About Akhani 3D

Akhani 3D, a South African based Agile Manufacturing, Hybrid Manufacturing and Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing) Service Bureau.

Boasting a comprehensive in-house toolset, Akhani 3D offers a turnkey — ISO 9001:2015 Process Certified — AM Print-to-Product work-flow and serial-production service that includes CNC part machining, 3D scanning, CAD part optimisation, Additive Manufacturing optimisation, 3D printing and finishing.

Akhani 3D is born out of our 30+ years of experience in traditional manufacturing and 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. We have in-house capability and expertise in all the major technologies ranging from polymer to direct metal. Our team has extensive experience in Design for Additive Manufacture and Agile Manufacturing and are skilled in providing hybrid part optimisation solutions to take your ideas from concept to reality.

The journey from traditional manufacturing to agile manufacturing if fraught with challenges. It’s like crossing a minefield:

Your skillset is based on subtractive manufacturing paradigms. You don’t (yet) possess the design for additive manufacturing skills.
You’ve invested in subtractive manufacturing technologies, which technologies will stay and which will become redundant?
Your business processes are all built around and optimised for subtractive manufacturing technologies. How are you going to incorporate additive manufacturing into these work-flows?
You don’t have your part inventory digitised to CAD.

These are all real challenges. We know, because our background is also in machine-shops and subtractive manufacturing. We’ve also had to come to grips with the challenges that using AM technologies brings, for example:

What AM technology is best suited to any specific application?
Will using AM result in the same quality or performance?
How do finished part costs compare? When does AM make sense and when does traditional manufacturing make sense?

This is where we come in … we are not stuck on just AM for AM’s sake, we combine both subtractive and additive manufacturing where appropriate. We will lead you through the minefield that sits between traditional and additive manufacturing.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER I SAY YES?

Akhani 3D bridges the gap between traditional and additive manufacturing with our agile manufacturing solutions. We combine 3D printing and traditional manufacturing technologies to produce short run parts and complex parts that are not feasible or possible using traditional methods.

We understand that this may be breaking new ground for you. Having guided clients from all kinds of industries, creating all manner of parts, we have developed a strait-forward engagement process when you decide to work with our team.

Let’s have a conversation about my manufacturing needs …

1. Part Suitability

When you engage with Akhani 3D, the first thing we look at is the suitability of your part(s) to be built (grown in 3D printing terminology) in a cost efficient production process. We look at your broader manufacturing goals, e.g. reducing the number of assembly components, strength profiles, volume requirements, etc.

2. Optimal Workflow

Once we have a better understanding of your requirements, we work with your team to determine an optimal workflow. We answer questions like; “Which components will be traditionally manufactured, and which additive manufactured?”

3. Reverse Engineering?

The workflow may involve reverse engineering existing tooling or components using professional 3D scanning and CAD optimisation tools to create a a digital twin for future requirements.

4. Optimal DfAM and DFM?

We then work with your team to ensure your part design is optimised for additive manufacturing (known as DfAM). Additive manufacturing offers many optimisation not available in subtractive manufacturing. This step involves ensuring the part(s) or tooling meet or exceed your design, quality and performance specifications. We will also consider the various material option suitable for your components.

5. Finishing

Finally, before going into production, we make decisions around optimal finishing requirements and processes.

Here’s what makes Akhani 3D different:

Hybrid Manufacturing Expertise: We leverage the power of both additive (3D Printing) and subtractive (e.g. CNC Machining) technologies to deliver your parts and tooling.
Complex Parts Made Possible: Our approach tackles intricate geometries that would be impossible or cost-prohibitive with traditional methods.
Rapid Prototyping & On-Demand Production: Get high-quality prototypes and production parts quickly and efficiently.
Design for Additive Manufacturing (DFAM): We optimise designs to unlock the full potential of 3D printing for superior performance and cost-effectiveness.
Complete Part Production Solutions: From 3D scanning and reverse engineering to finishing services like CERAKOTE® and DYEMANSION, we handle every stage of the process.

