Q: What is our process for partnering with customers?
We work in close collaboration with customers to optimize their design concepts and unlock the full value of additive manufacturing. Our goal is to help our customers bring their product to market faster, easier, with the potential to be more cost efficient over the life of the product.
After we get an inquiry to evaluate a customer’s part, we go through a feasibility and design collaboration among a Kennametal cross-functional team of technical wear experts. Design optimization for additive and material selection is discussed with our customer, ensuring it is the most effective solution for their specific wear application.
Typically, a customer requests an initial protype and conducts their own testing. After we get their feedback, we finalize the design and go into a larger quantity of production. This process enables us to understand our customer’s wear challenge and helps us figure out how we can add value to their total cost of operations at the beginning of our collaboration.
Once the part goes into full scale operations, we go through our sequence of making sure we hit customer specs. We scale and test their part. We also go through full inspection and ensure material certifications are met.
Our team truly offers a full end-to-end additive manufacturing solution to our customers from design to material to production. Elevating our customers’ performance through this unique capability is at the forefront of our operation.
