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MAG NORTH AMERICAN EDITION VOLUME 8 ISSUE 2
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ROBOTIC 3D PRINTING LEVELS UP
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FROM THE EDITOR
FROM THE EDITOR SAM DAVIES
And thus In one of my now routine midmorning browses of social media, I stopped in my tracks. A retweeted video showed a young woman breaking into tears upon uttering the words: 'and now I’m a refugee.' It was day 14 of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
also a reminder of a Primo Levi quote I once came across on an otherwise bare wall inside the NSDokumentationszentrum Museum in Munich: It happened, and thus it can happen again. Although Levi is referring to the Holocaust here, the ‘it’ in this sentence, I think, is purposefully ambiguous. In an appendix to his 1947 memoir If This Is a Man (Survival in Auschwitz), he describes a ‘lugubrious comparison between two models of hell’ when contrasting Nazi concentration camps with Soviet gulags of the same era – a feature of a debate being had amongst some revisionist historians in the decades thereafter. This is all to say that there is more than one way of inflicting hell.
Though surrounded by others in the same predicament, this 20-something Social Media Manager couldn’t come to terms with what had happened, nor how quickly events unfolded. By her own admission, she was living a privileged life: a steady job in a vibrant industry during the week, before sharing a bottle of wine amongst her fellow creatives at her downtown Kyiv apartment on the weekend. Then her life changed in a day. In the morning, she sat in a quaint coffee house. And by evening, she was a refugee. There are millions more like her, whose one go at life is being turned upside down for no justifiable reason. Support is coming in different ways, to varying degrees, from all angles, whether it's arms, accommodation or economic sanctions. In the additive manufacturing industry, for example, we’ve seen Zortrax walk away from a potential $65m investment in protest of Russia’s war, while several others stopped all business with Russian customers, except in the case of humanitarian or medical applications. As the bombs rain down and the fighting continues, events in Ukraine are a reminder of the importance of advances in healthcare – some examples of which are highlighted in this issue – and, more importantly, accessibility to it. The pursuit of a grim ambition held by a small minority of humans is
What is happening in Ukraine at the time of writing (I’m hoping peace prevails and this editor’s letter doesn’t age very well) is undoubtedly hellish. But just as it – a hell-like environment foisted upon an innocent people – has happened again, overcoming such tyranny will too. Ukrainian people are exhibiting incredible defiance, protests held in Moscow aren’t going unnoticed either, and there is a near-universal agreement about who is in the right and who is in the wrong. As Ukrainians defend their country, their sovereignty and their livelihoods, businesses and governments are hitting the Russian economy hard. As individuals, we do not have such power. But what we do have is kindness and empathy. So, donate what you can afford to give, and should you bump into one of the millions who have been forced to run for their lives, welcome them and embrace them.
VOL 8 ISSUE 2 / www.tctmagazine.com / 03
TCT VOLUME 8 ISSUE 2
COVER STORY
6 9
Post-
06. ROBOTIC 3D PRINTING LEVELS UP ExOne gives us the lowdown on an all-new robotic sand 3D printing system set to disrupt the foundry market.
HEALTHCARE
9. ALIF OF COMFORT
Senior Content Producer Sam Davies speaks to Osseus Fusion Systems about its latest 3D printed spine implant device.
13. HEALTHY GROWTH
Menno Ellis, EVP, Healthcare Solutions at 3D Systems, reflects on the progress being made in the sector.
15. CUSTOM CARE
Polish medical start-up Customy explains how 3D printing is helping it to deliver custom medical solutions.
EMERGING MARKETS
17
17. PACKS A PUNCH
Quadpack, HP & Mimaki outline the application potential for AM in packaging.
20. RIGHT TO RE-PRINT
Head of Content Laura Griffiths explores the role of 3D printing in right to repair initiatives.
33 processing 33. FITS LIVE A GLOVE
HKK Bionics detail how DyeMansion’s post-processing tech is enabling personalized orthotic products.
Business case
35
35. WHAT’S DRIVING AM ADOPTION?
Following reports of growing adoption, Laura asks what’s behind the rise?
38
RAPID + TCT
38. RAPID + TCT: FIRST LOOK
A look at what to expect from this year’s conference and expo in Detroit.
33
AMUG
41
41. ‘A BREEDING GROUND OF IDEAS’
AMUG President Carl Dekker tells TCT why AM users should attend this year’s event.
42
Executive interview
42. HOW BURLOAK’S EARLY BELIEF IN AM PAID OFF
A conversation with Burloak Technologies CEO Colin Osborne about expansion and scaling AM.
Expert Column
44
44. MITIGATING SUPPLY CHAIN RISK
Rethink Additive’s Oliver Smith on AM's role in agile supply chains.
6
ROBOTIC 3D PRINTING LEVELS UP ExOne brings affordable robotic 3D printing to foundries, with eye on multi-materials, large-format future.
E
xOne is preparing to launch its most affordable sand 3D printer ever – the S-Max Flex – an allnew robotic sand 3D printing system that the company believes will transform the foundry market worldwide, especially smaller, vulnerable foundries who make up the majority of the market. Set to debut in April at CastExpo in Columbus, Ohio, the S-Max Flex pairs an affordable industrial robot with an end effector featuring an all-new 16-module printhead design. Much like ExOne’s premium, marketleading S-Max models, this new system also binder jets sand molds and cores for metalcasting. A key difference with this model is its affordability, driven by a streamlined printing strategy featuring a conventional robot arm for motion control. This new, designed-from-the-ground-up printer is a quick result of ExOne’s late 2021 acquisition by Desktop Metal, which also previously acquired an early proof of concept of the robotic printer in a separate transaction. The introduction of the S-Max Flex reflects Desktop Metal’s core strategy to aggressively drive widespread adoption of 'Additive Manufacturing 2.0' through accessible, area-wide 3D printing technologies, such as binder jetting, integrated with select, high-performance materials and targeted applications. The S-Max Flex also leverages Desktop Metal’s advanced Single-Pass Jetting (SPJ) technology, which prints into an automated telescoping job box that grows with the build. The package is highly refined for its entry-level price point, and Desktop Metal reports it delivers final
06 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 8 ISSUE 2
sandcasting dimensional accuracy of +/- 0.5 mm. A FOUNDRY MARKET IN NEED OF INNOVATION The S-Max Flex enters a market that appears primed for adoption. The upper end of the foundry market has been benefiting from additive manufacturing for two decades, using sand 3D printers to create molds and cores for metalcastings that slash lead times and enable complex, consolidated geometries without traditional tooling. However, the technology has remained largely out of reach for most of the market. According to the American Foundry Society, 75% of metalcasting operations in the United States are small businesses[1]. Many operate on the margins of survival – facing stiff global competition, industry consolidation, a shift away from traditional powertrains, and increasing labor shortages. Their need to remain flexible and ready for a more digital future has never been stronger. The affordable S-Max Flex is designed to help these smaller foundries both survive and thrive into the future. “In order to revolutionize manufacturing with additive manufacturing, we need to make it accessible,” said Ric Fulop, Founder and CEO of Desktop Metal. “Our mission as a company is to drive Additive Manufacturing 2.0 across all materials, and S-Max Flex is another example of how we’re going to deliver on this goal.” BETTER METAL THROUGH MORE ACCESSIBLE SAND PRINTING TECHNOLOGY Behind Desktop Metal’s mission is a desire to help more manufacturers benefit from
SHOWN: THE S-MAX FLEX PAIRS AN INDUSTRIAL ROBOT WITH AN END EFFECTOR FEATURING A NEW PRINTHEAD THAT USES DESKTOP METAL SINGLE PASS JETTING TECHNOLOGY
cover story AM 2.0’s improved time to market, increased design flexibility, reduced waste, and greater financial savings while de-risking supply chains. 3D printing sand molds and cores straight from CAD files enables foundries to eliminate the months-long lead times and high costs of traditional patterns and coreboxes. The design freedom of AM also allows designers to innovate parts made with the reliable casting process – creating complex, consolidated geometries that enable lightweighting and optimized part performance not possible with traditional processes. “We developed the system to provide a faster payback for foundries to produce castings of any volume without the wait and cost of traditional tooling,” said Joe Phillips, Chief Engineer of the S-Max Flex and VP of Engineering at Desktop Metal, where he previously led development of the Production System P-1 metal binder jet printer.
Fabricate MFG software, streamlining build preparation and making the 3D printing process even easier to adopt. 3D PRINTING INCREASED SUSTAINABILITY IN THE FOUNDRY By delivering an accessible sand 3D printing solution suitable for just about every foundry, Desktop Metal and ExOne aim to bring extensive efficiency gains to the market. In the foundry today, manual assembly is required to glue multiple traditionally formed cores into a final shape for casting. This intricate process requires skilled labor, a resource that is increasingly hard to find. Moreover, assembly typically leads to increased scrap resulting from human error in core misalignment while core-glue off-gassing during molten metal pouring also introduces porosity, compromising final part quality.
“Our goal is to enhance ROI and improve ease-of-use,” Philips emphasized. Aside from easy-swap printheads, the S-Max Flex will soon be compatible with Desktop Metal’s
“In order to revolutionize manufacturing with AM, we need to make it accessible.”
SHOWN: 3D PRINTED SAND FORMS FROM EXONE ARE INFILTRATED WITH RESIN AND TURNED INTO DURABLE PLASTIC THERMOFORMING TOOLING
SHOWN: THE FINAL ALUMINUM CASTING BENEFITS FROM PRECISION INTERIOR PASSAGES AND SMALL CROSS SECTIONS THAT COULD NOT BE PRODUCED WITH CONVENTIONAL METHODS
3D printing a core design as a single complex, consolidated geometry eliminates the need for assembly and all the labor, scrap, and complications that come with it. This design freedom is leading to iterative and optimized cast metal parts more akin to their directly 3D printed metal counterparts. S-MAX FLEX HAS AMBITIONS OUTSIDE THE FOUNDRY While Desktop Metal has big goals for the S-Max Flex, the company’s vision for this product doesn’t stop at sand or foundries. Indeed, this scalable binder jetting solution also holds the potential to support printing with a variety of materials for a range of large-scale applications. Already, S-Max systems print sand for resin infiltration to produce durable, rapid tooling for plastic thermoforming, composite layup, and sacrificial tooling applications. Similar techniques, where forms are printed in powder and then infiltrated, are already being used for architectural restoration or design elements. Forust, another brand in the Desktop Metal portfolio, plans to use the S-Max Flex’s large form factor to upcycle byproducts from traditional wood waste streams into upscale designs like automotive interiors or guitars. Meanwhile, Carnegie Mellon University has used binder jetting technology to print reclaimed powdered concrete into urban furniture in research of more sustainable architectural design. “To achieve Desktop Metal’s vision of Additive Manufacturing 2.0 we need to make 3D printing practical in terms of speed, cost, and material availability for a broad range of applications,” Fulop said. “The binder jetting technology of the S-Max Flex helps foundries stay competitive while also opening the door to new material innovations as we move toward a more additive future.”
SHOWN: COMPLEX CORE SHAPES THAT CREATE THE INTERIOR GEOMETRY OF A VAPOR RECOVERY FUEL NOZZLE PRINTED AS ONE MONOLITHIC PART BY ALPHA FOUNDRY COMPANY IN MISSOURI
VOL 8 ISSUE 2 / www.tctmagazine.com / 07
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The APF process allows for a high level of detail. Thanks to the open material platform, users can process a wide spectrum of thermoplastic granules, as well as their own original materials, and optimize the process controls themselves. The freeformer can also additively manufacture very small functional components and delecate structures without any problem.
The PEI/PC blend Ultem 9085 is a high-strength, flame-retardant material that is approved for aerospace applications. It also meets the fire protection requirements for rail transportation (UL94 V-0 flammability rating). With a build chamber capable of consistant heating at 200 degrees Celsius the freeformer can reliably process high-temperature materials. Functional prototypes such as gears, ventilation ducts, and other complex geometries can be created utilizing Ultem along with a break- away structure. Optimized temperature management, active component cooling, and high precision axis drives, allow for the freeformer to create parts with excellent accuracy and fine detail.
Recently at the formnext 2021 trade fair, alongside our partner, OTEC, ARBURG demonstrated the post-processing of APF functional components, e.g. using vibratory finishing. This additional process makes it possible to achieve surface qualities comparable to those of injection molded parts. For freeformer printed components the roughness can be reduced from an Ra 19.42 to Ra 0.46.
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HEALTHCARE
ALIF OF COMFORT
Sam Davies speaks to Osseus Fusion Systems' John Bohenick about the company's latest 3D printed medical device.
W
hen John Bohenick dials in to a trans-Atlantic call during his morning commute on February 10th, it has been 45 days since Osseus Fusion Systems made its latest submission to the FDA. As the medical device company’s R&D/ Engineering Manager, Bohenick, who has been central to this application, is waiting patiently for the FDA’s verdict, and has so far twice been required to provide minor clarifications. This, Bohenick notes, is par for the FDA certification course. But since Osseus is seeking a unique surgical indication that no other product currently has, satisfying the FDA at every step is paramount. “[This] is going to be a differentiable product regardless,” Bohenick begins, “but I think it would make a huge splash on the market by getting an indication that no other device on the market has achieved or has been granted, which is what we’re going for.”
“The FDA is putting an acute focus on additively manufactured devices. They really are putting a lens on it.” “There are actual functional features and aspects to this design that have to be done additively,” Bohenick explains. “[But] the way that it’s being manufactured would not have been feasible even two, three years ago because of how specific the tolerancing is
The product that has buoyed Bohenick with so much enthusiasm is an additively manufactured Standalone Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (ALIF) device called Pisces that cannot be manufactured with subtractive methods. It is not the first time Osseus has pursued FDA certification of a 3D printed product, having done so successfully in 2018 after launching its Aries interbody fusion device which is made from titanium and features a mesh structure with 80% porosity. This device was among the early additive interbody devices to be introduced on the market and ‘put a wind behind the sails’ of a company that was looking to carve out a niche. Four years on, Osseus has again sought to harness metal additive manufacturing, designing the Pisces device for this very process, but there is the notion that this wouldn’t have been possible in years gone by.
