A great collaboration within the Dutch part of the European initiative AI-Matters. Additive Manufacturing technology provider AM-Flow will provide several services as part of this flagship Digital Europe program in cooperation with Brainport Industries. The goal? Making the latest developments in AI and robotics accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European manufacturing industry.
AI-Matters
AI-Matters aims to increase the resilience and flexibility of the European manufacturing sector by deploying the latest developments in AI and robotics, and intelligent, autonomous systems for flexible production. It is doing this with the establishment of a Manufacturing Testing and Experimentation Facility (TEF) network. The AI-Matters network can be found in various locations across 8 countries in Europe and has 25 partners: mostly large research and innovation organizations. The comprehensive services offered by these organizations in the various areas of interest at attractive conditions are always adapted to the needs and expectations of the European manufacturing industry. AI-Matters is co-funded by the EU and national and local governments.
Brainport Industries Campus
The Dutch component, or node, of the AI-Matters network has its home base at the Brainport Industries Campus (BIC), where several high-tech manufacturing companies and technical suppliers can be found to produce and innovate together. It is coordinated by Brainport Industries, also located at BIC. Besides Brainport Industries, there are two other Dutch AI-Matters partners, namely Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and TNO. The Dutch node builds on the already existing facilities and infrastructure and offers services in human-robot interaction and optimization at the plant level.
Collaboration with AM-Flow
As part of AI-Matters, Brainport Industries is partnering with AM-Flow to help SMEs with production digitization challenges. This joint effort focuses on achieving fully integrated and digitized flexible manufacturing processes with applied AI technology.
Stefan Rink, CEO at AM-Flow said, “AM-Flow and Brainport Industries offer SMEs a unique opportunity to accelerate their transition to Industry 4.0 and autonomous manufacturing. Through a range of advanced AI-based systems and modules from AM-Flow, they can learn how to deal with the complexity of rapid delivery of many different custom 3-dimensional parts. These services enable companies to understand how to apply new manufacturing technologies in different production steps for various applications.”
New services
The services offered by Brainport Industries in cooperation with AM-Flow enable SMEs to understand and experience how to apply new production technologies in the high-mix industry, taking into account the complexity of high diversity, quality control and flexible and autonomous transport of and to parts in the factory. In addition, these services allow them to explore the possibility of processing their parts with the current module and experiment with module configurations for their operational environment to gain practical insights and optimize processes appropriate to their needs.
The services offered consist of various modules with different goals:
- Demonstration of modules: By showing and explaining how the technology module works, SMEs can experience the capabilities and functionalities of different modules in factory processes.
- Feasibility Study: Together with the SME, AM-Flow conducts an analysis of the company’s factory processes to evaluate the feasibility of integrating specific modules into these processes to achieve a specific goal, for example, reducing complexity and manual labor.
- Testing and experimentation: This service allows SMEs to test whether their parts can be processed by the current modules under the pilot line setting. If necessary, minor adjustments can be made to the pilot line setting to enable testing.
- Experimentation at SME site: SMEs can further experiment with module configurations in their own operational environment, gaining practical insights on how to optimize processes for their specific needs.
- Customization for new usage scenarios: This service typically requires modification of modules to address new and impactful use scenarios, providing customized concept demonstrators for identified production challenges.
Rink: “AM-Flow’s services offer SMBs valuable insights into plant transformations, including technology integration, data management, cost implications, risks, development timelines and potential opportunities. In addition, companies learn how to deal with a high mix of production while maintaining industry standards such as speed, cost efficiency, quality assurance and traceability. This knowledge enables companies to make informed decisions and develop tailored business cases for their investments in AI manufacturing infrastructure.”
Jarmila Bökkerink-Scheerova, project leader for AI-Matters at Brainport Industries: “Our participation in AI-Matters and the cooperation with AM-Flow in this framework opens new doors for our supporters. This allows companies to make use of AI facilities and services in a low-threshold manner and at attractive conditions. This allows them to discover in an industrial environment how AI technology can help their business, without having to invest in it directly. We hope this will enable us to reach and support many companies.”
