TCT WI3DP INNOVATOR AWARD: MEET THE FINALISTS

TCT Wi3DP INNOVATOR AWARD: WORDS: Dannielle Jones

MEET THE FINALISTS

On Wednesday, 19 January 2022, TCT’s Laura Griffi ths announced the fi ve fi nalists for the TCT Women in 3D printing Innovator award 2022 and spoke with the candidates in a live panel session during Women in 3D Printing’s TIPE 3D Printing Conference.

The fi nalists for the award, which is a collaboration between the TCT Group and Women in 3D Printing, are: Eliana Fu, Diana Kalisz, Ellen Lee, Candice Majewski and Katy Milne.

During the conference, the fi nalists were each asked about their careers in additive manufacturing (AM), what each of them are currently working on in the industry, how they started out, and much more.

ELIANA:

Eliana Fu is an Industry Manager for Aerospace and Medical at TRUMPF. Having previously worked in metalworking, Fu turned her attention to AM when customers continued to ask about 3D printing. Fu then moved into AM at SpaceX followed by Relatively Space before joining TRUMPF last year.

Fu said: “I’m looking after aerospace and medical, two amazing industry sectors that can benefi t from 3D printing and one of the things I’m most interested in at the moment is using green laser for 3D printing and making a lot of developments on that. We have a couple of challenges but the door is wide open for enhanced products."

During her career, Fu has worked to encourage more women and girls to get into the industry as well as increasing awareness and encouraging change regarding anti-Asian hate. Currently, her focus is on improving the use of green laser in AM, especially within the space industry which Fu thinks can benefi t tremendously from this technology in building rocket parts.

AWARDS

The public vote for the award is now open and people have until 23rd open and people have until 23rd February to choose their favourite. February to choose their favourite. The winner will be announced The winner will be announced at the TCT Awards Ceremony in at the TCT Awards Ceremony in Birmingham on 8th June. Birmingham on 8th June. Submissions for the other 11 Submissions for the other 11 technology and application awards technology and application awards also presented at TCT Awards are also presented at TCT Awards are now open too. Vote now: tctawards.com

DIANA:

Diana Kalisz has been in the additive industry for over 30 years and has a wide range of expertise in diff erent fi elds.

After starting out in aerospace, Kalisz moved to AM and now serves as Vice President of Materials at 3D Systems where she has been working since the beginning of her AM career in 1989.

Kalisz told the panel about the changing impact that materials have had on the industry over time: “I've always said to our teams that what the customer wants is a part in their hand. And it's got to be a useful part and the level of complexity and what it takes to make that happen, really is not the customer's problem, they want their part. So the key thing that I've been working on most recently is the innovations in materials that have allowed us to get to parts that really do rival both the properties and the longevity of standard plastics."

Kalisz is also a valued member of P.E.O who support higher education for women and is currently focusing on using additive manufacturing for direct production of parts in plastics to replace traditional methodologies.

KATY:

Dr Katy Milne started out in the industry unexpectedly after completing her doctorate with Rolls Royce, which focused more on other manufacturing processes. Encouraged to enrol onto one of their programs based near the University of Birmingham, it was here were Milne saw 3D printing in action and wanted to learn more.

Previously, Katy served as Chief Engineer for the DRAMA project and is currently working with The UK Aerospace Technology Institute as Head of their Industrial Project ‘FlyZero’, which looks at building hydrogen airplanes to decrease the UK’s aviation carbon footprint to zero.

Milne explained more about the project and the role AM plays within it, saying: “We've been given a year to try and fi gure out how the UK should compete on aircraft. […] We were really interested in how you can decarbonize long distance fl ight. […] The project concluded quite early on the most viable route for that is to use hydrogen as a fuel that gives you zero carbon tailpipe emissions and signifi cantly reduced to 60%, it depends, the overall warming emissions that come from the aircraft."

ELLEN:

Dr Ellen Lee has worked within Ford Motor Company's research organization for 23 years but was introduced to additive manufacturing over eight years ago when asked to help reduce the company’s SLS powder waste.

In 2014, Lee established Ford’s AM Research Programme and is currently Technical Leader of Additive Manufacturing for Research & Advanced Engineering at Ford. Here, Lee sets out the direction for AM and its uses in the company.

On the panel, Lee spoke about working with AM within a large company: “We're always asking ourselves what our customers would like and fortunately, we're all customers ourselves, because almost all of us drive a vehicle every day. As part of the research organization, Ford depends on us to tell the company where and when we need to turn.

“In the case of AM, when we convince senior leadership of the huge potential we could have in diff erent areas, both in the short term and in the long term, and investing in that long-term development, we are able to get signifi cant resources for those capabilities. And, in fact, it resulted in us building the Advanced Manufacturing Center that has a lot of really great state of the art additive, as well as other advanced manufacturing capabilities.”

CANDICE:

Candice Majewski is the only fi nalist who works in the industry in an academic manner and joined the fi eld after attending a lecture on AM during her time at university. It captured her interest and Majewski has now been involved in the research and development of 3D printing for over 20 years.

Currently, Majewski is a university lecturer at The University of Sheffi eld, and during the panel, spoke about what her role entails: “My job is kind of a mishmash of lots of diff erent aspects, which I really enjoy. On the research side, I'm focused around powdered polymer additive manufacturing systems and in particular, these structured property relationships, how the materials behave in the machines, how we can develop more materials, how we can make those materials more reliable. "I also do quite a bit of teaching. I have taught over 1,000 students, which is something I'm really excited for year on year."

Majewski is passionate about training the next generation in AM and wants to encourage more people with a diversity of backgrounds and skills into the industry.