. So whatever we can do to reduce, the carbon footprint in a sensible way, of course, is some is some measures that we can take. We will take them. And if you have those great products in stock and offer those great products, it's an obvious choice for us to go to the carbon reduced material. Yeah. Perfect. Thanks a lot for, for sharing this. And you said that you re were able to reduce, the carbon footprint.
Björn:That means you were also able to calculate the carbon footprint. Can you tell us a little bit, about how you did this?
Jens:Yes. So when we calculate the carbon footprint, we need to look at the whole production chain. So from, the production processes over the materials that go into the product. We did this for both the conventional gripper to have a baseline, but then also for the 3 d printed gripper to see what our improvements are. And we relied on our software solution called Teamcenter product cost management in alignment with you, and also testing your product, the carbon footprint calculator from EOS, doing a side by side comparison and coming to very similar numbers that which is a good thing. Right? And, we relied on data bank values, and we also relied on real world values that we got from our suppliers and from you to, do the calculation. And we followed, of course, the greenhouse gas protocol standards and ISO standards that are needed to, really be credible when it comes to those numbers. So a real front runner, if I may say, in this area. And also, front runner application for future e mobility, which is also, very important. It's coming already to my, last question, which is, about the future.
Björn:So from your experience, what do you expect in, let's say, 3 years' time from now, and and where do you see the potential for additive and, sustainability, combined? And is there anything that we or the industry needs to do to join forces here?
Jens:Yes. Joining forces is is really important here because, really, this is a team effort, and we cannot do it alone and by ourselves. We need the help of our partners, and our customers to drive this forward. When I look at the in the future, I see one topic becoming more and more important, and this is, like factory and line integration of 3 d printers in a conventional production environment. And we at Siemens, we're really good in, in doing so with conventional manufacturing. And also, we believe we are the right partner to do this, when it comes to additive manufacturing. And, additive manufacturing has taken, really, a journey, and this is the next big leap that we need to take on, and it's a big challenge, I know. But in the end, this will increase productivity. This will increase the efficiency of the AM factory, and in the end, this all comes together and will be a key driver to have a more sustainable production.
Björn:Thank you, Jens. That's fantastic to hear you're working on a more sustainable and more competitive edge also for your customers. So congratulations on that one. And let's keep working together on a more sustainable future. Thanks a lot for hosting us today, and for your expertise, as well, of course. Thank you, Bjorn. And thank you all for, watching us, for listening in. Maybe if you hear us as a as a podcast as well. As always, if you have questions or comments, please just post them. And if you have topics you want to hear, in the future, also, please let us know. And as always, stay responsible.