Our Services Cater To:

Part Manufacturers: Looking for contract manufacturing, custom parts, low-volume production, or rapid prototyping services? We’ve got you covered.
Innovators: Develop and refine your ideas with our rapid prototyping expertise.
Engineers: Need precision parts, high-quality components, a reduction in assembly steps, or help with complex geometries? We can deliver.
Tool and Die Makers: Experience the benefits of agile manufacturing for quicker turnaround times on prototypes and production tooling.

Our current range of in-house Hybrid Manufacturing technologies includes:

Stereolithography (SLA/DLP): The SLA process utilizes a vat of liquid photopolymer resin cured by ultraviolet laser to create solid 3D models.
Selective Laser Sintering (SLS): SLS employs a high power laser to fuse plastic powders into finished prototypes and functional end-use components.
Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF): Another additive manufacturing technology, FFF (similar to Fused deposition modeling (FDM)) uses a plastic filament, unwound from a coil to supply material to produce a part.
Composite (FFF): FFF parts printed with continuous fiber reinforcement using Carbon Fiber, Fiber Glass, Kevlar and high temp Fiber Glass
Direct Metal 3D Printing (DMP): Direct Metal Printing uses additive manufacturing technology. A high-precision laser is used on metal powder particles, producing horizontal metal layers. We currently offer:
- 3D 316L Stainless Steel printing
- 3D Aluminium 6061printing
- 3D MS1 Maraging Steel printing
Dyemansion Polyshot Surfacing: Our automated mechanical PolyShot Surfacing (PSS) is the most efficient process on the market to achieve the best end-use part finish. It does not remove any material and works perfectly for hard plastics like PA12 or PA11 across all geometries.
Dyemansion Deepdye Colouring (DDC): Our innovative DeepDye Colouring (DDC) technology offers unlimited colour choices. In addition to over 170 RAL and standardized colours, which are ready-to-use without additional development costs and waiting times, our colour matching also offers the possibility of creating individual tones for you – from corporate colours to seasonal trend colors and individual skin tones.
CERAKOTE^® Finishing
- Cerakote^® is a ceramic polymer based proprietary formulation that offers industry leading durability, hardness, scratch resistance, corrosion resistance, flexibility, heat and chemical resistance. Cerakote^® can be applied to most substrates including metals, plastics, polymers and composites. Cerakote^® Safety Data Sheets.
We also have in-house CNC machining capabilities for applications that require mixed type manufacturing.

With all these technologies at our fingertips and a continuous stream of projects – covering the straightforward, all the way through to imaginative, boundary-pushing customer designs – we’ve lived the 3D printing dream, warts and all.

For our clients, we can truly say, “We do this stuff”. And because we do this stuff day-in and day-out, we can call it like it is, complete with our trained-this-way engineering practicality.

Akhani 3D is not your usual ‘have a couple of desktop 3D machines in the garage’ 3D print bureau service. Our approach is to enable our customers to transition and combine their traditional design and manufacturing processes to an optimised, professional, production Agile Manufacturing production process, wherever it makes sense.

IS 3D PRINTING FOR ME?

Having lived with the real and sometimes unfulfilled promises of 3D printing these last 20+ years. We are constantly looking to the developments in 3D printing and other manufacturing technologies, carefully sorting the hype from the real-world. It’s from this basis that we engage our clients in paid consultations, helping them see and understand the developments over the horizon.

Developments that will force them to reconsider their existing business models or join the dinosaurs as they face manufacturing irrelevance and ultimately, extinction.

Industry 4.0, a term that encompasses a range of technologies, is real. A revolution is taking place right under our noses. A revolution that will disrupt strong, established manufacturing businesses if they do not embrace those technologies and gain an understanding of how to deploy those technologies in their industries.

3D printing is one of those technologies. Join us as we work for you to embrace the future. Our future.