SHOWN: PISCES-SA WITH ANCHOR FIXATION
being held. [The] post-subtractive process is extremely minor, it’s just a chase on the tap. It’s testament to [how far] additive manufacturing has come.” Although not yet available for sale in the US, Osseus believes Pisces will become the new standard for Standalone ALIF devices. It is available at a range of heights between 9-19mm, in footprints between 23 x 29mm and 29 x 39mm and can be implanted with anchors or screws. By integrating a highly porous 3D printed interbody with anatomical morphology, the device has been designed for full osseointegration, streamlined instrumentation and anchor fixation technology for a minimally invasive approach. Additionally, a guided locking plate prevents any sort of dislodgment or motion of the fixation, while the mesh structure of the device boasts nearly 80% porosity and also provides load bearing support. “[80% porosity] is, I think, pretty impressive considering the strength that we were able to get out of it,” Bohenick says. “A majority of the volume of the interbody is made up of a porous, bilateral mesh meaning that it cuts through from both sides, so not just a unilateral mesh that some interbody devices have. That mesh, which allows you to maximize strength while also decreasing mass and allows for bone growth through, acts more as a scaffold. You’re trying to optimize the load that you’re bearing, while not having unused material. That mesh structure is really impossible to be manufactured subtractively.” The motivation for this product’s introduction to market is to help provide better treatments for spinal disc pain that could be brought on by tumors, traumas, or, more likely, degeneration as people age. If such a diagnosis was made and the surgeon decided to use an interbody with fixation through an anterior access, then Osseus’ Pisces device would be a potential solution. Once implanted, it would help to stabilize the patient’s spine and facilitate bone fusion.
VOL 8 ISSUE 2 / www.tctmagazine.com / 09
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HEALTHCARE
“This device tries to capitalize on the theoretical mechanotransduction principle,” Bohenick says, referencing the process by which cells convert mechanical stimuli into biochemical signals that elicit cellular responses. “If you’re able to distribute load over the entire endplate as much as is reasonably possible then you’re able to allow for bone growth across that entire surface, as opposed to just on the edges. So, wherever there’s going to be cyclic loading, you’re going to end up having bone growth. It made sense for us to try and approach a larger surface area contact on the interbody or on the endplate surface. What comes with that, then, is an anatomic profile of the end plates. There really are not many cages at all worldwide that have an anatomic profile on the end plates. This device does. “Being able to have that load distribution across the entire endplate and especially in that concavity would then lead to having lower incidence of subsidence, as well. So, we’re trying to maximize a number of different factors that really will differentiate the product on the market. “All of this mumbo jumbo technical talk really just comes down to, ‘hey, it looks right.’ And that’s what we’re going for. If a surgeon feels comfortable when they take a look at their fluoroscopy in the AP (antero-posterior) and lateral planes, then that’s a job well done for us.”
Osseus is set to roll out the Pisces device via its biggest ever Alpha launch with 15 units deployed to partner surgeons before a full launch coming further down the line. Bohenick says
SHOWN: PISCES-SA WITH SCREW FIXATION
Osseus has more demand for its Pisces series than it knows what to do with, but whether such demand is for an FDAapproved product is still pending. “We’ve been in contact with the FDA for at least a year and a half now. And the FDA outlined to us from very early on that, if we were going to prove that this device is worthy or permissible for this indication, we were going to have to do more than what is generally accepted for a standalone ALIF interbody fixation device,” Bohenick says. “The FDA is putting an acute focus on additively
manufactured devices and, in particular, going between different manufacturers, whether or not the devices are biocompatible. They really are putting a lens on it. They’re having us go through and really get into the nitty gritty details of explaining, as well as testing, bio comp for these additively manufactured devices. And it’s just more than what they have asked for in the past.” While Osseus has encountered recent cadaver shortages at the major tissue banks in the US and the cost complications that are typical for start-ups (since addressed with the assistance of the RAH Orthopaedic Foundation), it has also been required to carry out a series of studies to prove Pisces’ worth. These have included a cadaveric biomechanical range of motion fatigue study and a cadaveric technique validation, the latter of which sought to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of its anchor type fixation with the help of five orthopaedic and neurosurgeons, as well as one ALIF access surgeon. By Bohenick’s own admission, the process of getting Pisces its unique FDA indication has been ‘quite an endeavor,’ but there is an assurance at Osseus that its latest additively manufactured implant will eventually make the grade. “We feel pretty confident that we’re going to be getting the indications,” Bohenick finishes. “But nothing is set in stone yet.”
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HEALTHCARE
HEALTHY GROWTH W WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS
henever healthcare is spotlighted as one of the most interesting application areas for additive manufacturing (AM), the reasoning, whether coming from industry experts or the public, is typically as simple as this: “At the end of the day, all of us are patients at some point.” That sentiment was shared by Menno Ellis, Executive Vice President, Healthcare Solutions at 3D Systems in a recent conversation with TCT. The AM leader has been a pioneer in the medical space for almost three decades, with more than two million medical devices produced out of its dedicated FDA-registered and ISO 13485-certified facility in Colorado, and applications that span the gamut from dental devices to planning solutions and regenerative medicine. Reflecting on the progress 3D Systems has made in the healthcare space in the last decade alone – a decade that’s seen custom 3D printed spinal cages become an established solution and the total number of delivered patient-specific cases and devices reach more than 140,000 – Ellis said: “Initially, there were a number of companies and physicians that looked at [AM] and said, this makes sense, this gets better results, so we're going to adopt but they didn't really have a lot of data to back it up. What's really changed over the course of the last decade is there have been studies that validate the benefits of using, for example, surgical planning to plan surgeries and personalized solutions that now validate some of that initial thinking people had. That has obviously helped drive the adoption.” We speak following a year of expansion and change for the company which included a number of acquisitions, namely bioprinting solutions developer Allevi and most recently, PEEK specialist Kumovis, alongside a change in leadership which saw company founder Chuck Hull taking on the role of Chief Technology Officer for Regenerative Medicine. The company also earmarked an additional 50,000 square feet for its Denver facility, scheduled to break ground this year, to accelerate its growth trajectory for patient-specific craniomaxillofacial applications and facilitate the development of new joint replacement solutions.
“It is back to that theme of personalized medicine,” Ellis said of the expansion. “That’s the part of the business that is growing. Not just within the traditional indications where we started primarily in the craniomaxillofacial space, and continues to grow […] but now we’ve started to take those capabilities and are talking to the orthopaedic companies around applying that to other parts of the body and are getting very good acceptance as well.” Developments have been happening across various joint solutions, many still under wraps, but the most recent public advances have been in ankle devices. In 2020, the company received FDA 510(k) clearance for its Vantage Ankle PSI patient-specific total ankle surgical planning and 3D printed instruments in collaboration with Exactech. It’s in personalized solutions such as this,
which afford better surgeries and patient outcomes, where Ellis says AM truly shines. “One of the benefits additive manufacturing offers is being able to produce in lot sizes of one […]. As it becomes more practical, more economical to produce implantable devices for different body types, as well as more complex surgical instruments for point of care systems, that enables practising physicians to think more creatively and more holistically about how healthcare is being applied. It really starts with that ability to personalize by way of additive manufacturing but then goes all the way upstream to the practitioner, really rethinking the way they practice medicine.” This knock-on effect can also be seen in the way the technology is being adopted at the point of care. 3D Systems already has one of the largest publicly known initiatives within the VA hospital system in the U.S., and with the introduction of machines like its Figure 4 technology and a more accessible ecosystem of accompanying software and materials products, the barriers for healthcare professionals have been significantly lowered. “What we've seen is quite a few groups that dip their toe in the water and are using 3D printers on site to make anatomical models or surgery planning and communications, and maybe to a lesser degree, also some surgical tools, cutting guides, drill guides, things of that nature," Ellis concluded. "But what we've also seen is some occasional reactive moves like, for example, in the past two years, different groups coming up with the ability to print nasopharyngeal [swabs] for COVID testing.
“I really think that we're standing on the threshold of adoption right now. The improved economics, and more environmentally-friendly machines that are easier to operate, promote manufacturing in a distributed environment, combine that with the ease of use of software that really ties everything together to make that happen. […] We’ve observed some early steps, but that big adoption is really something that we’re right on the cusp of seeing.” SHOWN: VANTAGE ANKLE PSI PATIENT-SPECIFI GUIDE
VOL 8 ISSUE 2 / www.tctmagazine.com / 013
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HEALTHCARE
CUSTOM CARE WORDS: SAM davies
W
with a malignant jaw tumor. During a nine-hour surgery, the condyloma and soft tissues were removed and a patient-specific, 3D printed titanium implant was inserted without any complication. In another case, a 3D printed implant with an internal mesh structure (60-80% porosity) was produced in a shape that matched the patient’s anatomy perfectly – the patient, who had been diagnosed with a benign tumor, had previously experienced complications in an earlier procedure that used a standard implant. Manufactured with electronbeam melting in titanium, the porous implant facilitated full integration between bone and mesh, while also reducing the structure’s weight. This procedure was carried out without any complications. e didn’t have any choice,” Ewa Waliczek says frankly, in reference to a decision made back in 2016.
Having spent her entire career up until February of that year in software development, Waliczek had started to yearn for a vocation with more social impact. Harnessing that desire – and combining her software development expertise with the orthopaedic and craniomaxillofacial shape modeling proficiency of Paweł Skadłubowicz – she co-founded a medical device development company called Customy. The mission of Customy is to make craniomaxillofacial procedures more precise and less complex in a more affordable way. And central to that objective is 3D printing technology. “I think it’s the only way that we can do it,” Waliczek tells TCT. “Our models are patientspecific, so they’re different every time. We need to create every model, guide or implant for every patient, so there is no other way to do it.” In the six years since Customy was founded, the company has provided many customized parts to surgeons and doctors, including models that help them prepare for surgery and implants that ensure better outcomes. One instance saw the reconstruction of 65% of a patient’s mandible from the right condyle to the left mandibular body after a young woman was diagnosed
It is for these reasons why Customy has bet big on patient-specific devices, and in turn 3D printing. For while standard implants are often enough, there are times when more personalized care is required. “There are some cases that the standard implants may [bring] limitations for patients and postoperation complications regarding the size or the way that the implants were used,” Waliczek says. “Patient-specific implants are how you can design what you actually need, and you can reconstruct the bone structure [to] how it was before. You won’t achieve it by using the standard implants. We were focusing, at first, with printing maxillofacial reconstructions. There, every face is different and having a mandible tumor are really hard cases [to operate on] because most of the patients lose their bones. We wanted to give them the possibility to look the same after the surgery.” Being able to deliver these benefits to patients and share these success stories with medical professionals is key for Customy. When the company first started out, Waliczek noted the surprise of some doctors that their offering was able to speed up surgery
times. That surprise had its roots in an uncertainty and hesitancy that is being chipped away at with every Customy application. While patient-specific implants are the obvious headline grabber, it is the customized surgical guides and anatomical models that are often underpinning those successful procedures. For Waliczek and her colleagues, there is a hope that parts like this will become standard in the healthcare sector. But the key to that, the company believes, is enabling medical professionals to bring the capability in-house. Hence, Waliczek has overseen the development of Customy Vision, a 3D visualization software for the modeling of medical images, with design modules for surgical guides and implants to come. Boasting smart segmentation, advanced visualization, DICOM anonymization and surface modeling features, this platform has been designed for surgeons and bioengineers to create anatomical models in their labs. This is the next step of Customy’s mission, and it is one with a long-term vision. While 3D printing’s application in medical today is ‘making healthcare more patient oriented’, Waliczek believes there is even more value to be captured. “We were wondering,” Waliczek says, “what will be the best way of propagating the use of anatomical models? Of course, we can do it inhouse and collaborate with hospitals, but we think the best way is when they have their own laboratory and they can do it on their own because then they could have the models within one day, right? And such models are also the entry point for later designing surgical guides or implants. We want to try to be independent [from surgeons]. We think it’s more scalable and it’s saving time and cost doing it in-house, so we are convincing them, educating them to do it by themselves.”
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WORDS: SAM davies
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o matter the industry and no matter the application, for every product that is conceptualized, designed, manufactured, sold and dispatched there is packaging to protect it. In many respects, it means a separate product has to be developed for every product that is developed. And with that comes considerations around design, cost, time and waste. Yet, too often, packaging is an afterthought. “The way every single NPI (New Product Introduction) works,” Mariona Company starts, “and it’s the case for HP and the case for any other company, packaging is always the last thing that we decide.” Mariona speaks as the Global Head of HP’s Molded Fiber endeavors, an advanced tooling business set up to facilitate more sustainable packaging, with a keen focus on the food and beverage sectors. It was born out of HP’s commitment to eliminating 75% of single-use plastic packaging by 2025; single-use plastic packaging – of which more than 150 million tonnes is produced per year – contributes to greenhouse gas emissions all the way through its lifecycle and typically ends up in landfill.
Having set up the Molded Fiber business, HP is aiming to ‘disrupt’ the packaging market with fiber-based, 100% plastic-free packaging. The tooling for these packaging solutions leans on the capability of HP’s Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing technology, while Choose Packaging – a zero-plastic paper bottle manufacturer – was acquired by HP and integrated into its Personalization & 3D Printing business earlier this year. HP has applied this solution in-house for products such as its HP Desktop Mini, and is also now working with external customers. It suggests that more thought is going into packaging and indicates a growing interest from the market in 3D printing-enabled solutions. AHEAD OF THE PACK One packaging company to invest in and integrate 3D printing technology is Quadpack, who purchased a Stratasys J750 in 2018 and a Stratasys J850 in 2019, after starting out with an Objet 30 machine. Quadpack is a designer and manufacturer of packaging for skin care, makeup and fragrance companies, delivering bottles, jars,
product dispensing systems and airless componentry. For at least 90% of the projects it works on, Quadpack turns to this 3D printing capability to help its clients move through the design iteration phase. With its full-color 3D printing systems, the company can produce multiple prototypes at the same time to explore different design options, while resembling something close to the final packaging product. “It’s helped package designers to test out new ideas quickly and try out what is likely to work and what isn’t,” Quadpack Senior Designer Oliver Drew tells TCT. “But, in addition, it’s helped to allow the customer to accelerate that development stage of design. Whether it’s for bespoke [products], or for a new catalog item, it’s helped to avoid the need of having to create a pilot mold sample, which in a lot of cases can take four to six weeks to create the tool. Then, you’ve got to wait to receive the samples [and] if you want them decorated, that’s a separate process in itself. So, being able to 3D print in full-color, to then also apply the decoration with the right opacities and mixing those two together from an early stage, really helps the customer to visualize what that design could look like in that color with that artwork.”
