Atlas Copco’s 3D Printing Progress Signals the Potential for EOS’ New Additive Minds Campus

Around 18 months ago, Swedish industrial equipment supplier Atlas Copco brought its additive manufacturing (AM) capabilities in-house with the EOS P 396. EOS’ Additive Minds Academy consulting program, which specializes in workforce development, worked directly with Atlas Copco to help the latter incorporate the mid-size polymer printer into its automotive tooling workflow.

Atlas Copco recently announced that, thus far, the EOS P 396 has enabled a 30 percent decrease in production costs and an astounding 92 percent reduction in lead times — from 6-12 weeks, to just 3-4 days. As for the lower production costs, one major contributing factor is Atlas Copco’s achievement of near-zero material input waste thanks to AM, down from seven percent previously.

Image courtesy of Atlas Copco

In a press release, Jason Edwards, technical manager at Atlas Copco, said, “AM has been transformative for us. We’re winning new contracts across the globe because we can supply directly, at lower cost and with short lead times. In EOS, we have a partner that has supported us throughout our transition, offers us rapid support, and continues to advise us on designing components to achieve the best result with our 3D printer.”

The sales manager at EOS UK, Nathan Rawlings, said, “This project shows how important the trust and collaboration is between all parties if a company is to embark on such a dramatic change to its core manufacturing business. No company should feel that it cannot transition to AM, and EOS helps organizations to make sure it is a success through strong communication, cooperation and a unified team spirit.”

Image courtesy of Atlas Copco

Many more organizations will now have the ability to tap into Additive Minds’ expertise, thanks to the opening of the Additive Minds Academy Center at EOS North America’s headquarters. I recently had the opportunity to visit the facility’s grand opening, and the plans for the site illustrate just how rapidly distributed manufacturing may advance in the years ahead.

Located in an unassuming office park in Novi, Michigan, a tranquil suburb of Detroit, the new physical campus embodies the contrast between industrialization’s future and its past. Stepping inside the space — about the size of an auto garage but evoking the immaculate impression of a research lab — you might not even know you were in a manufacturing facility, if you didn’t have any prior information.

Thanks to a few subtle yet crucial advantages over the previous way of doing things, the physical campus makes the benefits that Atlas Copco has already seen in a short time accessible to a much wider audience. Above all, it is simply far more cost effective for enterprises to send their employees to Novi for a few days of training, than it is for those companies to fly in an EOS team.

Moreover, EOS has greatly improved the standardization and deployability of its workforce development processes by essentially embedding a set of curricula into a physical space. If this initial North American facility is a success, EOS can subsequently multiply those gains by targeting new territories for Additive Minds expansion.

Meanwhile, the company also recently announced that ASTM International has expanded its PBF-LB Machine Operator Certification program to include the EOS M 400/ EOS M 400-4, following the success of the pilot program surrounding the M 290.

There are countless reasons why EOS can be expected to continue to dominate the AM market as the industry transitions into its next phase. Chief among those reasons, though, may be that the company has figured out how to make workforce development profitable.

Featured image courtesy of EOS