Since the prelude of 3D printing (additive manufacturing), its beneficial applications in producing small quantities of complex parts with a higher pace have been noticed among manufacturing circles. Today, 3D printing, particularly metal-3D printing is being used more for industrial products. It has huge potential to be deployed not only in aerospace and medical but also in products for general consumers such as automobiles, industrial machinery, and home appliances. Moreover, to help overcome numbers of key challenges such as globalization of manufacturing bases, inventory management, logistics efficiency, and inheritance of technology, faced by companies today, additive manufacturing (AM) can be helpful in many ways. Being a game-changing technology, 3D Printing promises to bring the new idea of “agile manufacturing” to many industries.
Though 3D printing is competent in changing the landscape of the manufacturing industry, technologies and manufacturing processes involved in it are yet to be fully optimized in all the fields. The process starting from raw material powder, manufacturing process (forming conditions), and printing equipment to post-processing—still has rooms for technological progress in the future. Further, as business opportunities could be born in several fields, the 3D printing industry has so much potential to grow in the coming years. Harnessing the potential of 3D printing, JAMPT Corporation (Japan Additive Manufacturing &Processing Technology) is supporting the recovery of Japanese manufacturing and the logistics revolution.
Aim to be a One-Stop Solution Provider
United by the strong bonds of ambition, with the aim of becoming the world’s leading AM company, JAMPT was established in 2017 to provide 360° solutions in metal-3D printing. Knowing the fact that covering whole manufacturing process chain is the key when stepping forward with clients, JAMPT covers whole AM value chain and provides one-stop AM service aiming for industrialization of AM technology and commercial production of AM parts, together with its clients.
More concretely, its services and functions include production of high-quality raw material powder specifically for metal 3D printing, manufacturing process technology applying advanced simulation technology (based on contract manufacturing experience of prototypes), joint development of metal AM parts with clients, joint development of metal AM system/machine, and post-processing.
A Simplified Approach to New Product Development
A manufacturer always creates a product to fill a need or want of its target market. While doing this, it requires a huge capital to develop a whole set of a new product. In the case of JAMPT, it makes the use of Rapid Prototyping (RP) to develop and introduce new products. This is done without making any capital investment for a specific new production line. Therefore, RP is advantageous in reducing the introduction cycle of new products.
Moreover, under the current technological scenario, Rapid Prototyping with metal 3D printing enables superior manufacturing of complicated shapes and difficult-to-work materials compared to other conventional methods. Therefore, 3D printing is a preferred method by the team of JAMPT, which is useful for assisting their customers from aerospace and medical fields.
A Support System Helping JAMPT to Conquer Challenges
As JAMPT was established as a joint venture company combining each partner’s specialty, it faced some challenges initially, where integration of each company’s function in full and utilizing its existing business networks was one of them. Further, as JAMPT aimed at the industrialization of AM rather than just prototyping of products, it is momentous to detect customers’ potential needs precisely and consult them to further pursue the world of metal AM together.
In the beginning, theAM manufacturing method was a novel method for many of JAMPT’sclients. Therefore, in a very first phase of forming an industrial partnership with clients, securing a budget from them for the joint development of AM parts has often been an issue for the company.However, the president and CEO of JAMPT Corporation, Noritaka Yasudamanaged and promoted AM projects with JAMPT’s clients with his prior extensive expertise and business relationship in machinery division at a general trading company. Today, his background and business relationships are extensively helping JAMPT to excel and promote AM projects. Additionally, in the last year, Noritaka and his team have successfully installed AM parts into a vehicle which was launched to space. This was a big milestone for Japanese AM market. Furthermore, the torchbearer CEO looks ahead to come up with more real applications to develop with JAMPT’s clients from various industries.
Standing Apart with Uniqueness
In the industry evolving with a rapid pace, JAMPT knows how to stand apart from other market players. One of its biggest strengths in the business is capability of making raw material metal powder produced by Plasma Rotating Electrode Process (PREP), which is the best fit to AM. Currently, most entities in the AM industry use traditional metal powder, which was utilized in the historic powder metallurgy industry, such as sintering. However, the team of JAMPT believes that this traditional powder is not optimized for AM as AM process, or 3D printer ideally requires sphericity, satellite-free, and less-gas pore, which is almost realized only by PREP powder.
Apart from that, the firm’s partnership with KOIWAI as a 34% shareholder is also a major factor making it a muscular body, as KOIWAI is the pioneer of AM business in Japan. Started from a sand mold 3D printer in 2007, KOIWAI embarked to metal 3D in 2012, further, in having been there in conjuncture of establishment of JAMPT, KOIWAI dispatches its skilled engineers to JAMPT today.
Staircase to Reach New Heights of Success
Noritaka wants JAMPT to be useful as a trustworthy development partner for customers seeking to develop practical and mass-producible products utilizing AM technologies. There are two major things, which are helping JAMPT to achieve Noritaka’s desired heights and making it stand ahead in the space it is operating.
First is JAMPT’srelation with Tohoku University. JAMPT works closely with Tohoku University’s Institute of Material Research (IMR) to deliver a rigid technical support system. Being a leading Japanese research institute of metal, IMR plays a vital role in solving customers’ challenges from an academic standpoint. Moreover, the university also supports JAMPT’s approach of working on the functionality of parts with academic backing along with focusing on parts for manufacturability and cost-effectiveness.. Notably, this technical relationship with Tohoku University has also enabled JAMPT to optimize manufacturing parameter settings even further and develop high-quality AM parts.
The second thing that helps JAMPT moving ahead is that its team utilizes the business network of a leading global trading company—Sojitz Corporation—to explore the AM market, following the newest trend of AM, and approaching to potential clients all over the world. Furthermore, to serve its clients the best, JAMPT always works with a client-oriented joint AM parts development mindset. This though system helps it’s the team to make sure that optimized design AM parts are not created just out of their mere imagination, but the idea also fully aligns with the clients’ expectation.
Applications of 3D Printing Technology
“Just personally, I like music and I am very pleased if it is possible to give the impression by making musical instruments in 3D printing that are different from traditional materials and shapes, and by giving out tones that echo to the heart that has never existed.”—Noritaka Yasuda
