Visit to Wipro 3D, Peenya, Bangalore

 

3D Printing is a very interesting aspect of Industry 4.0 and we the operations faculty at Alliance School of Buisiness got the opportunity to visit WIPRO 3D setup at Peenya on Tuesday 14 December 2021 from 9 am to 1 pm.

 

The college bus left the campus at 7.30 AM, because of the classes Amit could not join, Rojalin was not feeling well and could not join. 

 

 By 9 am we were in the Peenya Wipro establishment and by 9.30 finishing all the arrangements we were received by Arpit Agarwal, the manager at the facility and his two colleagues, engineers. We were inside the facility. We were stunned by the metallic 3D printed components that were on display, mainly parts for the aircraft industry like HAL and ISRO. They were mentioning how through 3D printing WIPRO could help ISRO with a 4 nozzle setup printed as a single component, avoiding any joints, welds, nuts, bolts etc.

 

We went to the top floor where  we were treated to a very high quality presentation on what the Wipro 3D facility is upto, it also covered some basics of 3D printing. Wipro 3D mainly is into metallic parts which is much more complicated and tough than 3D printed plastic components.

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) is used by 3D FDM or FFF printers and comes in the form of a long filament wound around a spool. Operating the 3D printer is fairly simple: the ABS strand is guided into an extrusion head or extruder that heats the ABS plastic to its melting point in order to liquefy it.  sculpteo.com

ABS remains a very popular material for 3D printing professionals due to its resistance to impact and high temperature (between -20°C and 80°C). It is opaque, offers smooth and shiny surfaces and can be welded by chemical processes using acetone. www.3dnatives.com

The fairly deep interaction between the 3 engineers and 4 faculty members from ASB helped us get an idea of what 3D printing is, the challenges we face on getting the raw materials, costs of the machine and the process, the challenges in terms of post finishing etc. Due to the poor awareness of the industry regarding the process, the process is yet to gain massive public approval. The industry is very much gripped with subtractive manufacturing proceses and have no idea of what additive process are and what are the benefits. 

After the discussions we were taken to the shopfloor where the complex EOS machines for 3D printing upto 200 mm cube were shown, The post processing is another interesting aspect where the burrs on the  surfaces of the manufactured component are treated to chemical processes for finish. 

The Naval establishment in India has a whole list of products waiting to be 3D printed and will soon be a big customer for Wipro 3D.

Dr U Chandrashekhar, the Director of the centre, spoke to us for one hour. He was looking more at collaborationn and starting courses at the college for the student community, mainly from a techno commercial angle with bit of engg and management in the course. By 1.20 PM we were out of the facility and by 2.30 we were in ecity. 

As a whole the trip was very well organised by Wipro, all our doubts regarding 3D printing were cleared, we got to see some of the most advanced 3D printing systems for metal part building, demonstrated to us.

AU has signed an MOU and is starting a 2 year MBA programme for students interested in 3 D printing from this year onwards. 

We are very thankful to Wipro for making the high quality visit possible. Also to Prof. Reeba from ACED who put us in contact with Dr. UC of Wipro.

george