This paper presents a short part of a larger research and consists in the investigation of the compression behavior of samples printed on two 3D printers, one Delta and one Cartesian, from three types of the commonly used materials, Polylactic acid (PLA), Carbon fiber PLA (CF-PLA), and Polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG). After a specific introduction regarding the subject, the printing parameters used for printing the samples are exposed, in a table, followed by a paragraph on the compression testing, both with general and particular information, on this case. The research being under development, the first set of results obtained is presented, further tests and analysis following in order to realize a comprehensive characterization of the 3D printed materials’ behavior.

Lean manufacturing is a business system that contributes to the growth of production efficiency and the company profit, by identifying and eliminating waste. TPM is one of the techniques used to eliminate production waste, being focused on the maintenance of production equipment, so as to increase their operation and efficiency, while ensuring the quality of production due to preventing the causes that lead to waste. In the present paper for the continuous improvement of the manufacturing process within the work cells equipped with CNC processing centers, TPM is implemented, which contributes to the optimization of predictive, preventive and corrective maintenance activities of production equipment, thus improving the efficiency of machine tools. TPM ensures maximum equipment efficiency due to the elimination of unforeseen equipment downtime, respectively increasing the speed and availability of the machine. The research is based on a case study from automotive industry. Monitoring the daily activities of the equipment is done through the TPM component, namely Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) which presents the situation in the manufacturing process. The waste related to technological equipment were identified, such as: incorrect operation of the work equipment, unplanned shutdowns, respectively damages that occurred in the manufacturing process.

The deformation of an aluminum plate, called in this paper, a support plate, which is part of a bending plastic deformation device, is studied in this paper using the Finite Elements Method, respectively design points of the design by optimization using features such as Design of Experiments and Response Surfaces. The start of the analysis was determined by a functional requirement in the design and construction of a sophisticated bending device controlled by steel plates for the production of exhausts for cars. To optimize the project, it was necessary to analyze the behavior of the active material and components of the device. The analysis of material and piece behavior, in working conditions, has been developed by addressing the facilities offered by Ansys software. Following FEA analysis, optimizing the active components of the device has provided proven results in practice through the execution and operation of the device, according to the technology required by the product designer.

Growing competitiveness of manufacturing companies has led companies board to look for new innovative solutions to increase the productive efficiency. More and more companies are looking to maximize profit through different ways, some of them use classical methods that are focused on increasing production capacity, expanding the product portfolio, manufacturing and marketing campaigns, other operational activities, are implementing modern techniques to reduce losses. This paper propose to present the way that productivity is increased by reducing lead time through Lean Manufacturing method implementation. For this purpose a piece will be manufactured using a CNC processing center, which will contribute significantly to processing the part at a higher precision, and at the same time eliminating the down times. To highlight the contribution and the efficiency of the CNC processing center, will be present the classic production method using a classical milling machine, respectively FUS 22, the method that was also implemented, according to this case study. To analyze and graphically illustrate these two production methods, respectively classic and modern methods, VSM will be built, then the 2 methods will be compared.

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