CIPET – India’s premier institute for higher and technical education and research in the field of polymer science and technology has established an Additive Manufacturing centre at its Advanced Research School for Technology and Product Simulation (ARSTPS). ARSTPS, an exclusive R&D hub at Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering & Technology (CIPET), Chennai is equipped with state-of-the-art research facilities, for undertaking integrated research programs in various facets of petrochemicals engineering & technology. The Laboratory was established in the year 2009.
The AM centre has been created for the benefit of MSME’s and addressing one of the main challenges for scaling of this technology – a skilled workforce. The centre is equipped with Materialise complete additive manufacturing software suite and the range of 3D printers like FDM 900 from Stratasys, SLS Prox 500 from 3D system, MJF Jet fusion 5200 from HP, SLA – EPA650 from Shining 3D and DMLS – SLM280HL from SLM solutions.
Materialise and Lodestar3D are playing a key role in this initiative and we connected with representatives from both companies to understand more about this initiative.
“In order to accelerate AM’s adoption rate, industry would need a broader workforce with knowledge of the capabilities of AM technologies and how to appropriately design, communicate, and qualify products which the educational institutions holds the key to address this AM skills gap and supply a capable and competent workforce for the industry.”Say Vinod Kumar, Regional Channel Manager (APAC), Materialise.
AM is revolutionizing the way products are designed and manufactured. However, the real impact of AM cannot be realized unless the industry can effectively scale this technology. One of the key challenges that are limiting the scaling of AM in India is the inadequacy of capable and skilled AM workforce. This collaboration with CIPET AM Centre will help the industry in India as whole to have much more rapid transition not only in adopting and scaling the AM technology but also having an adequate number of skilled workforce to support the growth of the AM industry itself.
The goal at Materialise is to enable new uses for the extraordinary potential that 3D printing offers. This is achieved by leveraging their experience of creating a range of software solutions and 3D printing services, which together form a backbone for the 3D printing industry. “Our open and flexible platforms enable players in industries such as healthcare, automotive, aerospace, art and design, and consumer goods, to build innovative 3D printing applications that make the world a better and healthier place. With that, we hope that Materialise will able to contribute our 30 years of experience in the AM industry for the benefits of training and upskilling the AM workforce in India via the collaboration with CIPET AM Centre.” adds Vinod.
The adoption of both Polymer and Metal AM technologies into product design, validation processesis now slowly getting matured in India and Industries like Automotive, Medical devices, wearables and new technologies like Drones now looking forward to take advantages of AM in their product manufacturing and development.
“The centre at CIPET with its entire AM platform with adaptive design to AM manufacturing with suites of software products from Materialise NV and materials from host of global players beside AM systems for both Polymer and Metal envisage to play a pivotal role in introducing these concepts and processes to both Industries and integrating these concepts into their educational and research curriculum.” says Pradeep NS, Co-Founder, Lodestar3D views small batch production of functional parts in polymer beside newer opportunities in precision casting/ wax printing, high temp polymer AM production of critical parts for Aerospace/ defence are the opportunities to be addressed in India.
A recent study by Deloitte revealed that organizations are aggressively ramping up efforts to leverage AM’s potential in their production settings, and to further integrate it into their existing manufacturing operations. However, the study also stated that they are continuing to invest in it even though much of today’s workforce lacks the advanced skills and deep knowledge necessary to transition product innovations off the drawing board and into production. Unlocking AM’s production potential requires a much different skill set from just an understanding of how to run a machine or rapidly produce a prototype. Hence, this collaboration of both Materialise and CIPET is believed will be able to narrow the existing gaps of limited skilful worker resource within AM industry in India. This collaboration is also aimed the further upskill, improve and broaden the availability and depth of AM courses and curricula, as most current training programs not able to really deliver the necessary skills and knowledge required for successful AM deployment. Additionally, AM is not often integrated into existing design and engineering curricula and globally only very few institutions have specialized AM programs.
Pradeep adds “CIPET has developed a long term Skilling/ Upskilling program to provide in-depth learning on both hands-on and theoretical aspects of AM processes and engineering. The centre also offers opportunities to MSME and other startups and the Research Institute to collaborate with centres to work on projects related product design to manufacturing”
About ARSTPS
Advanced Research School for Technology and Product Simulation (ARSTPS), an exclusive R&D hub at Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering & Technology (CIPET), Chennai is equipped with state-of-the-art research facilities, for undertaking integrated research programme in various facets of petrochemicals engineering & technology. The Laboratory was established in the year 2009. ARSTPS offers high-end solutions for complex & critical engineering problems through our dedicated team of scientists and engineers. We are working with a range of companies / R&D labs in the field/area of defence components, automotive, consumer products, health care, heavy engineering & telecom to solve the most challenging research/technical issues. The exclusive focus of this R&D laboratory is – Light Weighting Technology; Additive Manufacturing Technology; Reverse Engineering, Design, Simulation & Tooling and Biomaterials & Biomedical Devices. CIPET – ARSTPS, Chennai established Additive Manufacturing centre for the benefit of MSME’s and also for the student fraternity to cater the manpower needs in these areas. The centre is equipped with the range of 3D printers like FDM 900 from Stratasys, SLS Prox 500 from 3D system, MJF Jet fusion 5200 from HP, SLA – EPA650 from Shining 3D and DMLS – SLM280HL from SLM solutions.
About Materialise
Materialise has over 30 years of experience in providing 3D printing services and software solutions for a variety of industries, including healthcare, automotive, aerospace, consumer goods, and art and design.
For additional information, please visit: http://www.materialise.com/.
About Lodestar3D
Lodestar3D is a team of people passionate about 3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing. We strongly believe that AM would be one of the key manufacturing processes in tomorrow’s factories. It is this belief that motivates us to bring the latest, most innovative & rapidly disruptive 3d printers & 3d printing eco-system to India.
Lodestar3D offers the widest and largest portfolio of industrial 3d printers in India and our expertise span across possibly all technologies within 3d printing, ranging from polymers to metals. We also offer complete 3d printing eco-system from machines, materials, software & consumables.
We not only bring over a decade of AM / 3D Printing experience and expertise, we also strongly believe in providing excellent after sales support with focus on utmost customer satisfaction and follow the most ethical business practices led by a team of industry veterans.
For more details about Lodestar3D, Please visit www.Lodestar3D.com or contact, +91 9900003300
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