by
15 April 2024
11:00
3D modelling and 3D printing workflows are to become much simpler thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI) according to Dan Barousse.
The CEO of Slice Engineering discussed the potential influence of AI on the additive manufacturing (AM) industry in this week’s episode of the Additive Insight podcast.
As the head of a company making use of AI across various sectors, Barousse elaborated on how Slice Engineering─ an extrusion 3D printing equipment company─ is leveraging AI for marketing, web design, programming, firmware modifications, and more. Additionally, it’s expected that AI will also be beneficial for its design engineering outcome in the future.
However, the immediate effectiveness of AI in AM will be contingent upon the application and the context.
Barousse remarked, “The experience of average non-technical users with 3D modeling and the whole 3D printing process will likely become more AI-driven, and therefore simpler, much quicker than in medical, defense or aerospace. This is because, unlike those fields, it does not involve life-saving or mission-critical applications. In these cases, there’s a necessity for double-checking, in tasks such as creating drawings for parts and doing the tolerancing, which I find monotonous. Yet, you always need someone to inspect your drawings and this individual typically has to be a professionally licensed engineer in cases that involve mission-critical or life-saving applications.”
For many years, Barousse said of AI, there will need to be a certain level of ‘guess and check.’ But the ‘check’ element of that process will likely always be necessary, which is important to note given the hype around AI technology.
In a hypothetical scenario where AI is implemented in, say, the design of a component, then quality checks and defect detection will still be required further along the workflow. Despite concerns around the technology removing jobs, the design authority and responsibility for a part has to lie somewhere, and therefore, the need for design engineering skills remains.
“You will still need a user with a lot of background knowledge and understanding,” Barousse said. “I think about when I got my engineering degree, I learned a lot of math that I have never used in my career, but the math taught me principles that are then applied in the CAD software or in the finite element analysis software or in the thermal transfer software. And if I didn’t have the background knowledge of how the model is supposed to work based on the mathematics, then I would not be able to detect an error in those platforms.”
by Sam Davies
15 April 2024
11:00
Read More: AI's Role in Simplifying 3D Printing: Insights From Dan Barousse - 3D Printing News