Hardware Podcasts

Building the Future: The Journey of The LEGO Group in AM

Additive Snack · 5 Sept 2023 · 34m · Episode 5

What this episode covers

Ronen Hadar, Senior Director of Additive Design and Manufacturing at The LEGO Group, explains how the company has used additive manufacturing (AM) for tooling and prototyping since the 1990s, and is now exploring end-use production for consumer goods. He details the development of the famous 'duck' project using EOS FDR technology to demonstrate AM's ability to create complex, functional integrated parts that injection molding cannot easily achieve. Hadar argues that AM is not a replacement for injection molding but a complementary tool, highlighting significant barriers to scaling AM for mass production, including limited material choices, high costs, low machine productivity, and labor-intensive post-processing. Finally, he discusses the critical shortage of AM talent and the LEGO Group's proactive strategy to partner with universities and organizations like Women in 3D Printing to build a future workforce of process engineers, build developers, and data scientists.

Most relevant to

large enterprises

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
EOS, LEGO Group
Also
FDR, SLS, SLA, DLP, Women in 3D Printing

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