Cross-industry Exploration of Product Repair Applications enabled by Additive Manufacturing

Abstract: Repair activities could benefit from Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology as a result of the politically planned, continuous implementation of circular economy into European industry. AM provides novel opportunities with regard to design-optimized, tailored, and demand-specific, small batch size production. Thus, an exploration of industry perspectives for AM repair technology is needed to provide guidance and understanding of current opportunities and barriers of this promising technology in distinctive industries. A number of questions arise from the initial literature and background analysis: What minimum set of opportunities and barriers does exist for AM repair technology? What indicators could be used by companies to evaluate their product portfolio for AM repair? What is the minimum set of requirements for a more successful applicationof AM as repair method? What emerging AM tech repair applications are currently discussed in the community? This dissertation follows a methodology that includes a literature study, a quantitative data analysis, a set of exploratory interview and feedback interviews to answer those questions. Through it, this dissertation lays out the fundamental considerations necessary to achieve a cross-industry perspective on AM technology for repair and an analysis of industrial parts orproducts with regard to their AM repair suitability. Clustered by the dimensions company-strategy, business case, application and technology, a catalogue provides an orientation on the favorable characteristics and conditions for AM repair integration. It is found, that a classification can be made based on the repair actor (Industrial repair and consumer-enabled repair), the repair method (Spare part generation and direct product repair) and the repair technology (Polymeric and metallic AM). A minimum set of opportunities for AM repair technology includes organizational, process, ecological, logistics/stock and manufacturing aspects, whereas a set of barriers includes organizational, process, legal, cost and manufacturing aspects. Furthermore, changes are necessary to enhance the utilization of AM technology for repair applications. This includes the OEM and general manufacturer mindset change, pro-repair legislation changes, and AM technology visibility and integration. Lastly, it is found that multiple emerging AM tech repair applications are currently discussed in the community including predictive maintenance, decentralized repair, and improved 3D scanning and reversed engineering technologies. By answering these questions, this dissertation aims to elucidate the academic and corporate community on the wider considerations necessary for a deeper integration of AM technology in repair activities.