Published on 01/06/2020

Tomasz Palka, Production Director at the solids facility in Warsaw, faced a major emergency at the beginning of 2019 when a vital machine part of the packaging line at the site broke down. 

Fixing the faulty part in the traditional way, the manufacturer told him, would take at least four weeks – if not longer. Faced with serious production downtime, inflated costs and the risk of failing to meet high customer demand, Tomasz Palka came up with the idea to tackle the problem with a 3D-printed replacement.

The thought came almost naturally to him. An engineer with a master’s degree in mechatronics, the 35-year-old had also specialized in 3D printing and 3D prototyping during his studies. He knew that the latest achievements in the field could help him get out of the impasse.

“When I talked to the 3D printing supplier after the breakdown of the machine part, I compared their offer with the one from a traditional supplier. The choice was obvious: 3D printing offered a three-day lead time and potential savings of 70 percent,” Tomasz said.

The promise of 3D printing

3D printing has been around for many years and is considered a major breakthrough technology, with investors hoping that industries across the board would adapt this emerging production standard.

The advantages are manifold. With the help of the technology, prototyping and custom-made production of unique parts can be executed much more cost-effectively and virtually in real time compared to traditional methods. 

This is especially obvious in tool-making: To date, machine parts are manufactured using so-called computerized numerical control, or CNC, in which layers of material are removed from the workpiece to obtain the desired form and shape. 

In contrast, 3D printing is an additive process in which the material – often plastic, metal, or composite material – is gradually layered to obtain the desired form. The latest technology, called multi-jet fusion, is even better. Instead of printing layers of material, it prints one piece of fused powder, which makes the final part homogenous. And the hardness of the printed part is comparable to parts produced by injection. 

A key advantage of 3D printing is not only its ability to help reduce production time from several weeks to just a few days and cut costs substantially. Given that it is an additive process, it is also considered a green technology because it generates virtually no waste, giving the industry another welcome boost.

According to the Wohlers Report, the market for 3D printing and prototyping, which stood at around 7 billion US dollars in 2017, should rise nearly five-fold by 2024, as demand for custom-made tools and prototypes is expected to rise fast.

In healthcare, for example, analysts expect dental implants and hearing aids to be produced with the new technology ever more frequently. 

Going to the next level

After the success at replacing the faulty machine part with a custom-made 3D printed item, Palka and his team went one step further when they started to install co-bots – collaborative robots which work hand in hand with humans – along the packaging line. 

The idea was to have the co-bot collect the so-called pockets, tablet packages sealed with thermal foil, and put them into the final cardboard case in which the product is shipped to the customer. 

The biggest challenge when designing the co-bot was to find the correct form for the gripping head that is tasked with placing the pockets in the right direction in the cardboard case – an endeavor that took several weeks. The first gripping head designs occasionally caused a collision when the pockets were placed in the carton, resulting in the destruction of the product.  

Another challenge was to pick the right 3D printing technology. “We decided to have the gripping head printed with the latest 3D multi-jet fusion technology. This technology prints the parts in a quality as hard as we need them, and the redesign of the prototype is much faster to do. With this technology the parts are dense, strong, have fine details and high dimensional accuracy,” said Tomasz Palka.

After initial testing, Tomasz Palka and his team found a viable solution that fulfilled their expectations. “Now we have a solution for the gripping head and the co-bot arm, and we are waiting for regulatory approval to receive the safety certification of the line.” 

3D-print this!

“Currently, you can replace almost every part using 3D printing technology. The ones we replaced so far are doing very well, in some areas they do even better than the original parts,” Tomasz Palka explained, adding that “now we are trying to replace as many parts as possible with 3D-printed parts.”

For Tomasz Palka, the breakdown of the packaging line and its quick fix, as well as the rapid progress with the co-bot, are a sort of proof-of-concept that 3D printing can make a real difference for Novartis’ production unit NTO in the future, helping the division become more efficient and innovation-oriented. 

“Such projects prepare us for tomorrow,” Tomasz Palka declared. “The technologies will continue to evolve in the coming years, and we all need to get involved as early as possible – the entire workforce down to the specialists and the operators.”

Change of mindset

But Tomasz Palka’s efforts are not just confined to the technical nitty-gritty. He really envisages a change of mindset to boost people’s confidence in innovation and build a culture that allows associates to test new ideas and thus foster their own personal development. 

For this reason, he initiated the Innovation Friday meeting. Team members can make suggestions for further improvement, which can be implemented at the facility. 

Palka and his colleagues find their ideas on YouTube, during conferences or on other platforms. A recent inspiration, for example, came from a lean production process at a BMW motorcycle assembling factory. As a result of their Friday meetings, the Warsaw plant reorganized its internal logistics by enlarging the production space. 

Ready for the future

“I do not want to wait for new rules, but rather prepare beforehand,” explained Tomasz.

In fact, he believes that the major suppliers  in Warsaw need to improve their technology and produce much more efficiently  in the future. “If they want to work with us, they need to change their mindset and get ready. The additive technology is still in its infancy and the opportunities are tremendous.”

In future, 3D printing will become inevitable, many experts believe. The technology will continue to evolve and completely modernize the way things are made. 

“We will be surrounded by more and more industrial objects and consumer goods that are easier, faster and cheaper to produce with 3D printing,” Tomasz Palka said.