SHOWN: HP MOLDED FIBER PACKAGING MOLDS FOR CHOOSE PACKAGING'S ZERO PLASTIC PAPER BOTTLE
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While 3D printing has obvious benefits for prototyping applications, the fullcolor capabilities of Stratasys’ J Series, for example, make the technology an increasingly attractive option for packaging companies, particularly those working in the beauty and food stuff industries. Mimaki is another company offering color 3D printing technology through its 3DUJ-553 and 3DUJ-2207 systems, with the latter available at a list price of €35k. Though the company sees its biggest opportunities in the medical, art and figurine markets, there is some interest regarding packaging from the perfume industry. “What we see is that people can have a much faster time to market if they have a 3D object,” says Mark Sollman, Mimaki’s Product Manager EMEA, “because then they can touch it and the process will go [quicker].” Though Mimaki is seeing some interest from customers wanting to enhance their packaging prototyping procedures, there is some doubt as to whether enduse product applications will emerge in packaging - as they have in other markets - particularly when volume and economics are considered. HP, though, is confident it has found an application primed for additive manufacturing. TOOLING UP When HP first embarked on its Molded Fiber venture, it took two months for the company to get a design ready and processable on a HP 3D printing system in a Mexico facility. Once it had rode those software issues, however, the mold was successfully 3D printed first time. At this point, the company decided to invest in a cross functional team of engineers, as well as a proprietary workflow and design software. This software is said to be capable of automatically creating optimized molds based on the product’s CAD design, as well as organizing a pipeline of job intake to the 3D printers. What comes out of the printers are three different types of tooling componentry. The HP Advanced Mold Body and the HP Advanced Transfer Tool both reduce the need for sectioning and drilling, while the HP hot swap SmartScreen integrated key features such as wash-walls, block-outs and hold-downs. All are made with an ‘engineering polyamide that is not subject to corrosion or calcification in water,’ and are said to help enable quicker time to
SHOWN: HP'S MOLDED FIBER PACKAGING MOLDS FOR ITS DESKTOP MINI PC PRODUCT
“If you look at how packaging products are being created 3D printing will play a critical role.” market, design flexibility and efficiency gains, per Mariona. HP’s internal divisions are said to be lining up to utilize the Molded Fiber solutions, with the company looking to prioritize the products that will represent a transition from plastic foam type packaging to molded fiber. “When you are designing with tooling and fiber, if you start from the beginning when you design the product, you get better outcomes,” Mariona says. “What we are doing with the different divisions with HP is identifying the roadmap of products that we want to move into sustainable packaging and then working with our engineers in packaging on moving this technology.” ARRIVING ON THE SCENE HP’s approach to the roll out of Molded Fiber within its own business is in line with the aforementioned 2025 target, which falls under its sustainability strategy umbrella. Of course, while the end result of HP’s molded fiber packaging process might be more ideal than plastics, the sustainability proficiencies of energyintensive 3D printing technologies have been the subject of much debate over the years. Oliver suggests that 3D printing has been ‘a little bit late to the scene in terms of sustainability’ making a direct reference to materials, though it only becomes a serious consideration when the 3D printing volumes increase.
“We’re determined to make those advances,” Oliver says of sustainability. “We’ve used 3D printing as a way to reduce development time, whereas now it’s getting to this stage of industrialization. So, for the initial design stages we’ve never really needed to depend on the sustainability of the material because you’re only producing a few components. Whereas, when you start going into the thousands of pieces, you then need to obviously start thinking about the sustainability of the material.” With that said, and while Oliver acknowledges the design freedom, flexibility and personalization proficiencies of 3D printing, he notes that there are still limitations in material quality and volume capacity. Despite that, HP has teams ‘working with major brands on primary packaging’ products, in which the only way they can be manufactured is with 3D printing. Concerning sustainability, Mariona reminds us of 3D printing’s ability to produce parts locally and on-demand, but maintains that right now the big opportunities for the technology lie in tooling and prototyping. “3D printing is the future in fibrebased products,” Mariona finishes. “This industry has been looking at 3D printing for a long time, it’s just that until now there haven’t been any 3D printing technologies that could address the requirements of such a tough application. If you talk about the rest of packaging, I believe that if you look at the trends on how packaging products are being created – less short runs, more customization, sustainability, new products – 3D printing will play a critical role. And it will do so because of prototyping for sure, but [also] the bridge to manufacturing.”
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RIGHT TO RE-PRINT WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS
I
n just the last six months, my washing machine has broken down twice. It’s over ten years old so the length of time taken to source and install parts meant several weeks of handing over a laundry bag to my parents like I was an 18-year-old student going home for the weekend again. It got me thinking about a presentation by industry consultant Phil Reeves back at CES in 2015: the teardown of a Bosch washing machine to see which components could and couldn't be 3D printed. While the technologies referenced have evolved in the intervening years, its message, that the economics don’t always add up to AM, continues to offer a relevant dose of pragmatism whenever the topic of spare parts is raised. “I think if we did this study now, we'd find a lot more viable components that are either economically viable to 3D print or materials that are more suited,” Reeves recounted in a recent call with TCT. “Personally, I still think the whole spare part debate comes down to material properties. Do we have an available additive material that is fit for purpose to replace the spare part? The right to repair thing is going to be really interesting in that, yes, we have a right to repair but where does the liability sit if you take the choice of repair? Because unless the part was initially designed to be made by 3D printing, it's always going to be kind of a Band-Aid.” While recent conversations around supply chain have put AM and digital inventories under the spotlight, 3D printing replacement parts is nothing new. Back in 2012, Swedish consumer electronics manufacturer Teenage Engineering made some of its components available via online 3D printing provider Shapeways to combat high shipping costs associated with replacement parts for its OP-1 Synthesizer. “Companies like Teenage Engineering highlight one of the greatest benefits in 3D printing, allowing anyone to take control of creating spare parts, and pushing back against the ongoing issue with products that can be impossible to repair,” Christopher Angi, Director of Sales at Shapeways
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told TCT. “On the larger scale, we see the ability to 3D print spare parts and eliminate enormous amounts of warehouse space – along with the longwinded chain of communication it can take just to get one or a few parts – replaced by digital inventories. We are working with companies in several verticals who are already doing this, or considering the transition. We also see a trend in companies who want to focus on sharpening their own specialties while outsourcing 3D printing services for functional parts related to maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO).” Where the volumes are right or a redesign beneficial, the case for AM can be made but for many parts, traditional methods of manufacture are still the way to go. Reeves recalls a visit to the warehouse of one of Europe’s largest white goods spare parts suppliers almost a decade ago. An analysis of the millions of SKUs on-hand was conducted but Reeves concluded “you could literally count on one hand the ones that were viable 3D prints.” “Some of those were viable for printing but the vast majority of parts that fail are not the mechanical principal parts,” Reeves continued, noting cast metal parts such as metal hob burners which might otherwise prove costly to reproduce with traditional tooling. “The vast majority of white goods parts that fail are electrical parts systems, interlock switches because they wear out, motors, bearings, it's all things that are actually not particularly printable.” For those parts where 3D printing does make sense, 3D printer manufacturer and service provider Ricoh 3D has
been deploying AM for spare parts both internally and for customers. The company has adopted a ‘oneon-the-shelf’ model for its own spare parts, with engineers at Ricoh UK's Products Limited site swapping out critical factory jigs and automation tooling for AM alternatives. In one customer example, domestic equipment consortium Groupe SEB worked with Ricoh 3D to redesign an obsolete drip collector for an espresso machine. The company already offers 3D printed spare parts for several products as part of a 10-year repair scheme guarantee, and was able to successfully perform 1,000 coffee cycles with this SLS spare.
EMERGING MARKETS
Mark Dickin, Additive Manufacturing & Molding Engineering Manager at Ricoh 3D, told TCT: “The project demonstrates how 3D printing allows small intricate products to be produced quickly; whether this is in the repair of finished consumer products or production line equipment. When volumes are relatively small or parts are out of production, 3D printing is often the only profitable solution.” While Dickin believes AM can play a huge role in application stories such as this, he cautions there are still challenges in disrupting established spare part models. “The ‘right to repair’ legislation is likely to cause logistical headaches for manufacturers globally who face having to stock hundreds of thousands of spare parts.” Dickin said. “However, the law could also finally move the dial in reversing the “throwaway society” trend of the last 60 years by creating goods that last longer - producing savings for both the consumer and environment. “Some parts will be frequently required and it makes sense for manufacturers to hold these in physical form, but 3D printing means the parts which are less in demand can be held digitally as CAD data. With only a data file needed, why stop at a 10-year guarantee?” Paul Ruscoe, New Business Development Director at LCD-based 3D printer developer Photocentric, which has worked with a number of manufacturers in the consumer electronics and durables space to produce spare parts, agrees. “The legislation is likely to cause significant logistical problems for manufacturers who face having to stock thousands of spare parts,” Ruscoe told TCT. “The flexibility of AM provides a solution to this problem. It’s likely that parts that are often required will be held in stock, but 3D printing means the parts which are required less frequently can be held digitally – with small production runs printed on-demand.”
“3D printing has the potential to redefine how spare parts are controlled and supplied.”
With right to repair legislation now requiring manufacturers across Europe to supply replacement parts for select white goods and electricals over 10 years, Ruscoe says this creates a challenge for manufacturers who will be required to stock parts they may not need, and the company is actively inviting consumer goods manufacturers to collaborate and digitize their spare parts lists. “3D printing can easily unlock this problem by being able to print quantities on demand,” Ruscoe said. “This gives manufacturers the opportunity to support the right to repair initiative whilst saving costs on stock and warehousing, and at the same time minimizing risk of producing parts that are not required.” In some cases, consumers are taking repair into their own hands. Repair Café has created a network of 2,200 free spaces where visitors can bring in their broken items and learn to repair for free. The initiative was started in 2009 by environmentalist Martine Postma in Amsterdam. Now, with locations all over the world, equipped with all the tools and materials needed to repair items from electrical appliances to toys, might 3D printing have a place? “The Repair Café community across the world is enthusiastic about 3D printing and sees its potential,” Postma told TCT. “We see some Repair Cafés experimenting with 3D printing, but not on a large scale. Designing spare parts is still rather difficult. If this should become easier, more Repair Cafés would feel more confident about 3D printing and then it could be a real revolution for the repair movement.” While Postma notes the increase in students learning 3D design and manufacturing skills in schools, which the founder believes are “much needed in a repair society,” there are other challenges to contend with.
“It could be a revolution,” Postma added. “When you can print a spare part pretty easily yourself, you no longer depend on the manufacturer to supply you with the things you need to make a repair. You would then really have the means to make repairs. Of course, you still need repair information, which the manufacturer is not keen to supply. But being able to create spare parts yourself would be a huge step which would stimulate self-repair. It would also be better for the environment if spare parts could be produced locally instead of having to come from the other side of the world.” In the UK, Manchester Metropolitan University’s PrintCity is part of a 7.84M Euro Interreg North-West Europe project called ShaRepair, which aims to decrease WEEE (Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment) from consumer products through citizen repair initiatives leveraging digital tools like 3D printing. “There are thousands of citizens out there with varying degrees of expertise in repair, but they are diffuse and some don’t have access to the parts they need,” Gary Buller, Technical Officer at PrintCity commented. “The digital tools of ShaRepair will hopefully bring these citizens together, closing the gap between intent and behaviour. 3D Print is one of the tools in closing those gaps, enabling citizens to manage their parts inventories better, bringing an agility to the supply chain of spare parts and also optimizing the repair process.” Working with partners across Belgium, the Netherlands, UK, Ireland and Denmark, ShaRepair provides online tools, a digital library of printable parts, professional repair service information and free product repair workshops throughout the year. PrintCity has even repaired its own 3D printers using recycled filament made from coffee cups. Rhiannon Hunt, Circular Economy Project Manager at MMU, added: “It's not necessarily things you think about off the top of your head. We've had a radio housing that was cracked so they printed out a new housing for it, attachments for vacuum cleaners and buttons, all sorts of things. I think that's one of the key benefits of additive, it’s so flexible so you can tackle a lot of different types of products easily.”
VOL 8 ISSUE 2 / www.tctmagazine.com / 021
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or used to manufacture parts or patterns via additive manufacturing. With over thirty years’ experience, the team at ClassIQmfg.com can truly deliver “Smart Additive Manufacturing” solutions. Every part, pattern and project are backed with a 100% quality guarantee for a worry-free experience. Trust the DINO. Go ClassIQ! Services: • SLA QuickCastTM Patterns • 3D Printed Wax and PMMA Patterns • Rapid Prototyping • Reverse Engineering, 3D Scanning and 3D CAD Modeling • Additive Manufacturing & Engineering Consulting Services
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TCT AWARDS
PROF WAI YEE YEONG ON RESEARCH, DIVERSITY & EDUCATION WORDS: Dannielle Jones
I
n 2019, Professor Wai Yee Yeong was recognized for her contributions to additive manufacturing (AM) research at the TCT Awards. The inaugural winner of the TCT Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award is an Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), where she previously trained as a mechanical engineer. She went on to gain a PhD and today serves as the program director for the HP-NTU digital manufacturing Corp Lab and the Singapore Centre for 3D Printing. Below, she answers our questions on AM research, education and diversity. TCT: Firstly, what inspired you to pursue a career in AM?
Prof. Yeong: The freedom of design afforded by this technology is nothing short of fascinating. I am amazed by the potential of this technology, and also felt really compelled to learn more about it. That interest coupled with my passion in biomedical, led me to complete my PhD thesis on the topic of 3D printing biodegradable scaffold for tissue engineering. After my PhD, I joined the industry of biomedical, working on different medical
products including coronary stent and contact lens. TCT: So, what are you currently working on?
