In this era of new-age technology, compliant mechanisms play an advantageous role in the production and manufacturing industry. It is a unique engineering process through which AI can mathematically design and reduce product costs and performances. But in India, only a handful of compliant mechanism service providers are available, and being a front runner in this space Compliant Mechanism Design and Engineering Labs (CMDE Labs) offers 3D printing, additive manufacturing, and compliant mechanism with excellence.
“The 3D printing industry can revolutionize India in three areas. First is in rapid prototyping, because we don’t yet have a very good manufacturing base in the country. Second is Design-for-3D printing, using our technical talent pool in redesigning machine parts to be 3D printable. And thirdly is the usage in the construction industry,” explains Shantonu Ray, the CEO of CMDE. The company offers cutting-edge mechanical engineering, material science, and computational ergonomics, and provides noteworthy cost reduction in production by helping add revenue in niche areas.
Armed with cross-industry expertise, automation, and digitalization, CMDE offers end-to-end design evaluation, with suggestions for modifications, modified ‘compliant’ designs, cost-saving, and
geographically portable manufacturing methods including 3D printing. “3D printing is a part of additive manufacturing, which essentially requires equipment and capabilities in India specially for custom-built manufacturing, but not mass manufacturing. When designing any parts, additive manufacturing option is what we try to design our parts for,” Shantonu adds. He also says that clients mainly approach CMDE because they want to cut costs, and with 3D printing, with real examples of product costs being reduced by 40-50 percent. Working for varied projects across the world, the company provides 3D printing at the site or hub cities at the international platform.
“We redesign using ‘compliant mechanism’, thus helping reduce total product costs by upto 60 percent. The ‘compliant’ mechanical design requires significant expertise, including understanding of the material properties. It is easier to work on plastic, but for some flexible metallic components, material property challenges require availability of high-end 3D printing for such components,” Shantonu confirms. Where some companies come for reducing cost, other companies request redesigning for additive manufacturing.
CMDE labs can offer this facility, where very few setups in the world can do this. Helping the healthcare industry, it has come with plastic forceps which can be made through 3D printing injection molding. It has also worked for aerospace, lifestyle, and origami engineering. Adding to it, Shantonu also says, “We analyze the whole machine from top to bottom and then make its spare parts additive manufacturable”.
CMDE offers end-to-end design evaluation, with suggestions for modifications, modified ‘compliant’ designs, cost-saving, and geographically portable manufacturing methods including 3D printing
Being a self-funded company, CMDE has witnessed rapid growth during the last two years since its inception. It has also built a partnership in California, US, for rapid metal prototyping, which is not yet readily found in India. Soon, it would work for the clients of a US-based company which would support them with funding for expansion as well. Though the company faced several challenges during the Covid-19 hit in 2020, Shantonu confidently assures that CMDE would see its first earned profit this year. While concluding with his plan for the next few years, Shantonu says, “We are now focusing on prosthetics, and within the next year, we want to have a complete additive manufacturing facility either in Bangalore or in Noida”.
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