Laser World of Photonics showcases prowess of additive manufacturing

The Laser World of Photonics, a trade fair dedicated to the laser and photonics community to feature their concepts and innovations, was held between October 17 and 19, 2019 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai. The trade fair featured technologies relevant for application industries like manufacturing, engineering, automotive, railways, construction, gems and jewellery, medicine and many others.

Dr Lalit Kumar, Managing Director, COHERENT Laser India said, “Our experience at the show has been excellent. We received a lot of enquiries and prospects. We met some new and old customers and the response has been very good.”

Pradeep Patil, Managing Director, TRUMPF India said, “I am very confident that we will continue to benefit by participating in the future as well. The event is really adding value to the industry and particularly to our company.”

3D Manufacturing Summit

The 3D Manufacturing Summit, a co located event discussed ways and means on how additive manufacturing could help make businesses future-proof. Changes and transformations in technology disrupt the manufacturing industry and provide opportunities to grow and develop manufacturing processes.

“Some significant benefits of having additive manufacturing into your manufacturing are those of on-demand manufacturing, sustainability and reduced carbon emissions. Additive manufacturing has come a long way from rapid prototyping to actual manufacturing,” said Boopalan Mohanasundaram, Senior Additive Manufacturing Engineer, Eaton India.

The panel discussion during the event discussed that there is a need out the additive manufacturing on a test in the manufacturing setup and run feasibility tests to find out where the additive manufacturing process can be replaced. Mohansundaram stated, “Additive manufacturing will soon enter manufacturing with more durable manufacturing capacities. Recently in USA, a group of university students have 3D printed a Canoe, a kind of narrow boat. The 3D printer used was of 7 Feet.”

Thus, additive manufacturing with its immense possibilities can print all industrial tools, products, gears, jigs and fixtures and can be used in other on demand applications. Ajay Deshkar, CEO, 3D Engineering Automation LLP said that the additive manufacturing can also be used in manufacturing machinery, combining it with the conventional manufacturing process.

Auto and 3D manufacturing

The electric vehicle start-ups are keen on having an additive manufacturing process and are exploring ways to include the same in their process. Bisweswar Das, Lead Mechanical Design, Honeywell Engineering Field Solution, advised, “While adopting 3D printing, it is important to understand the requirement and then decide which method is suitable. Sometimes, it is convenient to use subtractive manufacturing method even though it is a conventional method while sometimes having a pre-manufactured component can be partially manufactured on the existing half of the product. One needs to find the right solutions for the requirement.”

NK Vaidya, General Manager, Tata Motors held that there is a need to conduct more research in the additive manufacturing as there is a huge scope in the automotive manufacturing segment as a single automotive uses an assembly of around 2000 different parts. He also added that there are some grey areas in automotive manufacturing where applications of the additive manufacturing are yet not streamlined.

Mahantesh CN, head- Global Recruitment Engineering and IoT, observed that skill development will play a major role as the technology progresses and machines take control over human activities. He states, “There will be a need of qualified human force to take control of the things happening. Thus, companies and industries should also look ahead to impart skill training with the addition of the new technology.”

In a nutshell, Laser world of Photonics India attracted around more than 9000 visitors and had around 150 exhibitors who benefited exhibiting their innovative solutions.