Prof. Yeong: My team are equally as passionate as I am. We worked on multiple frontiers in 3D printing, namely bioprinting of cells and tissues, electronics printing, 3D printing of new metal alloys and applying machine learning for 3D printing. All these topics have the potential to disrupt their respective industries. TCT: As a female researcher, how do you think the industry can change to close the gender gap? Prof. Yeong: While there are a good number of female engineers, there is certainly room for (big) improvement to close the gender gap. There is a legacy issue and there is also the issue of society perception. We cannot allow anyone to tell our girls that they cannot do certain things just because of the gender of a person. It is a fundamental mindset that we need every educator and parent to be aware of in order to eradicate such
over-arching statements. It is also important that we need to encourage the female engineers to not be influenced by the general perception, and be brave to explore any industries of their interest. It is an encouraging trend that many companies are taking real action to close the gender gap, such as setting up formal units of inclusivity and diversity. We need more companies and even education institutes to join such movements, in order to create enough momentum for real impact. I also feel that it could be a worthy investment for companies to create dedicated female-centric programs, to develop or expand the pool of female employees. TCT: In your role at NTU, you manage over 2,500 students. Why do you think it’s important to promote the industry to younger people to bridge the education gap? Prof. Yeong: There are several aspects that would impact the industry. We need to update the way we teach and create new modules to transfer the knowledge of 3D printing in a systematic manner. In my school, I have created several new modules in 3D printing for undergraduate and graduate level. It is also important to keep updating the teaching materials as the world of 3D printing is happening (and changing) as the courses are being delivered. The ecosystem of 3D printing is dynamic and still emerging. Students or younger people are not entirely clear on what kind of jobs that they can get. It is also important for companies to establish high potential job functions that will provide continuous learning opportunities for the person on the job. The industry of 3D printing is definitely critical and is responsible for shaping the strategic economy landscape of 3D printing. However, many new applications and high-end know-hows reside in the education institutes who are training PhD and graduates. It is critical to form a partnership between the education institute with the industry, in order to meet the immediate and long-term career needs of a 3D printing profession. This interview has been edited for brevity. You can read the full Q&A at: https://mytct.co/WaiYeeYeongInterview
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MARCH 2022
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is paved with extraordinary and visionaries manufacturing field? ny Local Motors uses milestones next-generation manuwho to shape manufacturing’s 3D printing mindset. FU: Incontinue fact, in facturing the last few months, moved from processes to I’ve build its autonomous
Pioneers like Jennifer Coyne, inupper this installment California to Nevada, soOlli. weFor have a featured new Olli’s co-ambassador electric vehicle, example, and lower of Voices AMplified, built decades-long at the for the Los Angeles of WI3DP, whereascareers I now have structures arechapter 3Dhave printed from recyclable polycarbonate vanguard of introducing additive concepts to traditional material. 3D printing an environmentally the ambassadorship for Lastechnology Vegas. Asisyou can imagine, it’s
industries. Those results have been spectacular. friendlybeing manufacturing manpretty difficult in a placeprocess where itself. there Using is veryadditive little real In Coyne’s case, the graduate of GE’s Edison Engineering ufacturing, reduce transportation costschapand print manufacturing, butyou I’mcan roving all over, helping other Development Program has overseen the successful launch to match demand, with warehouses holding less stock. ters like Detroit and Chicago. Additive manufacturing is a of more than 50 production AM parts and four 3D printing With this in mind, industry-leading 3D printing has route for women and girls to become designers, engineers,been labs in the U.S. and India. Today, she serves as associate used by the automotive developer to support a project in leaders, andof business owners. It’s far Global easier Advisors, to set up ayour director programs at The Barnes PittsEurope, based on the integration of some extra parts. The own burgh-based company with a 3D printer than buying your own 500T consulting firm whose stated mission is “to help production materials are from the Windform Top-Line range forging press and trying manufacturing.” to make forged fan disks right off the industrialize additive of composites for 3D printing. bat. Though, of course, is still a possibility you choose Then there’s Davidthat Leigh, chief technology ifofficer for adThese materials were chosen for their mechanical charmanufacturing at 3D Systems. His career has included to doditive so.acteristics, but it is also important to note that the matrix of stints with EOS and Stratasys, and he has either worked for some Windform material is a bio-based polymer and thereor helped launch several other firms, including Desk HANSON: Similarly, also volunteer in that theIntegra, USC fore 100 percent you renewable: The tenet, Olli is Viterbi one of the Top Manufacturing and Advanced Laser Materials. School’smost K12sustainable STEM program. Given that STEM was estabvehicles on the road, is safe. Illuminating the hard-won victories of additive thought lished nearly 30 yearsthe ago and Motors’ there remains Regarding Local project ainchronic Europe,labor Carlo leaders like Coyne and Leigh is the reason Voices AMpliGeneral EMEA industry, Local Motors, shortageIacovini, throughout the Manager manufacturing whatstated, else “To fied exists. approve deployments in Europe, needed some additional should we be doing to get young peopleit interested in the For more than 30 years, SME, too, has played a pioneercomponents, not required in the US market.” Among these trades? ing role in shaping the conversation about additive manufacwere windshield wipers and parts.we hosted an event FU: When I was at Relativity Space,
“To add the wiper, we opted for a retrofit technique, or
for the Viterbi School’s Girls in STEM program, where two
re-adaptation process, through an integration on the 2.0
other female engineers of color and I gave a talk to the girls
model,” Iacovini said. “These phases—retrofit and integra-
initiatives and with industry and represent thecollaborations future of advanced manufacturing. During the wipers assembly phase, the academic Local What Motorsshould partners, SME convenes and engages the leading additive manufacturers be doing now to embrace this future? engineering team noticed that the motor protruded from voices advance theFactory myriad really aspects of 3D fortherefore proFU: That Smart is just a printing template for the theto modified front bumper: “To avoid the issue we totyping and production. Factory of the Future, except that the Factory of the Future thought to add two coordinated covers,” Iacovini said: One Voices AMplified taps into the wealth of knowledge from conceals thehumans protruding part while the AR second cover will cover have even fewer in it, with more interfacsome of the brightest minds within the SME universe—showprotects the pressure system of the washer reservoir from es, more autonomous features and cloud-based tools. The casing the progress in additive manufacturing, exposing external agents, he explained. manufacturing processes extend way beyond the simplisdynamic changes in the industry and giving you firsthand The Local Motors teammetal designed the motor cover tic methods used on sheet (as demonstrated infrom the case studies on the opportunities and success of 3D printing. scratch. “For the wiper’s washer reservoir flap valve, we current setup of the Smart Factory) and could include 3D At the core of this initiative are the people on the ground and
printing and other relatedmanufacturing. advanced processes. I think the in the trenches of additive
days inus which shop travelers written on aour piece of paper and Join throughout the year as we share 360-degree enclosed in a plastic folder are definitely over. One thing the focus on additive voices, opportunities and developments manufacturing industry overlooks Manufacturing is the need forEngiimproveacross all SME platforms—including neering SMART Manufacturing magazines, podcasts, ment inand existing software, machine learning and AI. In metal webinars and more.building large and complex structures on AM, for example, With sobasis muchisprogress to be a design all veryyet well, butrealized withoutwith theadditive software to manufacturing, andcomplexity the wealth of innovative minds and ideas drive robots, the won’t be accomplished. That’s in the SME universe, we offer Voices AMplified as an all-en-
very clear to me. Like a true partnership, software needs to
compassing portal to additive manufacturing expertise through
complement the hardware.
the SME ecosystem. It is our mission—and our pleasure—to
HANSON: Taking that last question one step further,
share the inspiring stories of these industry innovators as
where does metal AM fit into Industry 4.0? What obstacles
together we pave the way for future additive successes.
stand in the way of more widespread adoption, and how should we as manufacturers conquer them? FU: Let’s take an example of a steel mill, or from my
in the program and engaged with the parents. I thought
point of view, a titanium mill. Fewer young people want to
this was an incredible opportunity because the parents saw
work in such a facility because the perception is that it’s
people who looked like them, working in different disciplines
dirty, nasty work only suitable for big strong men. I would
in the space launch industry. I saw the look of inspiration on gular pod with wide-set headlights and expansive windows
argue that the perception, methods of manufacturing, and
the parents’ faces and realized to engage entirearm nestled between a frame.we Forneed that reason, the wiper
equipment and know-how needed to make these products
families could so that particularly middle-school girls from of color, notgirls, be positioned from above, but rather below
are all going to change. Future aircraft parts will be made by
tion—were carried out in Italy, based on the original design produced by the Engineering Team in Chandler.”
Olli 2.0 ’s unique design is characterized by a tall rectan-
understand opportunities are open to the them, and and that to thethese side of the front window. “Thus, Local Motors’ advanced manufacturing processes that can give properties if they set their minds to it, theydesigned can achieve they with engineering department a newwhatever front bumper
The 2.0 version of the Olli autonomous EV features a
equal to or better than currently accepted by tradisingle wiper arm thatthose extends from below the windshield.
Provided by CRP Technology. brackets for fixing the wipers motorThe and eduthe front tional want. Family support is soboth important andstarter incredible. methods. Right now, we do not have enough data or
34process Voices AMplified 2022 | March cation does not just include school but also includes informal30 learning. and |extra-curricular Voices Clubs AMplified February 2022 activities that 026 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 8 ISSUE 2 ME_22_Mar_Voices_AMP.indd 34
confidence in fracture-critical aircraft parts made by AM, but one day, that will change. Distributed manufacturing 2/18/22 11:45 AM
will also change the way we make things in a variety of industry sectors, including medical and consumer products. HANSON: Thank you for your ongoing work with The Shade Tree, a relief and assistance organization dedicated to homeless and abused women and children in southern Nevada. What can manufacturers do to support this and other important initiatives? FU: I chose this particular charity because they are local to the city of Las Vegas, but honestly, there are hundreds tends of goodJennifer causes Coyne that need support. In this to an SLM800 metal 3D printer at one of Wabtec’s paranoid—or not—about their health, I AM production sites. Provided by Jennifer Coyne think it is still important to try to spare
time of pandemic where people are very
a thought for those who are facing way more difficult situations than ourselves. To me, women and children who are Jennifer Coyne
leverages an impressive career in the rail sector industrialize additive manufacturing
homeless, abused or victims ofto human help
trafficking have very little agency in these situations. Organizations like The Shade Tree provide practical means for these
Eliana Fu, industry manager for aerospace and medical at TRUMPF North America and event advisor for RAPID + TCT. Provided by TRUMPF North America.
Riding the Rails
vulnerable groups to get back on their
feet. For instance, I sewed Baby Yoda and Marvel Comics
facemasks and sold them to people who wanted more fun yet washable cotton facemasks. But it doesn’t matter the
Kip Hanson
dollarContributing amount you raised or the forms your fundraising took; Editor
Jennifer Coyne
Associate Director of Programs, The Barnesthere in this spring, I realized that I’d left the lump of titanium Global Advisors the attic. The good news is that piece of SME titanium will never Additive corrode, so the new owner can rest easy knowing it’s doing Manufacturing Technical Community the job it was never intended to do.
the point is that you did something to help someone else. It
O
could be something simpleuses as stuffing leftover toiletries f all theas potential for additive manuinto plastic bags for themaking homeless. that feel facturing, partsDoesn’t for the railroad in- good to help a fellow human being? dustry is surely at the bottom of the list. Railcars and the locomotives that move them are heavy,
blocky constructions weighing tenspage or even hundreds of tons. HANSON: Much of your LinkedIn discusses
“AM is an advanced manufacturing tool that is real and here to stay. It’s the future, and who doesn’t want to embrace the future?”35
Checking all the boxes
Jennifer Coyne will tell you: Wrong on all counts. She
should know. In 2008, Coyne earned a bachelor’s degree in
mechanical engineering at Grove City College in Pennsylva-
nia while serving an internship at GE Transportation. After her
need for lightweighting, andatopology your There’s love of no titanium. Do you really carry bar of itoptimization in your
hiring, she pursued a master’s degree in the same field from
is almost for it a device thatimportant relies on brute handbag, whylaughable do you call the most metalstrength ever,
the Georgia Institute of Technology, all the while climbing
to do its job. Furthermore, rapid prototyping can’t possibly be and have you had the opportunity yet to tell someone, “It’s
the GE ladder to become a design engineer, senior systems
a factor for a vehicle whose basic design hasn’t changed in
engineer, then a global AM team lead for GE Transportation,
centuries. Right?
which was soon acquired by Wabtec Corp.
titanium, you idiot!”?
FU: I no longer carry a lump of titanium in my purse. It was a 1.5” thick piece of machined Ti-6Al-4V bar; I used it to prop up a leaking air-conditioner drip tray in the attic of my townhome in Torrance, California. After selling the house ME_22_Mar_Voices_AMP.indd 35
VOL 8 ISSUE 2 / www.tctmagazine.com / 027 2/18/22 11:46 AM
Voices Voices AMplified AMplified
Voices AMplified
During this time, Coyne held roles in locomotive traction,technology, propulsion systems, wind andtodiesel engine in laser that is anon-shore easy transition make. AM is emissions designs and energy storage reliability. She’s a
clearly an advanced manufacturing tool that is not a gimmick
qualification challenging. This more than anything remains one of thecritical biggestthinking, hurdles to widespread AMteam-working adoption.” promote innovation, and are Coyne has ample experience to tackle such issues, much
other tools we can use to inspire youth. Finally, as employ-
Composite additive materials have autonomous EV covered
Franco ers, we need to make sure we are really givingCevolini opportunities
graduate of GE’s Edison Engineering Development Program
of which comes from her time at GE Transportation. There,
and oversaw the successful launch of more than 50 produc-
she and her team developed a tool that evaluated the dif-
tion AM parts and four 3D printing labs in the U.S. and India.
ferent parts on a locomotive, ranking them by size,Technology material, CRP
but is real and here to stay. It’s the future, and who doesn’t want to embrace the future?
