The Evolving State of Advanced 3D Printing

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, is growing in capability and utility in advanced systems. In the electronics industry, this is especially true with complex assemblies like connectors, which need to be made to high precision with many complex features. 3D printing also enables part consolidation by creating aspects via additive manufacturing that could not be done with traditional methods.

For instance, 3D printing can make things with lattice structures or with significant topology optimization, creating spindly components that still have the same strength as legacy solutions. Though 3D printing is encroaching on traditional manufacturing, it’s also enabling new approaches and ways, especially in the connector space. Additive manufacturing eliminates the need for secondary components or assemblies, printing an entire device that combines three or four different components.

In this podcast, we talk to Benjamin Dopp, Senior Manufacturing & Process Developmental Engineer at TE Connectivity, about some of the challenges undertaken at TE, and the operations and production for 3D printing using the right tools on the printer side as well as the cleaning side.