Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing continues making a splash in the additive manufacturing community.

The Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing (KAM) team attended the annual Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) conference in Chicago, a five-day show from Sunday, March 31 to Thursday, April 5 that brought together the best in the business from around the world.

Now in its 31st year, the AMUG conference educates and advances the uses and applications of additive manufacturing technologies. AMUG members meet annually to share information, innovations in the on additive manufacturing processes, applications, materials, ancillary equipment, and industry trends.

The conference kicked off with a five-hour expo that gave the KAM team a chance to show off the Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing Ford showcar that included additive printed parts. The showcar display became a centerpiece for conversation throughout the week as it anchored the networking areas and training labs.

The highlight of the week came on Tuesday, April 2 when owner and founder Brad Keselowski gave his keynote speech “Winning the Manufacturing Race” in front of a record-breaking AMUG audience of over 2000 attendees.

Keselowski spoke at length about the foundation KAM has built, why he feels the work they do is important and what the KAM team is doing to innovate. His talk also included insights into how his motorsports background and upbringing influenced his passion for manufacturing, and ultimately spurred his drive for starting KAM.

Addressing the audience, Keselowski said,

“Technology and manufacturing are near and dear to my heart. Behind every technology, there’s people who make the difference, and I believe everyone in this room has influenced and helped grow this industry to what it is today.”

Thursday, on the final day of the conference, KAM additive engineer Kevin Cwiok co-presented with Jeff Robertson of Simufact Engineering on Control Variability Across the Build Space Through Spatially Dependent Inherent Strains.

Cwiok’s portion of the presentation covered additive predictive simulations and a new approach to the calibration.

“To include the z-height dependencies in the calibration,” Cwiok said, “this means splitting the build volume up into multiple calibrated zones in order to accurately predict builds that are not only taller than the heat effected zone of the heated build plate, but have a change in their heat inputs during the build due to reduced lazing times. This hasn’t really been looked at before so we tested an initial design of the calibration pieces and are going to validate it with a couple part models.”

Attending AMUG not only continued to establish KAM as a leader in additive manufacturing, but also allowed the team to make important connections and gain helpful insights into the industry. KAM will be displaying next at the RAPID + TCT conference in Detroit, MI the week of May 20, 2019. Look for them in booth #2033.