She’s also led PLM (product lifecycle management) and MES
HANSON: You are very active in the Women in 3D Printing (manufacturing execution system) software implementations, program and serve as the co-chair for theatLos the second of these aimed specifically AM.Angeles
CEO and CTO, and not just paying lip service but putting real action plans into practice and show people how they can have rewarding
quantity and other criteria, giving her and crp.group/nbk-sme her team a more
careers in industry, regardless of what like or how effective means to separate the AM wheatthey fromlook the chaff. they identify their gender. Still, it wasn’t easy, she said. “Oftentimes, the parts we
chapter.Finally, Why isCoyne this organization important, and why is listed on eight U.S. patents, all should related
looked at were designed and optimized for centuries-old
women pursuerail a career in AM over to making transportation saferany andother moreengineering efficient. or
HANSON: technology. TRUMPF’s Smart Factory is said to manufacturing is rarely goingintoChicago be cheapwiper-washer reservoir,”ItIacovini said. er or more efficient to make such parts using AM, so any represent the future of advanced manufacturing. What During the wipers assembly phase, the Local Motorsshould
C
handler, Ariz.-based ground mobility compa-
Because offield? her experience and contributions to manufacturing ny extensive Local Motors uses next-generation manutheInindustry a whole, she was named one of Railway FU: fact, inas the last few months, from facturing processes to I’ve buildmoved its autonomous
Age’s Top Women inOlli. Rail forexample, 2020, received the 2017 California to Nevada, weFor have a new co-ambassador electric vehicle,so Olli’s upper and lower Women in Technology Award from GE Transportation, and for the Los Angeles chapter of WI3DP, whereas I now have structures are 3D printed from recyclable polycarbonate
took home the GE Transportation Innovation Engineering material. 3D printing an environmentally the ambassadorship for Lastechnology Vegas. Asisyou can imagine, it’s Award in 2013. friendly manufacturing process itself. Using manpretty difficult being in a place where there is veryadditive little real
ufacturing, reduce transportation costschapand print manufacturing, butyou I’mcan roving all over, helping other Turning the knobs
matchand demand, with Additive warehouses holding less is stock. ters like to Detroit Chicago. manufacturing a
Today, Coyne’s the associate director of programs at With this in girls mind,toindustry-leading 3D printing has been route for women and become designers, engineers, The Barnes Global Advisors, a Pittsburgh-based consulting used by the automotive developer to support a project in leaders, business owners.isIt’s easier to set up your firm and whose stated mission “to far help industrialize additive Europe, based on the integration of some extra parts. The own manufacturing.” company with aIt’s 3Dthere printer buying your owndevelop500T thatthan she oversees project production materials are from the Windform Top-Line range forging press trying much to make forgedrevolves fan disks rightbringing off the ment and and execution, of which around of composites for 3D printing. bat. Though, course, that into is still possibility traditionalofmanufacturers theaAM space. if you choose These materials were chosen for their mechanical char“We help companies learn about AM equipment and to do so. acteristics, but it is also important to note that the matrix of processes, qualify parts for end use and understand which some Windform material is a bio-based polymer and thereones are suitable candidates the different HANSON: Similarly, also for volunteer in that theadditive USC fore 100 percent you renewable: The tenet, Olli is Viterbi one of the technologies,” she said. “In some cases, it can be estaba vast School’smost K12sustainable STEM program. Given that STEM was vehicles on the road, is safe. undertaking.” lished nearly 30 yearsthe ago and Motors’ there remains Regarding Local project ainchronic Europe,labor Carlo Vast or not, it’s abundantly necessary. Like others in General EMEA industry, Local Motors, shortageIacovini, throughout the Manager manufacturing whatstated, else “To her position, Coyne is well aware that the AM industry as a approve deployments in Europe, needed some additional should we be doing to get young peopleit interested in the whole suffers from a lack of material data and established components, not required in the US market.” Among these trades? manufacturing criteria, leaving question marks about what were windshield wipers and parts.we hosted an event FU: When I was at Relativity Space, these technologies produce or are capable of producing. “To add the wiper, we opted for a retrofit technique, or for the Viterbi School’s Girls in STEM two In addition, the technology is quiteprogram, complex,where with numerre-adaptation process, through an integration on the 2.0 otherous female engineers of colorparameters and I gavethat a talk toaffect the girls variables and process can the model,” Iacovini said. “These phases—retrofit and integrain theproduct program and engaged with the parents. I thought outcome—something she refers to as “turning tion—were carried out in Italy, based on the original design this was an incredible because the parents saw the knobs.” It’s foropportunity this reason among others that, when produced by the Engineering Team in Chandler.” not busy helping clients industrialize their AM processes, people who looked like them, working in different disciplines Olli 2.0 ’s unique design is characterized by a tall rectanalso serves as an SME in theCoyne space launch industry. I sawAdditive the lookManufacturing of inspiration on gular pod with wide-set headlights and expansive windows Community Advisor. the parents’ faces and realized to engage entirearm nestled between a frame.we Forneed that reason, the wiper “Manufacturers have the ability to adjust process varifamilies could so that particularly middle-school girls from of color, notgirls, be positioned from above, but rather below ables on a layer-by-layer or feature-by-feature basis,” Coyne understand that these opportunities are open to them, and and to the side of the front window. “Thus, the Local Motors’ said. “This is a very powerful tool, but it can also make part if they set their minds to it, theydesigned can achieve they with engineering department a newwhatever front bumper
selection tool is team going to be very and future? will only manufacturers be doing now tosubjective, embrace engineering noticed that the motor this protruded from show you whether a part can be 3D printed, not whether FU: That Smart really is justthe a template for itthe the modified frontFactory bumper: “To avoid issue we therefore should beof3D the endthat of the the best way to Factory the Future, except theday, Factory of the Future thought toprinted. add twoAtcoordinated covers,” Iacovini said: One determine this is to understand the requirements. Let that cover conceals the protruding part while the second cover
will have even fewer humans in it, with more AR interfac-
drive the design, and then design for the process that you’re the pressurefeatures system and of thecloud-based washer reservoir from es, protects more autonomous tools. The trying to use.” external agents, he explained. manufacturing processes extend way beyond the simplis-
The Local Motors teammetal designed the motor cover tic methods used on sheet (as demonstrated infrom the Countless opportunities scratch. “For the wiper’s washer reservoir flap valve, we current setup of the Smart Factory) and could include 3D Coyne and her team were responsible for the entire locomo-
printing andMany other processes. I think the tive system. of related its parts advanced are large and bulky, and although days in whichhas shop travelers on afor piece ofparts paper and the technology improved, thewritten AM needed these enclosed in a plastic folder wasn’t as developed back then.are definitely over. One thing the manufacturing industry is the need for improveThis forced them to zerooverlooks in on the smaller, high-value components, most of which are in machine the engine’s coolingand system ment in existing software, learning AI. and In metal power generation areas. “Anywhere we could improve perfor- on AM, for example, building large and complex structures mance or reliability critical component, thatthe wassoftware our focus,” a design basis is on all avery well, but without to she said. “I’m happy to say we had quite few successes.” That’s drive robots, the complexity won’t bea accomplished. Contrary to what was stated at the start of this article,
very clear to me. Like a true partnership, software needs to
Coyne pointed out that the rail industry enjoys many of the
complement the hardware.
same AM-generated benefits as other manufacturing sectors.
HANSON: Taking that last question one step further,
Chief among these is the need for legacy replacement parts
where does metal AM fit into Industry 4.0? What obstacles
whose tooling is no longer available, or where producing
stand in the way of more widespread adoption, and how
small quantities is neither time nor cost-effective. In these
should weaas manufacturers conquer them? situations, single 3D printed part can spell the difference FU: Let’s steel mill, or or from my between a fewtake daysan of example downtime of vs.awaiting weeks even point offor view, a titanium mill. Fewer young people want to months a casting or fabricated component. work such facility the perception that it’s Butinjust as itadoes for because the aerospace, automotive,isenergy, and many other industries, AM also rail manufacdirty, nasty work only suitable forpresents big strong men. I would turers opportunities for part count reduction, and arguewith thatcountless the perception, methods of manufacturing, shortened product lead times,needed lower development costs, and equipment and know-how to make these products products that are either more fuel-efficient, more reliable, or
are all going to change. Future aircraft parts will be made by
both. Said Coyne, “There are AM parts on trains everywhere
advanced manufacturing processes that can give properties
2.0with version the Olli rightThe now, moreof being builtautonomous each day.” EV features a
equal to or better than currently accepted by tradisingle wiper arm thatthose extends from below the windshield.
Provided by CRP Technology. brackets for fixing the wipers motorThe and eduthe front tional want. Family support is soboth important andstarter incredible. methods. Right now, we do not have enough data or
36process Voices AMplified 2022 | March cation does not just include school but also includes informal30 learning. and |extra-curricular Voices Clubs AMplified February 2022 activities that 028 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 8 ISSUE 2 ME_22_Mar_Voices_AMP.indd 36
confidence in fracture-critical aircraft parts made by AM, but one day, that will change. Distributed manufacturing 2/17/22 2:43 PM
Beyond locomotives
Wabtec days and the need to support a global AM business
it weren’t GE’s things well-known efforts in the will alsoIronically, change ifthe way weformake aerospace market and subsequent push into AM writ large,
in a variety of industry sectors, including
unit spread across 50 countries and with 30,000-plus employees. Coyne quickly learned that the ERP and PLM available at
Coyne might not have had the chance to pursue it. “GE was
that time were centered on traditional manufacturing process-
all in on additive,” she said. “All of their business units were
es and would limit her ability to track 3D printed prototype and
strongly encouraged to use it, and it’s partly because of that
production parts through the entire AM workflow.
medical and consumer products.
HANSON: Thank you for your ongo-
corporate-wide adoption that I had the opportunity to lead
ing work The Tree, a relief their with global AMShade team at Wabtec.”
As noted earlier, Coyne turned to MES, a solution she describes on the TBGA website as “a huge leap forward from
and assistance dedicated Her workorganization is no longer limited to theto
the homegrown spreadsheets of most AM
homeless and abused women and children rail industry, however. The Barnes Global
users’ beginnings” and “a critical matu-
in southern What caninmanufacturAdvisorsNevada. works with clients all indus-
ration of the technology.” MES is not a
trial and, the company’s name ers do tosectors support thisasand other important
necessity in all AM environments—but for
implies, anywhere in the world. Some are initiatives?
manufacturers who wish to harness Big
startups, butthis many more arecharity traditional FU: I chose particular
Data and Industry 4.0, it should rank high
manufacturers interested in AM need because they are local to the cityand of Las
on the requirements list. “You can limp
guidance on fitting an unfamiliar technology
along for a while without it, but certainly
into their existing business strategy.
for anyone doing volume work, I don’t
Vegas, but honestly, there are hundreds
of good causes that need support. In this
“For instance, I’ve been working pretty
think there’s any choice but to implement
time of pandemic where people are very
closely with a company out of Australia
an integrated, AM-capable MES system.”
paranoid—or not—about their health, I
recently,” Coyne said. “They’re looking
think it is still important to try to spare
Take another look
at some new AM equipment and we’re
a thought forthem those who facing assessway helping with theirare technical
Looking back at her early days in the
morement difficult than ourselves. and situations go-to-market strategy. We’re
AM space and comparing them to her
To me, women and children who also doing some work right noware with a
relatively recent position with The Barnes
homeless, abused or victims of human well-known automaker, assisting them
Global Advisors, Coyne has noticed a few
with product development and systems trafficking have very little agency in these requirements. But those areThe justShade a couple situations. Organizations like examples. We support variety of cusTree of provide practical meansa for these
trends. The first is that manufacturers Eliana Fu, industry manager for aerospace and medical atprinters TRUMPFas North have begun treating 3D they America and event advisor for RAPID + TCT. Provided by TRUMPF North America. would other capital equipment. Where
tomersgroups with design forback additive, product vulnerable to get on their
AM was once a novel, nice-to-have tech-
Coyne stands in front of the Wabtec nology able to print cool new part geomthis spring, I realized that I’d left the lump of titanium there in feet. For instance, I sewed Baby Yoda and Marvel Comics AM Site at Neighborhood 91 in port—there’s a lot going on out there.” etries, it is quickly becoming a necessary the attic. The facemasks and sold them to people who wanted more fun Pittsburgh during construction last good news is that piece of titanium will never and very much mainstream production Provided Coyne corrode, so the new owner can rest easy knowing it’s doing yet washable cotton facemasks. But it doesn’tyear. matter the by Jennifer
launches, training and application sup-
Making recommendations
dollar amount you raised or the forms your fundraising took; When asked about common pitfalls or advice to those
the point is that you did something to help someone else. It who are AM-curious, her answer might seem surprising to couldanyone be something as simplemanufacturing as stuffing leftover in the conventional space, toiletries where the
into plastic bagson forCNC the homeless. Doesn’t feel good to amortization machinery and other that equipment is often help measured a fellow human being? in decades. “AM technology is advancing so rapidly that manufacturers have a much higher risk ofLinkedIn obsolescence,” she noted. “BeHANSON: Much of your page discusses
process. As such, equipment owners are
the job it was never intended to do.
now demanding higher levels of productivity, cost-effectiveness and part quality. This trend will surely continue as AM’s
“AM is an advanced manufacturing tool that is real and here to stay. It’s the future, and who doesn’t want to embrace the future?” 37 |
reach continues to grow.
Coyne has some advice to those who might have looked
at AM five or 10 years ago, only to decide it wasn’t a good fit.
“Look again,” she said. “The material costs have come down. The equipment is better than it once was. More people un-
this, the depreciation period is aoften lower your cause love ofoftitanium. Do you really carry bar set of itmuch in your
derstand it now, and it’s getting easier all the time to get parts
than typical manufacturing equipment to ensuremetal you can take handbag, why do you call it the most important ever,
qualified for end-use. That said, it might require some part
advantage of productivity leaps that are happening so quickly.” and have you had the opportunity yet to tell someone, “It’s
redesign, and it will certainly require rethinking some business
She also recommends taking a hard look at AM’s support-
titanium, you idiot!”?
ing software systems, a viewpoint that harkens back to her
FU: I no longer carry a lump of titanium in my purse. It
was a 1.5” thick piece of machined Ti-6Al-4V bar; I used it to prop up a leaking air-conditioner drip tray in the attic of my townhome in Torrance, California. After selling the house ME_22_Mar_Voices_AMP.indd 37
processes, but the writing is on the wall. AM is here to stay— and that’s a good thing.”
March 2022
sme.org
VOL 8 ISSUE 2 / www.tctmagazine.com / 029 2/17/22 2:43 PM
Voices Voices AMplified AMplified
Voices AMplified
in laser technology, that is an easy transition to make. AM is
Leigh are promote critical thinking, innovation,David and team-working
Chief Technology Officer for Additive Franco ers, we need to make sure we are really givingCevolini opportunities Manufacturing CEO and CTO, Systems and not just paying lip service but putting 3D real action plans 2021 SMETechnology Additive CRP into practice and show people howManufacturing they can have rewarding Industry crp.group/nbk-sme
Composite additive Reeling materials have inautonomous the Years EV covered
clearly an advanced manufacturing tool that is not a gimmick but is real and here to stay. It’s the future, and who doesn’t want to embrace the future?
HANSON: You are very active in the Women in 3D Printing
other tools we can use to inspire youth. Finally, as employ-
Award careers in industry, regardless of whatAchievement they look like or how
program and serve as the co-chair for the Los Angeles
they identify their gender.
chapter.Kip Why is thisoforganization and why with should Hanson Manufacturingimportant, Engineering speaks
all of us in 3D printing face unique challenges. We all share
women pursue career in Systems AM overand anyaother engineering or David Leigh,aCTO at 3D pioneer of 3D printing.
