Additive Manufacturing: Driving the Future
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John Baciak (right) points to recent 3D printing projects during a tour of NAPIC’s ADM center with DENSO Chairman of the Board Koji Arima (left) and Shinichi Nakamizo in April 2024.
John Baciak calls DENSO’s work in additive design and manufacturing “a new frontier.”
The 25-year DENSO Materials Engineer based in Southfield, Michigan, says when the company formed an additive manufacturing team in 2020, the team was assigned to the North America Production Innovation Center’s engineering group “and people got pretty excited about it.”
Additive Manufacturing (AM), which adds material to create an object, is a technological advancement boosting digital flexibility and efficiency to manufacturing operations. Manufacturers can “grow” three-dimensional objects one super-fine layer at a time. Each successive layer bonds to the preceding layer of melted or partially melted material. The process repeats until the entire part is created.
In contrast, when manufacturers create an object by traditional means, it’s often by removing material through shaping, carving, milling, machining, or other methods. Although the terms "3D printing" and "rapid prototyping" are used to describe additive manufacturing, each process is technically a subset of additive manufacturing.
Working within NAPIC, John’s team supplies indirect manpower as an engineering support function. They collaborate with AM design engineers, including the Green Technology Group (GTG) Energy Management Engineering (EME) R&D department, to support the additive manufacturing function in Michigan. John makes monthly trips to DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee (DMTN), which houses the hybrid laser-powdered bed fusion machine and a binder jet machine.
While the technology of additive manufacturing and 3D printing has been around for more than a decade or so, John said it “wasn’t prevalent when I was in college” and he had to get up to speed on its properties and benefits.
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Senior Vice President Dave Grimmer (left) receives an update on the North America Additive Design Manufacturing expansion in August 2021.
He explained that in the right applications, additive manufacturing delivers parts with improved performance and simplified fabrication. “It can bring costs down and produce some unique features, such as parts that ‘wear’ less, so we can get more cycles of use from the part,” he said. “It’s one of the key items for our future growth. Our group’s goal is to produce the first 3D high-volume production auto part globally within DENSO. I’d like to see it as early as 2027.”
Dave Grimmer, NAPIC’s Senior Vice President, said, “while the additive process is not new, the previous speed and size had been limited so that the automotive world used it primarily for prototyping.” “Ongoing technological innovations have created faster processing times, so it will compete with the cost of traditional manufacturing.”
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The North America Production Innovation Center building at DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee in Maryville.
“In five years, I predict it will rival the cost of traditional manufacturing, and in 10 years, it will exceed it. We have strategic, collaborative partnerships to secure our leadership in this space,” Dave said.
He went on to explain that innovative additive manufacturing work is the group’s “centerpiece” where North America can be a source of strength for DENSO globally, but more than that, it’s a game changer “where we accomplish these innovations by teams.”
John agreed, saying DENSO’s progression in this area “is a good, new direction, with cross-functional collaboration.”
“I definitely never thought I’d be working on something like this. When I go to work, it’s both challenging and exciting, and keeps me on my toes,” he said.