1 Hunger for precision The first trend that strikes Spaan is the hunger for precision. One sector where this comes across well is the semiconductor industry. “For the production of integrated circuits, a typical layer-to-layer accuracy during manufacturing is about 1.5 nanometers. To illustrate, that’s fifty-thousandths of the width of a hair.” The engineering behind electronics wasn’t part of precision technology when Spaan began his career. By now, that sector also operates at thousandths of a millimeter. The application of precision technology is therefore becoming increasingly widespread. “Even in the automotive and medical sectors, while those sectors were previously not part of our market.” As an example, Spaan mentions the transition of the automotive industry to electric driving. An electric vehicle consists of far fewer components than a petrol car, but the accuracy of those components is two to five times greater. “So fewer components, but much higher requirements are placed on the components.” Additive Manufacturing 2 Increasing complexity In addition, Spaan also sees that the complexity of the technology is increasing significantly. Companies in the sector have to take into account more and more facets, such as cleanliness, when it comes to accuracy. “We can no longer consider those facets as separate. Ten years ago, we were making single models that were either thermal or dynamic. Nowadays we have to combine the two and they are intertwined. That’s pretty complex. Someone who has been working with thermal models for 20 years suddenly finds himself standing next to a dynamic expert. That transition has been going on for years, but it’s certainly not complete yet.” A third trend is Additive Manufacturing. It offers the precision industry a ton of new possibilities, according to Spaan. “You can print a model directly nowadays. In the past, it was much more complex, because everything had to be milled and welded. If we need to produce something complex, we go to someone with expertise in AM.” As an example, Spaan mentions a cooling module, which can now be fully optimized for thermal behavior. “Without AM, we wouldn’t have been able to make that module. So it gives us more freedom as designers.” Henny Spaan 3 25
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