HANSON: TRUMPF’s Smart in Chicago is said to information on ways to solve thoseFactory challenges, and if we wiper-washer reservoir,” Iacovini said. as individuals are not a collection of the tools we picked upshould represent the future of advanced manufacturing. What During the wipers assembly phase, the Local Motors
C
handler, Ariz.-based ground mobility compa-
KIP HANSON, ME:Motors I see that you’re relatively new to 3D manufacturing field? ny Local uses next-generation manu-
Systems many years in the additive manufacturing FU: In fact,but in have the last few months, moved from facturing processes to I’ve build its autonomous
andelectric rapid prototyping space. What doOlli’s you find most California to Nevada, we have a new co-ambassador vehicle,so Olli. For example, upper andinterestlower ingLos so far about working there? for the Angeles chapter of WI3DP, whereas I now have structures are 3D printed from recyclable polycarbonate
DAVID LEIGH: I’ve been involved with additive manumaterial. 3D printing an environmentally the ambassadorship for Lastechnology Vegas. Asisyou can imagine, it’s facturing for more than 30 years now and have met many friendly manufacturing process itself. Using manpretty difficult being in a place where there is veryadditive little real great people along the way. A number of them work at 3D ufacturing, reduce transportation costschapand print manufacturing, butyou I’mcan roving all over, helping other Systems, so reconnecting with friends and colleagues has to match demand, with warehouses holding less stock. ters like Detroit and Chicago. Additive manufacturing is a been a lot of fun. It’s also been good to connect with Chuck With this in mind, industry-leading 3D printing has route for women and girls to become designers, engineers,been Hull, our company founder, on a more personal level. He’s used by the automotive developer to support a project in leaders, and business owners. It’s far easier to set up your still quite active as our chief technology officer focused on Europe, based on the integration of some extra parts. The own regenerative company with a 3D printer than buying your own 500T medicine and is a very nice guy. But one of the production materials are from the Windform Top-Line range forging pressthings and trying to makehere forged fan3D disks right is offthe the coolest about working is that Systems of composites for 3D printing. bat. Though, course, still aChuck possibility if you choose company of that startedthat it all.isFrom inventing stereoliThese materials were chosen for their mechanical charwhich launched the 3D printing industry, as well to dothography so.acteristics, but it is also important to note that the matrix of as adding other plastics and metal 3D printing technologies, some Windform material is a bio-based polymer and therematerials, Similarly, and software, we’ve survived where others HANSON: also volunteer in that themany USC fore 100 percent you renewable: The tenet, Olli is Viterbi one of the have failed and continue to enjoy a strong position in the School’smost K12sustainable STEM program. Given that STEM was estabvehicles on the road, is safe. public market. I really like that, and am very excited to now lished nearly 30 yearsthe ago and Motors’ there remains Regarding Local project ainchronic Europe,labor Carlo lead the team that is building our innovation roadmap, which General EMEA industry, Local Motors, shortageIacovini, throughout the Manager manufacturing whatstated, else “To will help us remain a pioneer of new technologies and help approve deployments in Europe, needed some additional should we be doing to get young peopleit interested in the accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing. components, not required in the US market.” Among these trades? HANSON: Having worked for two of 3D Systems’ biggest were windshield wipers and parts.we hosted an event FU: When I was at Relativity Space, competitors, can you share any insights on how you plan to “To add the wiper, we opted for a retrofit technique, or for the Viterbi School’s Girlssucceed in STEMinprogram, where two help your new employer this dynamic industry? re-adaptation process, through an integration on the 2.0 other female engineers of to color gave a talkI’ve to either the girls LEIGH: In addition EOSand andI Stratasys, model,” Iacovini said. “These phases—retrofit and integrain theworked program and engaged with the parents. I thought for or helped launch several other firms, including tion—were carried out in Italy, based on the original design Integra, DTM [Deskopportunity Top Manufacturing], this was an incredible becauseand the Advanced parents saw produced by the Engineering Team in Chandler.” Laser Materials, some of which were later acquired by people who looked like them, working in different disciplines Olli 2.0 ’s unique design is characterized by a tall rectanthat ended up Ihiring me.look So inofsome ways, my in thecompanies space launch industry. saw the inspiration on gular pod with wide-set headlights and expansive windows working at 3D Systems is a bit like being a professor moving the parents’ faces and realized to engage entirearm nestled between a frame.we Forneed that reason, the wiper to another university—it may be a different door, a different families could so that particularly middle-school girls from of color, notgirls, be positioned from above, but rather below building, and a different set of students or processes within, understand that these opportunities are open to them, and and to the side of the front window. “Thus, the Local Motors’ but the work remains much the same. I would also add that if they set their minds to it, theydesigned can achieve they with engineering department a newwhatever front bumper
along the way, then we weren’t very collectors. And so manufacturers be doing nowthat to embrace this future? engineering team noticed thegood motor protruded from I’ll continue to use those tools and hopefully build a better FU: That Smart really is justthe a template for the the modified frontFactory bumper: “To avoid issue we therefore toolbox as go.add Factory of Ithe Future, except that covers,” the Factory of the Future thought to two coordinated Iacovini said: One HANSON: You founded Harvest Technologies in the midconceals thehumans protruding part while the AR second cover will cover have even fewer in it, with more interfac90s, a well-known service bureau that Stratasys acquired in the pressurefeatures system and of thecloud-based washer reservoir from es, protects more autonomous tools. The 2015. What do you see as the future for on-demand manexternal agents, he explained. manufacturing processes extend way beyond the simplisufacturing, and what advice would you give to companies The Local Motors teammetal designed the motor cover tic methods used on sheet (as demonstrated infrom the looking to break into this market? scratch. “For the wiper’s washer reservoir flap valve, we current setup of the Smart Factory) and could include 3D LEIGH: To be blunt, I’d say that it’s about like trying to
printing and other I think open a specialty hatrelated shop inadvanced downtown processes. Dallas. Maybe you’llthe
days it, in but which shop travelers piecetoofpay paper and make in all likelihood, it’s written going toon beatough enclosed in a plastic are definitely over. the rent because there folder are so many hat shops nowOne that thing the manufacturing industry overlooks is the need for hats. improveare online. Anybody can throw up a website and sell You don’t even have to makemachine them. It’slearning the sameand thing ment in existing software, AI.with In metal service today. There’s Protolabs and Shapeways andon AM, forbureaus example, building large and complex structures Materialise, to name a few, that established a a design basis is alljust very well,companies but without the software to beachhead early and are now publicly traded. They’re like drive robots, theoncomplexity won’t be accomplished. That’s the Amazon of 3D printing. Competing with them will require
very clear to me. Like a true partnership, software needs to
a differentiator—maybe you worked for a research lab or
complement the hardware.
aerospace company, for instance, and have a unique skill or
HANSON: Taking that last question one step further,
application you can build a business around. It’s these types
where does metal AM fit into Industry 4.0? What obstacles
of companies with special expertise that will be the most
stand in the way of more widespread adoption, and how
successful going forward.
should we asYou manufacturers conquer them? HANSON: recently received an AM Industry Achieve-
FU: Let’sfrom takeSME’s an example of a steel mill, orLeadfrom my ment Award AM Technical Community point of view, a titanium young want to ership Committee. What domill. you Fewer feel have been people your most notable andperception why? work inindustry such a accomplishments, facility because the is that it’s LEIGH: reallysuitable good question really hard to dirty, nastyThat’s workaonly for big that’s strong men. I would answer. I jokingly say that I’mmethods not the most accomplished inand argue that the perception, of manufacturing, the industry; and I’m just the mostneeded stubborn. stillthese here. Most equipment know-how to I’m make products of the people who were more accomplished than me have
are all going to change. Future aircraft parts will be made by
already exited the industry. They’re skiing right now or on
advanced manufacturing processes that can give properties
Thesomewhere, 2.0 version off of the Olliwonderful autonomous EV And features a boat doing things. I saya
equal to or better than currently accepted by tradisingle wiper arm thatthose extends from below the windshield.
Provided by CRP Technology. brackets for fixing the wipers motorThe and eduthe front tional want. Family support is soboth important andstarter incredible. methods. Right now, we do not have enough data or
38process Voices AMplified 2022 | March cation does not just include school but also includes informal30 learning. and |extra-curricular Voices Clubs AMplified February 2022 activities that 030 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 8 ISSUE 2 ME_22_Mar_Voices_AMP.indd 38
confidence in fracture-critical aircraft parts made by AM, but one day, that will change. Distributed manufacturing 2/18/22 11:48 AM
goodchange for them, it, but I’ve stayed. I’ve poured will also thethey waydeserve we make things
ist in high school. I always liked it, and honestly, the way you
my whole life into additive. So that in itself is an achieve-
run theaters today is not so different from operating a service
ment, although I like to think I’ve also made some notable
bureau. You have a server that connects these various
contributions. At Harvest Technologies, for example, moving
projectors, you schedule the projectors to turn on and off,
from prototyping to production was always my number one
and as such, you have finite capacity constraints. A machine
in a variety of industry sectors, including medical and consumer products.
HANSON: Thank you for your ongo-
goal. I wanted to produce end-use parts that
ing work Tree, aasrelief workwith and The couldShade be certified such. Because of and assistance organization dedicated to service that, we were the first AS9100 certified homeless and women andtochildren bureau. Weabused were the first ones supply parts in southern Nevada.aerospace. What can And manufacturfor commercial I was part of thetocommittee to create what important are now ANSI ers do support this and other standards. So I think this last one was probably initiatives? myI biggest contribution, ascharity it has helped stanFU: chose this particular dardize AM, built ecosystem that brings because they areand local toan the city of Las it within everyone’s reach. Vegas, but honestly, there are hundreds
HANSON: Where do you see 3D Systems in
of good causes that need support. In this
ten years, and how will you help it get there?
time of pandemic where people are very
LEIGH: There are companies like 3M and
paranoid—or not—about their health, I
IBM that have completely transformed them-
think it is still important to try to spare
selves since their founding and are now offering
a thought for those are facing way different technologies andwho solutions completely
morethan difficult situations than ourselves. where they initially started. I don’t see that To me, and children are for women 3D Systems. What I dowho see is that we’ve inhomeless, or victims of human software vested abused in key areas of our business—in through the acquisitions of Additive Works and trafficking have very little agency in these
Eliana Fu, industry manager for aerospace and medical at TRUMPF North Oqton,Organizations for example, and regenerative situations. like The Shademedicine
America and event advisor for RAPID + TCT. Provided by TRUMPF North America.
andfor Volumetric—while Tree through provideacquiring practicalAllevi means these internally, we continue to devote development vulnerable groups to get back on their
resources on our core technologies. All of these
feet. For instance, I sewed Baby Yoda and Marvel Comics
this spring, I realized that I’d left the lump of titanium there in
facemasks and sold them to people who wanted more fun
the attic. The good news is that piece of titanium will never
yet washable cotton facemasks. But it doesn’t matter the
corrode, so the new owner can rest easy knowing it’s doing
efforts will help the company grow and evolve. But some of my answer goes back to what I just said about the ecosystem. The industry
the350 jobDual it was never integrated intended to do. management and dollar amount you raised or the forms your fundraising The took; DMP Factory features powder continues to evolve as well, and all of us can use
two-laser the point is that you did something to help someonea else. It configuration to increase productivity and lower operational our different technologies to help make it more costs. (Provided by 3D Systems) couldinclusive be something simple asWe stuffing toiletries and lessas proprietary. have toleftover be
“AM is an advanced manufacturing tool that is real and here to stay. It’s the future, and who doesn’t want to embrace the future?” 39 |
into plastic bags forofthe homeless. good stewards all that we haveDoesn’t available.that feel good to
can only make so many parts in a day, and a projector can
help a fellow human HANSON: On being? a personal note, you’re also the founder
only show so many people a film, right? Managing each of
and a managing member of the Grand Avenue Theater, said
those is a skill that I’ve developed along with a passion of
to be “the Much best little theater in Texas.” Telldiscusses us about it. HANSON: of your LinkedIn page
mine. You put those together with a market need in my small
LEIGH: I continue bereally an entrepreneur, of your love of titanium. Do to you carry a barso of outside it in your
community—they didn’t have a theater—and it presented an
3D Systems, theitcity I own a construction handbag, why doI’m youoncall thecouncil, most important metal ever,
opportunity. Being an entrepreneur, I seized on that oppor-
company, I’m in the commercial and residential real estate and have you had the opportunity yet to tell someone, “It’s
tunity, and despite the last two years of COVID shutdowns
business, and yes, I own a theater. I guess I’m just a high-en-
and the like, we continue to operate. It hasn’t been easy but
ergy guy. As far as the theater goes, I worked as a projection-
continues to be something I enjoy doing.
titanium, you idiot!”?
FU: I no longer carry a lump of titanium in my purse. It
was a 1.5” thick piece of machined Ti-6Al-4V bar; I used it to prop up a leaking air-conditioner drip tray in the attic of my townhome in Torrance, California. After selling the house ME_22_Mar_Voices_AMP.indd 39
March 2022
sme.org
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Join the RAPID + TCT 2022
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post-processing
FITS LIKE A GLOVE D WORDS: sam davies
ominik Hepp sits on an office chair at a 90-degree angle, moving his hand forward and back with a mere flick of his wrist. Later on, he speedily actions the digits of his hands on a keyboard to find the English word ‘brittle.’ Earlier, he flipped his hand from face-down to faceup when articulating one of the many points he has to make about HKK Bionics’ exomotion hand product.
surfacing and coloring solutions. Already, HKK Bionics was eyeing additive manufacturing as the production method for its exomotion hand because of its capacity to print in quantities of one, and now it had post-processing technology that passed Cytotoxicity tests according to ISO 10993-5 and 10993-12, as well as Skin Irritation tests according to ISO protocol TC 194 WG 8 and ISO norm 10993-12 for the EOS PA2200 material.
These are all the type of motions that most of us take for granted.
“Because we’ve got biocompatible colors,” Hepp says, explaining why the company has selected DyeMansion’s post-processing equipment. “It’s a very important point for us. We’ve got a wide range of colors, so the patients can individualize their product and the surface quality itself increases a lot through the process of compaction of the surface which makes the surface much smoother and therefore less susceptible to dirt, which is quite important for our device which is worn on the skin, on the body.”
