How to improve printing speed and production capacity in industrial applications?

一, Optimising equipment: from upgrading hardware to making it smarter
1. Upgrading the print engine and nozzle in steps
The number and type of nozzles are what really matter when it comes to how well industrial printing equipment works. For example, in UV flatbed printing, changing the nozzle from four-color plus one white to dual four-color plus two white can make the printing speed 2–3 times faster. If you use high-end industrial nozzles like Ricoh Gen6, the printing speed can be several times faster than with traditional Epson nozzles. A certain company that makes vehicle interiors has improved its nozzle array. This has cut the time it takes to print a single piece from 45 minutes to 18 minutes and increased production capacity by 150%.
2. Technology for multi-head collaboration and bidirectional printing
By adding more nozzles to make parallel printing possible and using bidirectional printing mode (which speeds things up by 1 times compared to unidirectional printing), the manufacturing cycle can be cut down by a lot. For instance, a certain 3D printing firm uses multi-laser head SLS technology to make producing metal parts 40% faster. The yield rate has gone up from 82% to 95% by improving the optical path architecture to lower thermal stress.
3. Keeping track of the health of your equipment and doing preventative maintenance
IoT sensors capture real-time data on things like vibration, temperature, current, and more to develop a model for assessing the health of a device. An intelligent monitoring system was put in place at an electronic manufacturing company, and the accuracy of predicting equipment failures went up to 92%. Unplanned downtime went down by 65%, and annual maintenance expenses were cut by more than 2 million yuan.
二, Process Innovation: From Breaking Through Materials to Rebuilding Patterns
1. Working together to improve materials science and printing settings
The qualities of the material have a direct effect on the speed and quality of printing. For instance, employing high-performance composite materials like PEKK or ULTRAM in 3D printing can double the speed and raise the thickness of the printing layer from 0.1mm to 0.2mm while still making sure the mechanical strength is there. By changing the laser power and scanning speed, an aerospace business was able to cut the time it took to print titanium alloy parts from 72 hours to 28 hours. They also raised the material utilisation rate from 18% to 35%.
2. Sketch mode and a plan for printing in layers
In situations that aren't very important, "sketch mode" can cut down on the amount of ink and print resolution by a lot. For instance, a packaging company cut the quality of printing for internal papers from 1200dpi to 600dpi, sped it up by three times, and used 40% less ink. Layered printing technique, like "support structure optimisation" in 3D printing, can cut down on the time needed for post-processing on complicated structures. With this technology, a company that makes medical models has cut the time it takes to clean and cure them from 4 hours to 1.5 hours.
3. Technology for modular design and quick mould changes
When making a lot of different things in small batches, modular design might help speed up the process of fixing equipment. For instance, a certain home appliance manufacturer has used SMED (Quick Mould Change) technology to cut the time it takes to replace 3D printing fixtures from 4 hours to 25 minutes. This has made the manufacturing line switch 89% more efficiently. Also, a certain automobile assembly line has cut the time it takes to install wiper blades from 45 seconds per piece to 28 seconds per piece by using specialised 3D printing fixtures. This has led to a 72% drop in the rate of rework.
三, Reengineering processes: from lean production to working together in the supply chain
1. Analyse the value stream and get rid of the bottlenecks
Find points where materials are stuck and waste links by drawing the current value stream map. For instance, a stamping shop found a pile of semi-finished goods that had been sitting around for more than two hours. The ECRS rule (cancel/merge/rearrange/simplify) was used to change the process, which raised the balance rate on the manufacturing line from 65% to 89% and added 1500 units to the daily output. A certain UV printing plant has cut the time it takes to print a single item from 8 minutes to 3.5 minutes by improving the process of loading, positioning, printing, and unloading.
2. Pull-based production and inventory management
The Kanban system controls the amount of work in progress (WIP) when you use the Just in Time (JIT) mode. A certain 3C product maker has used the dual box method, which sends a signal to restock when the first box of materials runs out. This increases the inventory turnover rate of raw materials from 4 times a year to 24 times a year and makes the operating capital 6 times more efficient. A certain company used an intelligent warehousing system to automatically restock ink cartridges and toner, which cut the out-of-stock rate from 12% to 0.5%.
3. Making the supply chain digital and working together to make predictions
Use a supplier cooperation platform to share production plans so that raw materials may be delivered on time. A worldwide home appliance maker has set up a data interface with its suppliers. This has cut the delivery time from 14 days to 48 hours and cut the losses from downtime caused by material shortages by 90%. Also, a certain food company used big data to look at sales data and correctly predicted changes in market demand. This allowed them to adapt their printing and packaging production plans and avoid having an inventory backlog of more than 30 million yuan.
四, Data-driven: from seeing things happen in real time to making smart decisions
1. SCADA system and seeing how things are made
A SCADA system can be used to collect real-time data on equipment OEE (overall equipment efficiency), hourly output, and other things. Using digital signage, a semiconductor business has raised the use of its equipment from 68% to 85% and cut the number of defects in its products from 1.2% to 0.3%. One printing company changed the printing settings on the fly by keeping an eye on the temperature of the nozzles and the viscosity of the ink. This cut the scrap rate from 5% to 0.8%.
2. Predictive Analysis and Machine Learning
Use past data to train models that can forecast when equipment will break down and when production capacity will be limited. A certain company that makes car parts employed machine learning algorithms to notify them 48 hours in advance about wear on CNC machine tool spindles. This saved them from losing more than 500,000 yuan in unplanned downtime each time. A certain company used an AI vision system to find printing mistakes in quality control for printing. This cut the manual sampling rate from 100% to 10% and made detection 20 times more effective.
3. Virtual debugging and digital twins
You can improve printing paths and settings in a virtual environment by making a digital twin of the equipment. Digital twin technology has helped one company that makes aeroplane engines cut the time it takes to develop turbine blade printing technology from six months to two months. This has saved them 70% on trial and error expenditures. By using simulation, an electronics manufacturer was able to optimise the layout of its production line, cutting the distance materials had to be moved by 40% and raising the balancing rate of the production line by 15%.