sls: Design for AM Consultancy

Advanced SLS offers consulting to individuals or teams of designers on the potential of SLS to produce purposeful objects through a combination of Design for AM for value and dynamic performance. The versatility, durability and quality of SLS lends itself to all fields of design and manufacture.  

Advanced SLS can provide consulting to manufacturers who are considering adopting polymer based Additive Manufacturing.  Whether through outsourcing or investing in the techology itself, it is critical to understand design for AM to extract the most value from the technology.  We are also available to identify traditionally manufactured components as candidates for high value transition to Additive Manufacturing through SLS.

Advanced SLS understands ideas and thrives on consulting with Artists and Craftspeople to achieve their intentions with the application of 3D printing.  We have worked with a number of renowned practitioners helping them to quietly, yet powerfully apply 3D printing to their practice.

Additive Manufacturing can be a complex world to navigate and selecting the appropriate starting point from which to embark on a project is vital.  At the outset, multiple 3D printing technologies might appear to offer the way forward to production but it is important to look beyond the initial stage and understand the steps that will be encountered further down the path to production.  Of the established AM technologies, SLS currently accounts for the majority of production projects and Advanced SLS can provide independent consulting and act as a reliable guide.

The statement that Additive Manufacturing “only applies to high value manufacturing“ is often heard.  This is commonly misunderstood to mean that it is only relevant to manufacturers making expensive things.  High value simply means making valuable products at least expense.  This can be achieved with SLS when you understand how to apply Design for AM  for value and dynamic performance.  Advanced SLS offers consulting to impart this design expertise in order to produce highest value objects.

All designers need to start any project with an idea of the object’s ultimate value.  Understanding what drives the cost of SLS production allows individuals to begin their Design for AM with a clear sense of what it will cost to make their objects and achieve a significant enough margin to make Additive Manufacturing using SLS worthwhile.  Once complete, these designs can then be further optimised for production which will achieve an even better return on  their effort.

Over recent years there has been much talk of the urgent need for manufacturers to “Adopt Additive Manufacturing.”  This is often misinterpreted as the need for manufacturers to purchase AM hardware.  A tiny proportion of the designers and manufacturers that Jonathan Rowley has provided consulting for have purchased SLS systems, however they have all successfully adopted AM.  Adoption simply means using it as a part of your process.  There are thousands of SME manufacturers who could be valuably adopting SLS for the production of modest, yet significantly valuable objects.

Many manufacturers have begun to explore the way in which they make things and review some of the components with the hope of transferring these to Additive Manufacturing.  They often select what they consider will be their ideal component candidate parts, only to discover that for a variety of reasons they are not suitable for AM whether this be cost, performance or rate of production.  When confronted with this scenario, SLS is sometimes written off, when in actual fact, they are surrounded by seemingly innocuous application objects that could be transformed through AM.  Advanced SLS offers consulting in the selection of initial candidate parts that can have an almost immediate commercial impact.  These “easy win” solutions have a powerful effect in terms of cementing faith in the potential of the technology.  The understanding gained also stimulates designers to find similar and further applications for themselves.

Advanced SLS has connections throughout the AM industry ranging from specialist SLS DfAM designers, SLS providers, hardware manufacturers, research and development partners, Academia and AM investors.  Advanced SLS consulting can assist your Additive Manufacturing project with SLS from conception, all the way to market.  We are also available to join design consortia funding applications where Additive Manufacturing forms any part of the bid.