In this article, there are around 4,500 characters – each of them the result of movement by hand and finger. And that doesn’t factor in the myriad head scratches, chin strokes and pats of my four-legged assistant that occurred in the process. For a variety of unfortunate reasons – such as neurological diseases and accidents – many people lose the capacity to move their hands. Temporarily, Hepp was one of those people after a road traffic collision. But the exomotion hand developed by his company is seeking to address such conditions. Hepp, the co-founder and CEO of HKK Bionics, describes it as a kind of ‘Iron Man glove, but a boring one without shooting.’ Of course, there’s really nothing boring about it. The orthotic device is worn over a patient’s paralyzed hand and is controlled by an electromyography sensor which detects muscle movements in their arm, wrist or hand to enable them to open and close the exomotion hand. HKK Bionics set out on its mission to provide solutions to those suffering with hand paralysis without amputation in 2017, around the same time that DyeMansion was introducing its Print-to-Product workflow of cleaning,
Hepp founded HKK Bionics in 2017 alongside his fellow Ulm University Medical Engineering alumnus Tobias Knobloch. The motorized glove they developed together consists of exo mechanics, artificial tendons, a silicon glove, a splint, a display and a sensor. It had been designed to be lightweight, comfortable and patient-specific, meaning quantities of one had to be feasible, and thus Selective Laser Sintering pursued.
HKK first 3D scans the hand of the patient to collect data that is then used to model an individualized exomotion hand in its proprietary software before service provider Teufel Prototypen takes care of the additive manufacturing of the device. The device, which weighs just 600 grams, is then cleaned of excess powder with DyeMansion’s PowerShot C machine, treated in the Powershot S with PolyShot Surfacing technology to provide a mattglossy and scratch-resistant surface and then colored in a shade of the patient’s choice in the DM60 platform. At this point, an assembly set is delivered to the orthopaedic technician consisting of the individual brace and a range of standard parts that fit together to create the exomotion hand. By leveraging 3D printing and DyeMansion’s post-processing suite, HKK Bionics is able to deliver a resilient orthotic device that is designed to the patient’s specific anatomy, is biocompatible and is produced in the favored color of the wearer. “All this together helps us to get a product which is really shaped on the patients’ anatomy and producing this with acceptable costs. Having it produced with [DyeMansion’s post-processing] technology, we [also pass] biocompatibility tests for medical products,” Hepp said. “As we started this, it was about the same time that DyeMansion technology came up on the market. Perhaps if this technology wouldn’t have been on the market, the [exomotion hand] product would be looking another way, I can’t say. We saw the possibilities it gave us and that definitely was an influence in our development.”
SHOWN: HKK BIONICS' EXOMOTION HAND
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business case
WHAT’S DRIVING AM ADOPTION? T WORDS: Laura Griffiths
he medley of machines, applications, materials, software tools – and confusing acronyms for good measure – can make the task of building a business case for additive manufacturing (AM) feel daunting. It’s why we created TCT 3Sixty’s Evaluation, Adoption and Optimization framework to help visitors identify their place on the AM adoption curve and access the relevant information. Recent reports from market intelligence specialist CONTEXT and 3D printer manufacturers MakerBot and Formlabs each suggest renewed interest in AM technology, meaning there are likely more users than ever before locating themselves somewhere on the middle of that curve. So how did they get there? In a survey published by desktop 3D printer manufacturer MakerBot, over the last year, prototyping and concept modelling were, as perhaps expected, still found to represent the majority of use cases for respondents. Yet, one of the most significant takeaways was the number of users who are utilizing machines, in some cases multiple, in-house. Over three-quarters of respondents stated that they have at least one 3D printer in-house, with 29% using them daily. What’s more, the report found that 84% of respondents who invested in 2021 also plan to purchase more equipment, materials, and accessories throughout this year.
applications in R&D, tooling, and replacement parts were said to be on the rise. Throughout the pandemic CONTEXT reported a rise in desktop machine sales as a result of work-from-home scenarios, which MakerBot reacted to with the launch of its CloudPrint software to enable more streamlined remote working and the increase in capabilities for its industrial yet accessible METHOD printer. While offices were closed and supply chains were down, 3D printing came to the fore.
“The pandemic highlighted some of the flaws of traditional supply chains,” Goshen said, reflecting on the increase. “Shortages in healthcare products led to a surge in ondemand production using 3D printing. By integrating 3D printing, companies gained greater flexibility to minimize potential supply chain delays by increasing local production. With immediate access to a digital inventory of part designs, replacement or custom components can be produced or iterated upon as often or quickly as needed with little to no additional cost. On-demand 3D printing for prototyping
and part production enables manufacturing flexibility and reduces reliance on traditional supply channels.” EARLY ADOPTERS VS. RECENT ADOPTERS As detailed in our last issue, the pandemic brought more attention to 3D printing’s unique advantages: the ability to reduce inventory with localized on-demand manufacture, create tooling to mitigate long lead times and augment manufacturing lines with rapidly produced jigs and fixtures. Formlabs’ report emphasizes that AM’s sweet spot remains in rapid prototyping and model making but the company, which manufactures desktop SLA systems and launched its first benchtop SLS machine last year, also claimed that it’s seeing
“Respondents see the benefits of using 3D printing to accelerate their design and production processes,” MakerBot’s CEO and President Nadav Goshen told TCT. “As a result, they are citing continued interest in adding more printers to their collection, exploring new materials, and expanding their applications with 3D printing whether that's for prototyping, tooling, or production parts.” While just 5% of those asked claimed to be using 3D printing for mass production,
VOL 8 ISSUE 2 / www.tctmagazine.com / 035
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a trend from more recent adopters who are using the technology for small-batch production and end-use parts. “Beyond prototyping, 3D printing enables the on-demand creation of custom, on-demand parts to add flexibility to manufacturing processes,” Juliette Combe, Applications Engineer, Formlabs, told TCT. “For example, 3D printed manufacturing aids, like jigs and fixtures, are very easy to adopt and already one of the most common applications in the industry. 3D printed rapid tooling, like injection molds and forming dies, are also a quickly growing use case but one that requires slightly more education for companies that still rely on traditional manufacturing methods for these applications.” In fact, Formlabs’ results show that recent adopters are moving into these kinds of applications much faster. New adopters were found to be almost twice as likely to frequently print end-use parts compared to early adopters, and 60% are deploying its technology for rapid tooling compared to just 30% of early adopters. “As manufacturers continue to see the durability, variety, and flexibility of 3D printed manufacturing tools, they will gain confidence in more advanced applications like end parts for consumers," Combe continued. "In fact, we’re already
seeing that recent adopters of 3D printing are using technology differently, for different reasons, and are planning relatively large investments moving forward. Of those who have already deployed 3D printing, 76% agree that 3D printing will change product design, 72% agree 3D printing will allow for custom manufacturing tools, and 71% predict 3D printing will become a staple in manufacturing and engineering departments. The pace of investment in 3D printing is growing and manufacturing tools remain a strong initial use case for incorporating 3D printing into manufacturing processes.”
“The pace of DG powderinvestment design is growing.” While prototyping remains king and ‘low hanging fruit’ applications on the manufacturing line have proven to be an ideal, low-risk introduction to the technology, Formlabs’ report also cites an all too familiar hurdle that new adopters face: finding the right application. Of current non-users, half claim “lack of use cases” as their biggest adoption challenge, while just under a third of recent adopters cited the same reason for why they may not invest further in the technology. More education is needed around where additive makes sense and the advantages it can afford over traditional means. Figures from Formlabs’ report show 57% agreed or strongly agreed that their internal 3D printing capabilities are helping to solve supply chain issues, while further global challenges, such as sustainability, which 70% of recent adopters cite as a significant or very significant benefit of AM, show that understanding is certainly coming through. For those newcomers, Perla adds the following advice.
Material properties
IN-HOUSE OR OUTSOURCE? Another route to AM adoption is through use of a service bureau. New York-based MakeLab, which operates a fleet of machines including Formlabs Form 3s, has worked with brands from Quip to Silvercup Studios, and MakeLab co-founder Christina Perla believes positive AM application stories in the media are inspiring potential adopters to “take another peak.”
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“We’ve seen an increase in interest evolve as the conversations evolve in the mainstream about AM production use cases,” Perla told TCT. “I still see use case validation being the most grey area. There’s an interest, but not the most trust is there when it comes to production.”
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Perla notes heightened conversation around challenges such as standardization, which will help to build that trust for newcomers, and adds that the introduction of “more industrial equipment and materials” at MakeLab will ultimately open up more opportunities for functional prototyping and production use cases.
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“The one thing we did from the very beginning of MakeLab (without realizing we really wanted to do the scalable tech thing) was build for profitability and scalability. We inherently built systems surrounding those concepts from the get-go, allowing for easy growth and scalability at this point in time. It started as a simple mind shift to simple workplace workarounds, and then now is digitizing into an IPenabled solution.
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“No matter whether you’re building a business revolving around the tech, or you’re utilizing the tech for prototyping or production use cases, you really want to be conscious of the cost factors as well as workflow. Workflow bleeds into supply chain, and you most definitely want to make sure that is reliable and scalable.”
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RAPID + TCT: FIRST LOOK North America’s largest and most influential additive manufacturing event returns to Detroit on 17-19th May. Following its 30-year anniversary in 2021, the additive manufacturing community will reconvene in-person at RAPID + TCT 2022 where more than 300 hands-on exhibits from the industry’s leading figures will take over Huntington Place, Detroit. This year also marks SME’s 90th year of supporting and advancing manufacturing technologies throughout North America. For additive manufacturing technologies, RAPID + TCT continues to be a launch pad for the latest and greatest in innovation in the U.S. and this year is set to be no different as the show floor and packed conference line-up promise next-level solutions to real-world challenges. "For more than 30 years, AM has experienced dynamic growth that continues to unlock unlimited potential for manufacturers," SME Executive Director and CEO Robert Willig said. "RAPID + TCT has defined and
038 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 8 ISSUE 2
established a field that conceives, tests, improves and manufactures new products that are not only more cost-efficient, but are truly lifechanging. Combining decades of 3D technology insights and experiences with the latest evolving trends in AM, RAPID + TCT is the place to be for players of any size in the AM industry. We can feel the support and excitement within the AM community from far and wide, and we're looking forward to another successful event." Whether it’s metal or polymer systems from Desktop Metal to Formlabs, software solutions by nTopology to Materialise, postprocessing technology from DyeMansion to PostProcess Technologies, materials from BASF to Covestro, 3D scanning solutions from FARO to Nikon, or services from Dinsmore to Xometry, the show floor will enable visitors to get a first-hand look at the entire AM ecosystem. RAPID + TCT CONFERENCE This year, TCT has been working closely with the team at SME and its dedicated advisors to deliver a three-day conference program which will bring together over 150 speakers and seven themed tracks across three days. The agenda will once again focus on the three key stages of the AM adoption journey: Evaluation, Adoption and
Optimization, with talks from leading users, researchers and technology developers sharing insights from across the curve. “With high-level talks and discussions delivered by senior guest speakers, the conference promises to provide the AM community with an unmissable opportunity to learn and network in the ‘Automotive capital of the world’, Detroit, MI,” Lu Tikrity, TCT Conference Content Manager said. “The sessions are carefully tailored to meet your needs through our EAO stages of the adoption curve – Evaluation, Adoption and Optimization. Whether you are an experienced AM user or new to the industry, the agenda can be tailored to your requirements to offer you an insightful experience into the AM world.” Attendees will have the opportunity to take in daily keynotes, thoughtleadership panels, interactive workshops and a diverse range of presentation topics. Each track will highlight applications in a variety of industries including automotive, healthcare, aerospace, heavy industry and more. Speakers will also delve into solutions to industry challenges such as IP and certification, sustainability and supply chain, while the latest AM research will be presented around emerging materials and processes.
RAPID+TCT
SHOWN: SEE LATEST AM TECH IN-PERSON
“The conference promises the AM community an unmissable opportunity to learn and network.”
TRACKS: AT A GLANCE Industries: • Healthcare • Aerospace • Automotive •D efense • Metal Applications • Nonmetal Applications • Construction, Energy & Power • Heavy Industry Solutions: • I P & Security • Standards & Repeatability • Supply Chain & Sustainability • People & Culture Ecosystem: • J ustification & Economics • Materials & Processing • Metrology • DfAM • Post-Processing
R&D: • Materials • Hardware • Software For those unable to attend the live event in-person, RAPID + TCT will also offer a Digital Experience where attendees can access exclusive digital content, livestreams and resources. We’ll be unveiling more details on the full conference line-up and technology launches expected from the show floor in the next issue of TCT North America. Registration is now open at rapid3devent.com SHOWN: MORE THAN 300 LIVE EXHIBITS
Images: SME
SHOWN: HEAR FROM 150+ SPEAKERS
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Tram front central fairing 3D printed, reinforced, installed, and qualified by Stratiforme Industries for ©ALSTOM.
Custom vessel hardtop 3D printed and reinforced by Velum Nautica.
Look Ma! No Mold!
Tool-less FRP Manufacturing with Large-Scale AM The holy grail for additive manufacturing is to provide manufacturers with a fast and feasible way to produce enduse parts. One manufacturing arena that is in dire need of digital transformation is the composite materials market. Composites fabricators across many industries spend copious time and costs producing a master and a mold for each desired FRP part. Massivit 3D – a global provider of large-scale 3D printers – has introduced a new process for ultra-fast manufacturing of composites in short-to-medium runs. The process is based on the ability of the company’s Gel Dispensing Printing technology (GDP) to print large, thin, complex structures at high speed. By coating the printed core structure with a layer of composite material using hand layup or vacuum bags, a composite part is formed with high strength and stiffness and low weight compared to other AM technologies. The printed core can be reinforced on either one or both sides. Tool-less composite manufacturing is just one of many innovative applications facilitated by Massivit 3D’s large-scale 3D printers.
Visitors to the upcoming AMUG Conference on April 3-7 will have the opportunity to see Gel Dispensing Printing technology at the Massivit 3D Booth P16, Salon D. Live demos of the colossal Massivit 5000 large-scale 3D printer – capable of printing a 6-foot part within a matter of hours – will be running throughout the show. Attendees will be able to see and handle 3D printed parts and find out how largescale AM is being leveraged for fast production of end-use parts, prototypes, and molds across industries such as rail, marine, automotive, scenic fabrication, and architecture. The Massivit 5000 offers a long-awaited solution to AM market gaps in printing size and speed, providing a build volume of 57” x 44” x 70”. Advanced photo polymer materials, that cure instantly under UV light, enable a production speed up to 30 times that of other 3D printers. Parts printed on the Massivit 5000 can serve as a geometric core for composite end parts. Laying the composite directly on the printed part eliminates the need for a mold altogether as the final form and geometry are digitally fabricated according to the desired CAD design. This
has immense advantages over traditional composite manufacturing processes that demand extensive setup times for molds and tools as well as high tooling costs. One sector that benefits from Gel Dispensing Printing technology is the rail manufacturing industry. Railway manufacturers frequently require custom parts and spare parts on demand for a wide range of train and tram models. Conventional rail manufacturing requires a minimum three months just to produce a mold for a composite end-use part. Stratiforme Industries – a renowned service bureau that serves leading rail manufacturers – 3D printed the front FRP cabin panels for the ALSTOM light rail vehicle pictured above and reinforced it without any need to produce an initial mold. Likewise, the marine industry has long awaited a high-speed solution for manufacturing large, lightweight, composite parts that withstand harsh environmental conditions. Velum Nautica, a leading provider of custom and spare marine parts, uses their
Massivit 3D printer to produce on demand radar masts, dashboards, stern extensions, and interior fixtures at high speed. At AMUG, Massivit 3D will also provide a sneak-peek of the award-winning Massivit 10000 AM tooling system for composites. Due to be commercially launched in May 2022, it is designed to automate tooling for composite manufacturing by directly casting isotropic molds with high-performance materials. Massivit 3D’s large-format additive manufacturing combined with the inherent benefits of composite materials present a match made in heaven for manufacturers at large.
