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We focus quite a bit on end-use instances for AM as a result of they’re typically among the many most enjoyable functions of the expertise’s pretty current developments. Nevertheless, using AM for one in every of its authentic functions – prototyping – continues to be very a lot alive and thriving, as we noticed throughout our go to to the Magway improvement facility in London, earlier this yr.
Magway is likely one of the most promising corporations within the area of sustainable transportation, globally. The beginning-up’s expertise relies on, because the identify suggests, magnets. Basically, a cart is pulled alongside a monitor by linear motors, and the result’s an energy-efficient, trackable transportation system that may ‘time deliveries right down to the very second’.
In 2020, the corporate raised greater than £1,500,000, from greater than 2,200 traders in 66 nations – greater than doubling its authentic goal of £750,000 – on Crowdcube. This was boosted by an extra grant from Innovate UK, the British authorities’s expertise innovation company.
“Plenty of our design course of could be very fluid. We get altering necessities primarily based on new prospects on a regular basis. And from a business standpoint, we’ll be going to completely different occasions the place we need to exhibit various things on a regular basis,” Matt Bacarese-Hamilton, Product Supervisor at Magway explains, whereas elaborating on the significance of 3D printing throughout the firm – which makes use of each an in-house printer (an Ultimaker 5S) in addition to exterior contractors, similar to DAM, in London. “We’ve just lately achieved some 3D printed chassis work with an exterior contractor in order that we are able to check some materials performances, take a look at the way it’s going to suit collectively, and a variety of different issues. We use the expertise primarily for iteration and demonstration functions, and do as a lot as potential in-house, however clearly we’ve got to simply accept the restrictions to what we are able to do.”
Extra particularly, an instance of how the Magway group makes use of 3D printing for prototyping is that of quickly creating and iterating wheel designs with completely different radii. At a ‘very low stage of testing’, to verify fundamental dimensions, earlier than Magway ordered the fabricated wheels, “We did our preliminary check, we put the printed wheels on, and we put the magnet on the monitor, however due to the drive between the magnet array and the motors – it simply crushed the wheels. This was at 30% infill as a result of it was fast. We knew it was most likely going to take like every week, ten days, to get one thing exterior in, so we upped the infill to 80%. This labored – the wheels proved what we would have liked them to – and we had been in a position to place an order with a a lot larger stage of confidence,” stated Matt.
“We rejoice our failures as a lot as our successes. So, we’ve bought a framed little bit of 3D printing spaghetti that’s really from the wheel challenge,” Matt says. “We left it to run over the weekend. This was earlier than I’d arrange our cloud digicam stuff on the printer. So, we got here again, it had gone ballistic, as you may see, and I believed, you understand what, let’s study from this. After which we arrange the cameras, and we framed it.”
“Previously, we had ordered some wheels that had been the improper measurement as a result of we type of did it in a rush. So that is the place our iterative steps got here from. We’re actually simply attempting to refine and consolidate our design course of at each alternative.”
The identical strategy for growing the wheels applies to virtually each facet of Magway’s design – whether or not or not it’s the magnet array or the chassis. The power to have the bodily prototype within the workplace, merely a number of hours after designing it, is an extremely sensible and more and more essential device for initiatives of this nature, particularly in relation to points similar to – in Magway’s case – the mounting factors for the magnet array. “All of that is insanely helpful to have in-house,” Matt tells 3dpbm. “I’m the most important fan of 3D printing precisely this sort of stuff. Not simply because it’s aesthetic and it’s cool, all of that, however really having the ability to get some perform out of it’s extremely beneficial.”
For Magway, ‘the extra commercially-driven aspect’ of 3D printing is the flexibility to exhibit what precisely Magway is, bodily, contemplating that it’s fairly an summary concept. “It’s troublesome to inform individuals [what Magway does], however you may present them a pipe, for instance, you may present them a carriage,” Matt says.
