Ian Gibson is Professor of Design Engineering and Scientific Director for the Fraunhofer Project Centre at UT Twente, The Netherlands. He has previously held positions in the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. He still holds a visiting professorial position at Deakin University and is working to establish a strong connection between Deakin and UT Twente. He is probably best known for helping establish the Rapid Prototyping Journal and co-authoring the book “Additive Manufacturing” by Springer. He has been working in the field of AM for more than 20 years and one of his primary interests is medical modelling.
Keynote Speech Abstract
Title: Metal Additive Manufacturing: the return of process planning
Additive Manufacturing (AM) has often been lauded as a driver for the new manufacturing revolution. Metal AM has made significant progress in recent years with the advent of products like to fuel nozzle on the GE LEAP engine. One thing that has however come from this is the fact that metal AM in particular cannot fulfill the entire manufacturing process requirements. Heat treatment and finish machining in particular must still be carried out on nearly all metal AM parts before they can be used. When you realise that you must include multiple process stages, there is increasing flexibility that allows you to tune your process capability in order to get the best out of all steps. This talk will highlight how metal AM can be used in practical situations and discuss the implications this has on the design process in particular.