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How RAM3D became the largest independent metal AM service in Australasia

New Zealand company operates seven metal AM systems

Though it may best be known for the Kiwi bird, Lord of the Rings and its inspirational Prime Minister, New Zealand has another claim to fame in the additive world: it is home to the largest independent metal 3D printing service in the Southern Hemisphere: RAM3D.

Founded in 2008, the Tauranga-based company has had an interesting journey over the past decade, partaking in metal AM’s transition from a one-off custom prototyping solution to an industrial production process. This journey in itself is interesting, as RAM3D played a vital role in the evangelisation of metal 3D printing in its part of the world—a role that many service providers have played. In short, 3D printing metal parts for customers was only part of its job in its earlier years, it also had to focus on raising awareness of AM, educating on DfAM and facilitating the shift from prototyping to production. “In our very early days the perception of 3D metal printing really was that it was just for one-off, custom part prototyping,” explained Gilly Hawker, RAM3D Marketing Manager. “Its real benefits, in terms of improved part functionality, part integration, weight reduction, cost effectiveness and so on, just weren’t widely recognized. We did have to play our part in improving general market awareness and helping to rectify any misconceptions.” One of the big milestones in the company’s evolution has been its partnership with Renishaw, which began in 2014, when the UK-based metal AM company supplied its newest system to RAM3D. At the time, the machine provided the flexibility and openness that RAM3D was looking for, as it had the skills to optimize the AM process for its customers’ applications. “We had lots of ideas of our own on optimising our manufacturing process, and this machine gave us the freedom that we needed to implement them,” said Warwick Downing, CEO and co-founder of RAM3D. “If we wanted to change a parameter, to adjust it to more closely suit a particular part, then we could.” Today, RAM3D not only offers a metal prototyping service, it is also capable of volume production. This is thanks to seven metal 3D printing systems—six of which are from Renishaw.

The company plans to scale up its business even more, installing another three or four Renishaw systems by the new year. The service provider works with a range of materials, including stainless steel 15-5ph, stainless steel 316, Inconel 718 and titanium 64. It is also exploring the printing of maraging tool steel.

“Globally speaking, I think the metal 3D printing sector is at a bit of a tipping point right now, and it’s certainly only going to grow in importance and influence,” concluded Downing. “It is no longer a ‘new technology’, it’s here and now. More and more innovative businesses are coming to realize that even for the most mature of product types, metal additive manufacturing provides an opportunity to inject new life, by overcoming the design constraints of other manufacturing processes. So with some degree of certainty I’d say that metal 3D printing is going to be pushing hard on perceived manufacturing boundaries in the coming years.”

The Intent-ion is to reach the top

For more than three decades, Ian Walsh, Managing Director of Intent Group, has been driving improvements in organisations around the globe. Ian understands deeply what is required to deliver and sustain improvement.

Here he shares his thoughts on what New Zealanders can do to recover from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As I write this, we are in the run up to the election for 2020, with politicians offering promises and plans for how they will implement policy that will enable New Zealand to go in the right direction. This includes investment in housing, infrastructure, tax cuts and so on. I have heard almost no dialogue on how we are going to afford all of this and repay the huge cost Covid-19 has wrought on the country. The answer seems to be that we will stimulate the economy with these offerings and the implication is that this will fix it.

I believe that some of these will help but ultimately, we have to address our poor productivity. I am concerned that we are still applying band aids to a sick patient and we are not getting to the root cause of the problem. As Einstein said, ‘We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them.’

So, as New Zealanders, we must take collective responsibility for where we are – the bottom end of the OECD in terms of economic performance, and therefore our future and potential quality of life. However, the board of New Zealand is the Government, and over the last 30-40 years they are ultimately accountable for NZ sliding down the OECD.

I have heard nothing that would suggest that there is an integrated plan to address our productivity gaps. Meanwhile we add more compliance costs and wage hikes onto businesses to fund. We are behaving as if we have the economic performance of a top ten OECD country. Not an underperforming cellar dweller and many of these initiatives, whilst laudable, are unaffordable in the short term, because the burden is still to be carried by small under-resourced businesses. Again, we have a broken system. Politicians are incented to be in government and going in new and perhaps challenging directions is hard to sell to the electorate.

It is not the approach that wins. Only when there is a crisis do they risk these things. This is why Japan adopted different approaches, when their economy and country were decimated! Do we have to burn the platform and sink before we adopt new and better ways of thinking? Do we even have the right people making these calls?

Shouldn’t we just empower a ministry to drive productivity through the adoption of global best practices and proven data to enable this, and measure their performance via movement up the OECD as opposed to trying to achieve outcomes through top down macro-economic policy? The recent work by the Productivity Commission on Frontier Firms provides some good direction in this regard, and is timely. Consider this: Over 90% of the New Zealand business leaders I have met in seminars or presentations (totaling well over 1,000 now) have; • No data as to why their customers choose their product or service over competitor offerings.

Many surmise but have absolutely no data. • Not segmented their products or services based on the customer perception of value. This is logical

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QUALITY COST CULTURE PERFORMANCE

"Intent worked well with our team identifying operational waste & improvement opportunities we hadn’t seen ourselves & gave us a better understanding of our manufacturing capacity & capability. Within just 6 months there have been margin improvements in the vicinity of 5%, with even more to come. "