PICTURE PERFECT

PICTURE PERFECT

As machine sales within the CONTEXT market research defined Design Class (20,000-100,000 USD) struggled during early 2020, a new machine launch by Stratasys attempts to buck the trend.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is arguably the manufacturing technology with the most significant range in prices. To help those outside of the industry understand how diverse it is, it’s important to stress that you can pay one hundred dollars for a machine or you could spend one million, and there’s everything in between.

CONTEXT market research defines that everything in between (20-100k USD) as Design Class this includes (but is not limited to) machines as diverse as Sintratec’s S1, Markforged’s X5, BigRep’s Studio G2, Xact Metal’s XM200.

One machine that has snuck in under that umbrella with a bit of “we’re sub 100k USD” marketing is the 99,000 USD Stratasys J55. Its launch was scheduled for this year’s RAPID + TCT, the postponement of that show wasn’t going to quell a project that the elder statesmen of AM were quietly confident could shake the foundations of design validation 3D printing. Like any good marketing team, the Stratasys incumbents turned the threat into an opportunity, with a huge virtual launch of the machine.

Whether Stratasys intended to ensure the machine did fit into the Design Class pricing structure created by CONTEXT or not, it certainly won't be a hindrance to have it described as such to one of the machine’s key target markets – industrial product design. "Where designers are spending most of their time is in this middle stage, this detailed design,” Gina Scala, Director of Marketing, Global Education told TCT at the time of the launch. “This is where you are really honing the aesthetics and the function of the product. Here, it's all about colour, material finish, the fit, feel and function. Designers are producing the most models at this stage. Therefore, they need to do it rapidly. They need to get feedback, apply the feedback. What we found is if we compare this to traditional methods, really sending these models out to a model shop, the J55 allows these parts to be produced 79% quicker internally."

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?

Without the trade show comfort of being able to see and touch parts made from the machine and have its quality validated from those TCT Expert Advisory Board Members we usually see floating around a RAPID + TCT show floor, it has been difficult to separate hyperbole from true innovation. With a 478,000-colour gamut taking up under half a square metre of floor space at around a third of the cost of enterprise-class PolyJet systems, the J55’s specs almost look too good to be true.

According to Kinetic Vision, a multi-disciplined design consultancy that lists 50 of the Fortune 500 as its clients, the J55 more than lives up to its billing. Kinetic Vision is not a 3D printing novice, operating several FDM and SLA machines, as well as a forerunner of the J55’s PolyJet technology, but when their industrial designers first got hold of the J55 as a BETA customer they were blown away.

“At the price point with the capabilities that it offers, there has been nothing like the J55 in the industry,” Aerin Shaw, Marketing and Partnership Lead at Kinetic Vision told TCT. “Achieving Pantone colours with little post-processing has forced a complete rethink of how we 3D print. We can now conceive of a product on a Monday, have it designed by end of that day, printed overnight, and have a picture-perfect model delivered to the client by Tuesday lunch. We've never been able to do that before.”

The J55 can print simultaneously with five colour materials, plus a sixth for

“At the price point, with the capabilities that it offers, there has been nothing like the J55.”

printing supports, enabling nearly 500,000 colours plus transparencies and textures using VeroClear material. While it doesn't offer the multi-material capabilities of its bigger sister J series enterprise systems, what is does provide is a new patented rotating build platform with fixed print head, which is said to maximise reliability and machine footprint (the machine offers a max build volume of 22 litres) while also significantly reducing operational noise to a level similar to that of a home refrigerator.

For Lyle James, Group Manager of the Innovation and Industrial Design group

3 LEFT:

THE J55 HAS A COLOUR GAMUT OF ALMOST 500,000 COLOURS

6 BELOW:

PARTS FROM THE J55 REQUIRE LESS POST

PROCESSING THAN OTHER POLYJET METHODS

5 ABOVE:

FULL SPEAKER MODEL

PRODUCED ENTIRELY ON J55

at Kinetic Vision, the J55 has not only fitted seamlessly into the workflows but consolidated them:

“We use it for a variety of projects including both internal design evaluation and final presentation models, for which we'd traditionally we’d use separate machines and separate processes.

As a design firm, one of the challenges to any project is to assess the level of finish that would be appropriate for any given phase. Budget is a driver for that; if you're talking about assessing a variety of colour at an internal validation stage it’s not always possible to go to the extent of painting and finishing parts, the J55 is eliminating the budgetary constraints for us in the middle of the project.”

APPLICATION = COST JUSTIFICATION

CONTEXT’S most recent report written for TCT stated:

“Key end-markets for Design price class printers, such as jewellery and dental businesses, were all but shut down across the globe, severely impacting demand for new machines[…] This resulted in -37% fewer Design

printers shipping in Q1 2020 than in the same period of the previous year.”

What Stratasys is setting out to achieve with the aggressive J55 pricing, is to unlock applications in industrial product design that would previously have required an investment in Industrial machinery (+100,000 USD).

CONTEXT’s report for TCT does however fear for the market of both Industrial and Design Class machinery in this current climate:

“The impact of COVID-19 on key vertical markets for Industrial and Design printers was still severe in the second quarter and, with fears of a resurgence of the virus continuing to affect the decisions such businesses are making about capital expenditure, the trough in demand will, potentially, be more prolonged."

Given the fact that there has been nothing like the J55 in this price class it could be the case that Stratasys is best placed to buck the trend. The CONTEXT report does also provide a modicum of optimism as it continues: "While increases may take a while to materialise, forward-thinking companies are expecting a U-shaped recovery in printer shipments and are already betting on a future demand surge.”

With the J55 machines not shipping until Q3 and a suite of features that we’ve previously associated with much more expensive technology, it appears Stratasys may be at the forefront of that surge.