Resumen de Contribución al desarrollo de una metodología de diseño para la fabricación con tecnologías aditivas de piezas con alta variabilidad de demanda
This thesis is the result of collaboration between the university (UPC) and the company (Fluidra SA) within the framework of the program of industrial doctorates of the agency AGAUR (Agencia de Gestión de Ayudas Universitarias y de Investigación) of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Fluidra is a group of companies that are mainly engaged in the manufacture, development, distribution and marketing of equipment for swimming pool, residential and public. The company operates with more than 20.000 references, manufactured in different factories around the world and marketed in more than 170 countries. For references with low demand and global marketing, the associated unit costs are high, hence the need to innovate in the search for new solutions that optimize production and the supply chain costs. Therefore, the project proposal is the use of additive manufacturing to produce these references.
The main objective of the thesis is to develop a design and manufacturing methodology that allows engineers to transform the way of producing, from conventional processes to digital manufacturing with additive technologies. There are several technological barriers in additive manufacturing, such as technology, material, design and references, which make digital transformation not easy. Therefore, it is necessary to create a method that can overcome technical and economic barriers in order to transform the production process in a satisfactory way. The company objectives are to decrease the economic-accounting depreciation, caused by the time of stock permanence, reduce or eliminate the risk of obsolescence and reduce the time of delivery of spare parts to give a better service of supply to the customer. In conclusion, it is a contribution of a methodology that can be applied to any organization that need to adopt additive manufacturing systems based on plastics. In addition, a progress of the state of the art of the expert systems applied to additive manufacturing has been achieved, which differs from the others for the following reasons: it focuses on the MJF and PA12, provides suggestions for redesign, manufacturing and postprocessing and assesses the technical and economic feasibility of digital transformation. The result of this study has been finished with the identification of the several technological and material limitations that do not allow the massive introduction of additive manufacturing in the factories.
