As the region gears up for the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community this year, 3D design solutions provider, Autodesk Inc. highlighted the role of 3D design technology in driving business competitiveness and efficiency among players in the Philippines, including the manufacturing industry.
Teddy D. Tiu: “Through 3D design technology tools in digital prototyping, industry players can upgrade their operational workflow, boost collaboration capabilities, expand production capabilities, and even reduce time to market – all of which are necessary in gearing up for the larger competitive market which is the ASEAN Economic Community.”
“One of the greatest tools that local manufacturers can leverage as they gear up for the open ASEAN market this year is technology,” said Autodesk Philippines country manager Teddy D. Tiu. “Through 3D design technology tools in digital prototyping, industry players can upgrade their operational workflow, boost collaboration capabilities, expand production capabilities, and even reduce time to market – all of which are necessary in gearing up for the larger competitive market which is the ASEAN Economic Community.”
The Philippines’ manufacturing industry is consistently one of the biggest economic contributors to its gross domestic product. Moreover, the Philippine government sees that other state and economically inherent features within the country such as the Filipinos’ creative and linguistic skills set and the current inflow of foreign investments provide sufficient advantages to the country, bringing it the potential to become a manufacturing hub.
One of the local manufacturers that have leveraged Autodesk’s 3D design and simulation solutions and to drive its business is Integrated Microelectronics Inc. (IMI).
“Digital prototyping has provided us with significant business advantages and increased our productivity and global competitiveness,” said IMI’s senior manager for design and development, Dandy Jaducana. Among the these benefits include early detection of design flaws, on-the-fly optimization, minimized costly physical development iterations, shortened time to market cycle, realization of concept in 3D, and preventive assessment of designs and implementations of iterations whenever necessary.
In connection to pushing the boundaries in the manufacturing industry, Autodesk also showcased: the company’s first 3D printer, Autodesk Ember, which serves as a reference implementation for Spark, which is an open software platform for 3D printing that make it more reliable yet simpler to print 3D models, and easier to control how that model is actually printed.
Autodesk made Ember’s mechanical designs, schematics, firmware and even the recipe for the resin it uses are open source to help spur innovation in the 3D printing industry. Together, Ember and Spark set a new benchmark for the 3D printing user experience, and form the building blocks that product designers, hardware manufacturers, software developers and materials scientists can use to continue to explore the limits of 3D printing technology.
Autodesk also launched a $10 million Spark Investment Fund to push the boundaries of the 3D printing industry.
“The Spark Investment Fund is open to entrepreneurs and innovators worldwide, and we’d love to see start-ups that are doing new things in the 3D printing industry in the Philippines take advantage of it,” said Tiu.
Meanwhile, Autodesk VRED enables the automotive industry to create high-quality visualizations for use from conceptual design to design review to engineering. When an engineer dons a virtual reality viewer or headset after loading up the virtual environment of a vehicle in development that’s created in Autodesk VRED, they can see full-scale, 3D images of a vehicle in development in an experience almost indistinguishable from a real vehicle. This enables them to make better decisions based on realistic parameters, and significantly reduce the number of physical prototypes needed. Automakers can also leverage these virtual models to let customers see their preferred car configurations, complete with custom colors and interiors, before the vehicle has even been manufactured.
“This is the next phase of the industrial revolution and we are committed to helping accelerate adoption of advanced 3D design technology in the Philippines so that our customers can not only be more competitive locally, but also make their mark in the international arena,” Tiu ended.
