Autodesk unleash future of manufacturing at MACH 2018

The company’s collaboration with The Port of Rotterdam's Additive Manufacturing Fieldlab (RAMLAB) is a prime example of how Autodesk is helping to solve a costly problem whilst simultaneously giving its customer a commercial advantage.

Robin Smith, Pre-Sales Applications Manager – Autodesk told The Engineer that it can cost $1m per day for a large container vessel to stay in port whilst a replacement is found for a damaged propeller.

Smith explained that Autodesk is helping the Port of Rotterdam in its ambition to build replacement parts on site using directed energy deposition. Smith said the solution is effectively PowerMill with a robot and additive tool kit plugged into it, driving the robot with a welding gun on the end of it, laying down material.

“Once it’s been laid out it can then be subtractively removed by milling it away to arrive at the final shape,” he said. “Again, it’s a really interesting technology – a combination of additive and subtractive working with robots. The goal is a production cell for them where they can actually do this.