The Rapid Product Development Association of South Africa (RAPDASA) will hold its 20th Annual International Conference from 6 to 8 November 2019. The conference will be hosted by Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) and will be held at the Emoya Estate, Bloemfontein in the Free State province.
Additive Manufacturing (AM), better known as “3D Printing”, has matured from a prototyping technology into a fully-fledged manufacturing technology. AM products are increasingly being used as final products in the aerospace, automotive, medical, consumer product and other industries. Internationally, unprecedented innovation has been seen in the field of AM and South Africa is certainly contributing to the advancement of AM as a manufacturing technology.
Conference theme
The conference theme this year will be Creating the Future of Manufacturing – Layer by Layer. The organisers have also added a sub-theme of Establishing the 3D Printing Process Chain.
The conference and exhibition will offer many opportunities for participants from industry, R&D institutions, academia and government to gain insights from world experts in this field and for the South African AM community to showcase the cutting-edge work carried out in this country.
This year the organisers are running a special track on Biomimetic Engineering for Additive Manufacturing at the conference. You are invited to submit your industry or technical paper. Further information is available on the RAPDASA website at
https://site.rapdasa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/specialist-track-rapdasa-call2.pdf.
The conference will be preceded by a preconference seminar “Design and Additive Manufacturing of Titanium Parts” to be held on Tuesday 5 November 2019 at Central University of Technology (CUT) in Bloemfontein. The first call for papers and further information is available at https://site.rapdasa.org/pre-conference-seminar.
All three photos of the drone are courtesy of Aeroswift and Altair. The images show a large quadcopter frame, 3D printed in titanium on the unique Aeroswift additive manufacturing machine. The drone frame was developed in collaboration between Aeroswift and Altair. Altair utilised topology optimisation techniques with the Inspire software package for the design stage. The drone frame, which consists of hollow structures, is an example of the design complexity, which can be realised with additive manufacturing technologies
The conference will cover sectors such as Aerospace, Medical and Bio-medical, Automotive, Sport and Leisure and Architecture. Apart from these, papers will be presented on topics covering all aspects of the rapid product development chain, such as CAD, product engineering, reverse engineering, simulation and modelling, process modelling, structural analysis, materials selection for design, materials engineering, materials processing, tooling design and development.
Confirmed international speakers
Confirmed international keynote speakers Dr Terry Wohler of the USA, Prof Paulo Bartolo of the UK, Prof Ian Gibson of the Netherlands, Prof Alain Bernard of France and Prof Nataliya Kazantseva of Russia.
Conference package
The conference will be hosted at Emoya Estate in Bloemfontein, South Africa. On-site accommodation is limited, but arrangements with nearby hotels and guest-houses have been made. The conference fee of R6 100.00 per delegate excludes accommodation, which will have to be booked and paid by delegates. The conference package includes: Full conference participation, lunch and dinner, refreshments (tea/coffee breaks), welcome function and the gala event. The conference attendance fee for bona fide full-time postgraduate students is R4 350.00 (maximum of 5 students per institution and proof of registration must be provided).
For further information please contact Mrs Jenny van Rensburg at info@rapdasa.org
