19NOVEMBER 2024CXINSIGHTSADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, SO MUCH MORE THAN A YODA HEAD DECORATION FOR THE DESKBy Jason Bradley, Director Of Engineering, Mueller Water ProductsIt's mid-2016 and Mueller Co., LLC had just taken an order for a domestically produced, ductile iron, 200 pound + component; one that the production was outsourced to a foreign supplier a decade earlier. We found ourselves with no tooling, no 3D CAD, no gating scheme and a customer to satisfy. That is when we discovered the power found in the tooling-less approach via sand printing. What became serial number 1 for Mueller was as much about vetting the possibilities as it was attempting to pull a rabbit out of our proverbial hat to satisfy our customer. What we discovered has forever changed our trajectory as an organization. It became the jumpstart that would result in continued research, and ultimately investment, to exploit these and other cutting-edge technologies in our quest to remain on the front lines of manufacturing technologies.The above scenario was not our first foray into the world of additive manufacturing. Like many others, we had been utilizing various forms of FDM to better visualize NPD concepts or convey an idea to a colleague or customer, and yes, to decorate an office from time-to-time. However, this trial of a tooling-less approach to solve the real-world challenge we were facing yielded not only a suitable component, but it came with the realization that the AM game was changing. More importantly, it was the epiphany for us that AM was transitioning from a back-room, hobby level, side gig to a current day, problem-solving option that was finding its way into production-related decisions at an ever-increasing pace.Jason Bradley
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