Innovated Manufacturing

This was not what we intended to print.

But it gave us a good opportunity to talk about why failures like this happen.

In additive manufacturing, material condition matters. Filament may seem simple, but it is sensitive to its environment. When moisture gets into the material, the print process becomes less predictable.

In these examples, the same issue showed up in two very different ways.

One part printed with visible tone variation, the other barely made it to the finish line.

Both failures were tied back to wet filament.

That is why drying and storing material properly is not a small detail. Tools like a filament dryer can help keep material in a more stable condition before and during printing.

There are always other variables to manage in additive manufacturing. But no matter the scale of the process, small inputs affect the final output.

The automation gap is not just about who can afford the equipment.

Right now, manufacturers are already struggling to find and hire strong automation engineers, controls technicians, robot programmers, maintenance techs, and people who understand how to keep automation systems running once they are installed.

That creates a difficult situation.

Companies are turning to automation because labor is harder to find and harder to retain.

But automation does not make the labor problem disappear.

It can reduce the number of people needed to run a task, but it raises the importance of the people needed to support the system behind it.

That is where automation starts separating companies.

Not by who buys the equipment first.

But by who has the capability to keep it running, improve it, and actually maintain the system long term.

Most automation projects do not need to start with fully custom end of arm tooling.

That is where a lot of manufacturers lose time early.

There are definitely applications where custom tooling is the right answer. But starting from scratch should be a decision, not the default.

That is why we built Fortis.

We wanted a simple starting point for common automation applications, and Fortis keeps the tooling side straightforward: fewer failure points, a lightweight structure, built-in air channels, and suction mounts that can be changed quickly.

It is made to handle lifting and other common pick-and-place tasks reliably, without constant adjustments or unnecessary complexity.

Our goal is simple: make end of arm tooling easier to deploy, easier to maintain, and easier to trust on the floor.

Sometimes the best design process is to print it, test it, change it, and print it again.

Recently, we needed to figure out the best way to hold onto a plastic cap for a customer.

Grant Kappes, took on the challenge and started testing different approaches. A press fit, a snap fit, and several geometry changes all had to be tried before the right solution showed up.

That is where additive manufacturing makes a real difference.

Instead of guessing at the design or waiting on a machined prototype, Grant was able to print, test, adjust, and repeat the process in the same day.

Looking at the image, can you spot which iteration ended up being the perfect fit?

What other manufacturing method is capable of this?

These parts were quoted, printed, and ready to go in 2 weeks using additive manufacturing.

The full assembly consists of 16 individual parts that were assembled and finished for a cost efficient solution.

This beats injection molding several times over in price and lead time right here in the US.

Contact us today to see what additive manufacturing can do for your parts!

Making the “perfect” automation cell is not hard.

The hard part comes when it's time to take in account external variables that the robot can't control like human error.

When operators cut corners like using the wrong tools, or even not tightening screws all the way, it creates variables that cause your automation to not succeed in a high mix low volume environment.

High mix low volume automation requires a properly trained team that doesn't cut corners. Without this team, you’ll have a robotic cell that fails to perform on your production floor.

This is why robotics has failed to succeed in “job shop” environments. This is not because robotics can't handle it, it is because the common approach to automation is to just fix it for the customer resulting in added repetitive costs that most companies can't swallow.

Our approach at Innovated Manufacturing is to train our customers so they have the tools they need to be successful with the automation cell long after we are gone and as their processes change.

Because automation is only relevant to those knowledgeable enough to properly use it.

Production shouldn’t get held up because you’re waiting on a simple fixture.

But it happens all the time.

The machine is ready, the product is ready, and the entire process still gets delayed because one small piece of support tooling is missing or still being made.

That’s one of the reasons additive manufacturing has become such a valuable part of how we approach projects.

We can design a fixture, print it, test it, and know within the same day whether the process is actually viable before committing to the job.

A lot of “good” manufacturing comes from constant adjustment.

Not because equipment is constantly failing, but because stable production requires attention long after a process is considered “set.”

Tooling shifts slightly, alignment changes, and wear starts showing up in small ways that are easy to miss during normal production.

Good operators and engineers catch those changes early and make small corrections before they turn into larger problems.

That is usually what keeps processes consistent.

Because once those adjustments stop happening, quality starts drifting, operators begin compensating manually, and production slowly becomes less predictable over time.

The best manufacturing environments are the ones that pay attention early enough to stay ahead of problems before they affect production.

We ran into an issue with one of our dryers where low filament rolls were wound tight enough that the entire spool would get lifted instead of the filament feeding smoothly into the printer.

So we designed a weighted insert that fits into the center of the roll and keeps the spool stable while printing.

Not a complicated solution.

But this is exactly why modern manufacturing workflows are changing.

We can identify a problem, prototype a fix, test it, and have a working solution running the same day.