Massivit 5000
amug preview
“A BREEDING GROUND OF IDEAS” President Carl Dekker tells TCT why AM users should attend AMUG 2022.
SHOWN: AM PROFESSIONALS ATTEND AMUG 2019
A
weekend arrival, a glance at the agenda, a brief exchange with friends met at previous events and then a beeline for the earliest networking activity. The AMUG Conference is a highlight on many an additive manufacturing (AM) user's calendar. It returns in April, with a conference program featuring a host of the organization’s sponsors, as well as keynote talks from Ford’s Ellen Lee and Divergent’s Kevin Czinger, and an interview with Andy Christensen. Before that, AMUG kicks off with some ASTM- and SME-hosted training and certification sessions, while DMG Mori opens the doors of its local facility to attendees. There is also the AMUG Expo, in which – in the evening at least – you might be encouraged to roam with something cold and fizzy in your hand as you take in the latest AM tech. “The expo is a supporting element of the learning,” AMUG President Carl Dekker tells TCT. “You’ve got additive, but then you also have a lot of stuff to enable additive, and a lot that additive enables. And once you get those ideas, you now have a week to go around and talk with people and find out is this really the
“We're all
professionals doing AM. We all have a lot of the same issues.” truth? Does this really work the way I’m expecting it to?” The learning that Dekker speaks of is the extensive conference program that makes up the bulk of the week’s agenda. On each weekday, there are sponsor and training lab sessions hosted by the likes of EOS, GE Additive, Stratasys and HP – all of whom are Diamond Sponsors. From Tuesday through Thursday, each morning also has a showpiece feature. Tuesday sees Czinger detail Divergent 3D’s application of 3D printing, with Lee giving her keynote presentation on the Thursday. In between, Christensen will take part in a fireside chat. “We’re looking to have good stories that give examples of how we’re seeing additive get engaged in more areas,” Dekker says. “There’s a lot of potential areas of implementation that our keynotes have done in their automotive companies and it’s helping show that AM doesn’t have to be the end part to [make]
manufacturing more efficient, more cost-effective and higher quality. “[Meanwhile,] Andy has done an amazing job. He saw opportunities to really implement efficiencies in healthcare and use medical modelling as a catalyst to make those come to reality and opened up a huge area of growth for additive, blazing some of the trail with it.” Dekker has been working with AMUG for several years, first as Vice President and then as President since 2019. But he has been an attendee for much longer. As such, he has been a beneficiary of the networking opportunities afforded to AMUG attendees that he now advocates for as President. Across the AMUG week, there is plenty of time set aside for attendees to rub shoulders, including at the expo, in the hotel bars and at offsite events. There are also networking lunches, in which attendees are allocated a table at random. This, Dekker says, is designed to pull people out of their usual social groups and facilitate new connections. “By having people separated, you’re now able to wind up at a table where you could have ten new people that you’ve never met before and have a perfectly valid reason to open a continued conversation that [could] help you throughout the year,” Dekker says. “We’re all professionals doing AM, we all have a lot of the same issues, [but] you may never have met these people had it not been for a nudged introduction.” The idea is that by bringing AM users together to share insights and ideas at an all-inclusive event, the industry resembles something of a logarithmic spiral. In the very early days, a lot of the conversation at AMUG might have revolved around the mere concept of taking an object from the digital CAD space to the physical space overnight. But in 2022, as Christensen, Lee and Czinger will detail, it has grown to be about realworld impacts from real-world applications. “We’re still learning where exactly we can apply all this,” Dekker says. “And sometimes it just takes a conversation with the right people that you met at one of the networking activities. You say, ‘hey you mentioned this, but what about this?’ and we start seeing more applications come out that they can present in future years. It becomes a breeding ground of ideas.”
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HOW BURLOAK’S EARLY BELIEF IN ADDITIVE PAID OFF Laura speaks to Samuel, Son & Co.’s CEO Colin Osborne (CO) about Burloak Technologies' expansion, certification & scaling AM. TCT: When Burloak’s acquisition by Samuel was confirmed, you commented, "our early belief in the transformative potential of AM is paying off.” Why were you confident in the technology so early on? CO: I come from an engineering and metallurgy background and have spent my life in manufacturing – car parts, air parts, every sort of manufacturing you can think of. I joined Samuel in 2015. At 165 years old, and with 15 different businesses, Samuel is very uniquely positioned to identify opportunities for manufacturing innovation because we make so many different things. We manufacture everything from tubing for engines to pressure vessels, to extrusions for solar panels and service about 15,000 customers ranging from big OEMs like Boeing or Tesla or GM, to mom-and-pop machine shops. The common theme in all that we do is metal. When we first started looking at additive manufacturing, we realized that we could produce innovative metal parts that can't be produced any other way. We realized that we could produce parts 70% lighter and two times stronger. And we saw that it [could] completely disrupt the supply chain. We certainly didn't have all the answers, but I think we had a high degree of confidence that this was going to become a mainstream process just like casting or forming or extruding.
excellent facility in Canada that provides end-to-end additive solutions for many customers, adding a second facility in California helps us expand our footprint so we can serve even more customers. It also allows us to address any sensitivity due to the nature of the work we’re doing, which requires production take place in the country where the customer is located. This obviously includes defence-related work, which is extremely proprietary and requires compliance with ITAR and government requirements that isn’t conducive to going across borders. Between these drivers, controlled goods legislation and NIST legislation, we knew that for most of our U.S. customers, we would eventually have to produce incountry. From a growth perspective, in addition to having an economy as big as Canada’s, California is also a major hub for space and aerospace. Now we have existing and prospective customers only a two-tothree-hour drive from our facility that we can engage with. TCT: You’ve spoken about challenges around scaling AM. How is Burloak addressing those obstacles?
TCT: You opened a second AM facility last summer. Can you talk about the growth that led to this milestone?
CO: What's neat to me about Burloak and Samuel is our ability to help customers scale. You may have this incredible technology leader that can go from blue sky concept to proof of a commercially viable product but when they need to go from a prototype to producing 2,000 or 5,000 units a month, they don’t know how to do that.
CO: As you keep expanding and winning new customers, you have to expand your capabilities. While we have an
I think people underestimate the difficulty of going from small scale to large scale. The beauty of our partnerships with
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SHOWN: SAMUEL, SON & CO. CEO COLIN OSBORNE
EXECUTIVE Q&A
SHOWN: BURLOAK RECENTLY EXPANDED ITS AM FOOTPRINT IN THE U.S.
customers is that we can help them in the early stages of design and prototyping for AM, and when they need to scale up, we also have the systems, and infrastructure and knowledge to do that. In fact, we do this with major OEMs for thousands upon thousands of parts every day.
“We had a high degree of confidence that this was going to become a mainstream process.” SHOWN: END-TO-END AM SOLUTIONS
TCT: Burloak was approved as a metal AM supplier to Boeing last year. We know certification is a challenge in AM. Can you talk about how you achieved this? CO: Even before Samuel acquired it, Burloak was staffed with many aerospace people. Our founder was an aerospace engineer, and I would say at least half of the people in our shop were PhDs who had spent much of their life in the aerospace industry. Our very deep understanding of manufacturing for aerospace was very valuable when it came to certification. I empathize with companies that have not been in aerospace and then decide to get into the industry and suddenly have to face the certification process. It is a very, very difficult process and it needs to be because of flight safety. For us, it took 18 months to get that one [The Boeing Company] BAC 5673 certification for aluminium with multiple rounds of testing on multiple pieces of equipment. In aerospace, every piece of equipment is certified by serial number, so even if you are certifying identical machines, they require separate certification processes. It's a long, expensive process. Fortunately for us, both within Samuel and Burloak, we have significant experience with aerospace. TCT: You’ve previously commented that this “represents a step forward on the path to a greener future for aviation.” Can you elaborate? CO: From an environmental perspective, the first reason additive is so compelling for aviation is you can produce a part that's as strong or stronger while also being much lighter. This means you can achieve immediate fuel savings, and in turn, an
immediate reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The second reason, which doesn't get as much press, is a reduction in the supply chain complexity required to manufacture metal parts. This is true with parts for planes, cars, trucks, and anything else you can make out of metal. Our supply chain today involves buying metal from 70 countries around the world. I look at the supply chain of somebody casting something in Germany or Indonesia, then shipping it over to me, I cut it into a plate. The plate is then machined, and the parts get heat treated. After that, somebody rivets something onto it before it is delivered to whoever is responsible for putting the part onto a car or a bus. I look at the thousands of miles that part travelled and the yield loss which is often 80-90% and compare it to what happens with AM – taking powder and printing that part locally, as required. When you think of all the greenhouse gas, fuel and yield loss associated with getting a traditionally manufactured, finished component into a plane or vehicle compared with the AM process there is an incredible difference. All you really do is have to get powder to the printers. TCT: The last two years have been challenging for aerospace. How has Burloak navigated that? CO: We've been lucky. We never had a drop in workload and in fact, we've increased staff through that period. We have felt the challenges, but not in the way you might think. There are a few reasons for this. Two and a half years ago, the majority of our work was aerospace related. Every single customer that we were working with, we kept working with, although the momentum certainly slowed. Fortunately, while the aerospace sector went through its slowdown, the space industry really evolved. More satellites are planned for launch in the next two to three years, than in our entire history. This certainly increased demand for us. During this time period we also consciously tried to do more outreach with customers, especially those in automotive and energy who have great potential applications for additive but didn’t fully understand the business case.
Read in full: mytct.co/BurloakQA
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Expert Column
MITIGATING SUPPLY CHAIN RISK T
WORDS: Oliver Smith, Rethink Additive
oday, every transaction and operation, product and service, customer and supplier is global. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the many existing vulnerabilities of global supply chains to the forefront and many of these are known to business leaders; stock-outs, suppliers going under, huge commodity price fluctuations. So, if businesses are aware of these risks and have a suite of supply management tools and techniques to mitigate them, why did so many struggle or collapse through the pandemic?
components, tools and even production equipment spares to keep critical processes moving and get critical products out the door.
The pandemic demonstrated that organizations are ill-equipped to manage macro-level events, or “Black Swan” events, that impact entire supply chains. As Donald Rumsfeld stated, there are unknown unknowns, events that we can neither predict what they will be or when they will occur. McKinsey’s Global Institute has indeed attempted to predict these unknowns, with their research estimating catastrophic supply chain shocks occurring once every 3.7 years and set to increase in occurrence.
The first step is for businesses not to replace their production processes with 3D printing but use it as a means of supporting existing shop floor operations and increasing efficiency of existing capital equipment.
Throughout the pandemic, 3D printing emerged as a solution for pro-active businesses to secure their operations in the face of these unknown shocks. Amid the chaos, manufacturers, suppliers and OEMS looked to 3D printing as an ad-hoc, rapidresponse solution to provide on-site and immediate
As we move into a world where business leaders are now painfully aware of the weak links in their supply chain, organizations need to proactively develop supply chain strategies that take advantage of 3D printing to reduce future risk from geographic disruption, demand fluctuations and improve their speed of response.
For the most part, high volume parts have comparatively lower per-part value, making 3D printing an uneconomical solution in most instances. However, 3D printing is adept at supporting traditional medium-to-high volume production methods by printing tooling that is simultaneously more functional, lower cost and more accessible. Many manufacturers use 3D printing for jigs and fixtures, but applications can go beyond that: specialized tooling, job aids, molds for direct production, and machine service parts. The advantage of switching to a digital, print-on-demand inventory of shopfloor parts has multiple benefits. The first being a low-risk, lowinvestment strategy for businesses looking to investigate and adopt 3D printing; many sub-10K USD Vat Polymer and Material Extrusion printers are more than capable of producing functional jigs, fixtures and tooling with impressive mechanical properties, most notably high HDT and ESD qualities. Primarily, it decouples you from tooling suppliers, allowing you to maintain shop floor
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operations independently of the health of your suppliers. An alternative strategy is “dual manufacturing”, where a part is designed and qualified for multiple manufacturing processes, one efficient at high volumes such as casting or molding, and another efficient at lower volumes such as 3D printing or machining. This duality in design enables far more agility and efficiency in the deployment of production capacity and allows manufacturers to respond both rapidly and economically to fluctuations in demand where 3D printing can augment traditional production capacity and produce overflow of parts until demand is sufficient to justify investment in further conventional capital equipment such as injection molding. The ultimate insurance against supply chain disruption is to decouple a business from fixed capacity and established manufacturing centers entirely. 3D printing as a tool-less, digitally driven, on-demand production process eliminates this final constraint and allows for hyper-agile and responsive production of parts via a distributed production network, either owned and operated by the business or via 3rd party capacity, or a mix of both. This strategy is the most significant in terms of investment and organizational management, however as 3D printing service bureaus and contract manufacturers become increasingly networked, the ability for manufacturers large and small to begin migrating specific high-value, slow-moving inventory, as well as critical part inventories, over to a cloud-based, distributed network of 3D printing bureaus will become progressively more accessible. Moving away from traditional modes of production and supply chain configuration towards a more lean and agile mode employing modern manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing is a significant undertaking for any business, and demands buy-in, support and resourcing from every facet of the organization, from the C-suite to the shop floor operators. But as the previous three years have shown us, whilst the prospect of integrating new technologies to ward off supply chain disruption may be daunting, the risk of not doing so can well be catastrophic.
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15 – 18 NOVEMBER 2022 FRANKFURT / GERMANY
Enabling the impossible! We know that additive manufacturing offers undreamed-of potential. Only, however, if all the upstream and downstream processes are taken into account – from design to material and quality assurance. Does your technology contribute to AM? If so, do secure your space in Frankfurt. formnext.com
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