Safety is a top priority in manufacturing. In the food and beverage industry, it can be difficult to align safety protocols across older and newer machines from different manufacturers. Sometimes safety issues arise that aren't discovered until a production line is up and running. It's critical to address these hazards as quickly as possible. This often leads to production delays due to waiting times for specialized parts or local machine builders. Manufacturing teams can reduce these delays by using Markforged additive manufacturing printers to produce custom guards on-site.

The ability to quickly modify these customized parts and add a range of assembly configurations allows solutions to be found within hours rather than days. This approach also allows all workers on the production line to contribute suggestions for safety measures, promoting safety awareness and employee engagement. Over time, these safety devices developed in additive manufacturing can also be collected in a digital warehouse. These parts can be used to secure all production lines according to the same safety protocols.

When manufacturing protective devices using additive manufacturing, proceed as follows:

• Determine the type of guards required, the required mounting points, and any other custom parts.
• Modify existing designs or create new geometries in CAD.
• Manufacture strong and reliable, custom-made, industrial-grade guards from Onyx® composite material when needed.
• Additionally, use continuous fiber reinforcement (CFR) to reinforce parts and achieve the strength of metal.
• Repeat and optimize the performance of a part with the simulation feature in Digital Forge™.
• Where appropriate, further develop designs for secondary objectives such as access for maintenance crews and poka-yoke elements to ensure that parts are always installed as intended.

“Build a digital warehouse for successfully developed parts so they are available quickly when needed, without physical storage.”

Custom-made protective device printed with the Markforged X7™

The safety team identified a crush hazard on a wrapping machine where a commercially available safety component was not present in the required position for integration into the packaging line. The engineering and development department modified a fixed guard to create a dimensionally accurate, additively manufactured part that could be attached to the wrapping machine using the existing attachment points. After several iterations, the simulation feature optimized the part while ensuring access behind the guard for machine maintenance without removing the guard.

The main advantages

1.  Create the necessary safeguards in hours, not days.
2.  Build a digital warehouse for successfully developed parts so that they are available quickly when needed and without physical storage.
3.  Enable greater participation in safety programs.

“Manufacturing teams can eliminate these delays by using Markforged additive manufacturing printers to produce customized guards directly at the point of need.”