One other approach wherein 3D printing is enabling
Magway to create the transport of the long run is the flexibility to collaborate throughout geographies. For instance, the group’s industrial designer relies in Manchester, however he can “simply ship the recordsdata over, and as a substitute of him attempting to abstractly clarify to us how one thing works, we’ve bought it in entrance of us now. And so the mechanical group can virtually pull it aside and say, nicely, this isn’t going to work, and that is going to work,” Matt tells us.
How does Magway work?
To be able to transfer the carriage alongside the pre-laid monitor, Magway makes use of a three-phase linear synchronous motor, which induces a magnetic area, “extra merely, if you cross a present by way of coil, you induce an electromagnetic area. We’ve bought an electromagnet after which an electromagnet, after which an electromagnet. So we’ve bought three electromagnets linked – and that’s our linear motor,” Matt says.
The motors are linked to energy electronics, and act as controllers and switch the electromagnets on on the proper time. To place it merely – the carriage is pulled alongside the unelectrified aluminum monitor, by individually managed electromagnets.
Magway has additionally developed a vertical monitor, the drives for that are AKA ‘The Christmas Tree’, which relies on the identical expertise, apart from the truth that the electromagnets are positioned immediately above each other to compensate for the extra issue – gravity.
“There’s gravity with this one. If I shove it up, it’s going to come back again slightly shortly. So, we’ve primarily restricted the gap between motors to zero. We shove it up, after which shove it up, after which shove it up, and don’t cease shoving it up as a result of gravity is robust. And so, we’ve examined this as much as I feel it was about 170kgs. This was purely a proof of idea.”
“While you develop a monitor like this, you actually see how limitless the functions are. If I’ve bought a vertical part once I’m constructing a brand new constructing, and even upgrading an outdated constructing, I can now match this factor to it. The probabilities are limitless.”
At the moment, Magway is engaged on initiatives “tens of kilometers lengthy, in some fairly unforgiving environments”. Nevertheless, Magway doesn’t set up these tracks. “We’re the deep tech aspect of it. We’ve bought a system that works. Our price add is within the software program, the management, our understanding of the motors.”
The development of Magway’s wheel improvement
When put to the check, the printed nylon wheels had been carrying down because of the friction between the wheels and the aluminum. So, the group determined to go along with a better-suited approach – metal coated with polyurethane. In response to Matt, both the monitor or the wheels have gotten to wear down and provides in ultimately, and it made extra sense for the choice to be for the wheels to be replaceable, as a substitute of the monitor itself.
Taking a look at Magway’s completely different use instances for his or her techniques which have developed through the years, one actually will get a really feel for the potential functions in addition to the progress the corporate has made. “We’ve bought a twin tote, we’ve bought bulk materials, we’ve bought an early e-commerce prototype. You may see all of the proportions to rail and stuff like that.”
When requested about the way forward for AM at Magway, Matt has this to say: “The faster which you can get one thing prototyped, in your hand, and on the monitor – the faster you may make it higher, you may enhance it. And I’d by no means need to see that cease, however I feel past that, additive manufacturing is getting to some extent the place it’s unlocking new areas in any other case untapped by current fabrication strategies. You would manufacture one thing on-site, like a concrete constructing, or if you could have some type of advanced bracket that holds your Magway pipe that couldn’t be made with conventional casting – you are able to do that on-site. And it’s stuff like that that basically excites me as a result of we’re in a area that’s so new, every little thing is open to us. We’re not engraved in current manufacturing strategies – like you might be with conventional rail – as a result of every little thing we’re doing is new… For instance, in relation to advising on the way in which a bracket must be put in, you’ll say, nicely, the pipes should be inside this tolerance, and you could use this particular bracket to suit them collectively. That bracket might very nicely be 3D printed on website.”
“Increasingly more websites, in London particularly, are usually not standardized – you’ve bought outdated buildings, you’ve bought new buildings. If I’m retrofitting one thing, it’s not going to be as simple as if I’m constructing one thing new. And I feel 3D printing is the way you bridge the gaps between each outdated and new on the similar time,” Matt concludes, with regards to the potential of 3D printing.
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