TCT Na 6-1

STATE OF THE
INDUSTRY
Facts, figures, and thoughts
on the current AM climate
MAG AMUG 2020

PREVIEW
NORTH AMERICAN Highlights from this
EDITION year's event
VOLUME 6 ISSUE 1
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MISSION CRITICAL
THE TEAM BEHIND RAPID APPLICATION GROUP ON ITS
CAMPAIGN FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING EXCELLENCE
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FROM THE EDITOR
Such is the brevity of the additive manufacturing industry; we don’t

often have to address the brevity of human life.
But in December, we were saddened to learn of the passing of Dr

Carl Deckard – the lead inventor of Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
and co-founder of two companies acquired by 3D Systems and Evonik
respectively - at the age of 58. Friends and colleagues described him
as a pioneer, a visionary and a genius, while another industry stalwart
told TCT how he ‘couldn’t tell his story without Carl.’
As is convention at times of loss, Carl’s story has been recounted

numerous times since, though as he’d have conceded himself, his
visioneering, pioneering journey wasn’t down to him alone. Deckard
worked on the invention of SLS inside the University of Texas (UT) in the
mid-late 1980s where he would receive his master’s, file his first patent,
and commercialize SLS technology through a business that would
become DTM Corp. Of course, he did this with the support of fellow
academics, investors and several champions in industry.
While his story can’t be told without acknowledging their efforts, nor
can it neglect a couple of moments of serendipity, where rules were
relaxed, and genius allowed to prosper.
Indeed, if it wasn’t for an assistant professor at UT named Dr Joe

Beaman, Carl would have left UT with an ‘okay but not terrific’ grade
at undergraduate level. “Let this guy in, he’s got potential,” Beaman
remembers having to convince the graduate advisor. Without that
intervention? No master’s, no patent, no SLS process.
Three years later, another moment of fortune. Back then, it wasn’t

permissible for UT faculty members or students to own a company
operating at the university, since it was considered using public
property for private gain. Deckard and Beaman went ambitiously
to the highest authority in the UT System and got lucky when the
chancellor turned out to be an engineering professor. Impressed with
their invention, he allowed them to become the first student and faculty
member to own equity in a private company built on campus. Had he
not, SLS mightn’t have been commercialized when it was, if at all.
Highlighting these instances is not intended to do a disservice to

Deckard’s achievements, for which he is rightly lauded, but to note that
even the most inventive need breaks along the way and people to hand
those breaks to them. It’s a reminder, in an industry where, despite the
wealth of innovation, successful projects are outnumbered starkly by
failed ones, that people and ideas still need adequate support.
In the instance of Carl Deckard, twice he could have been stopped

in his tracks, twice the doors could have slid shut rather than open.
But the gesture of an optimistic professor and the consent of an
enthusiastic university chancellor allowed potential to be realized, a
novel idea to flourish, and now on a daily basis, problems to be
solved with SLS technology.
Life is short. Back potential.
SAM DAVIES
ASSISTANT EDITOR
VOL 6 ISSUE 1 / www.tctmagazine.com / 03
4:49 PM TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 3 24/02/2020 16:39

ISSUE 1
VOLUME 6
TCT
COVER STORY 30
06. MISSION CRITICAL

25
6 Rapid Application Group on
the growth and social impact of
the U.S.’s only Service Disabled
Creative
Veteran Owned AM contract 25. WORTH ITS WEIGHT
manufacturer. Sam reports on a new powder
atomization machine designed for
30
precious metals.
Industry AMUG 2020

Report 9 26
30. AMUG CONFERENCE
09. STATE OF THE INDUSTRY Executive Q&A PREVIEW
We look ahead to this year’s
Head of Content Daniel O’Connor 26. CARBON’S NEXT CHAPTER
conference with a selection of not-to-
speaks to some industry Carbon’s new CEO Ellen J. Kullman
be-missed highlights.
figureheads and examines AM talks about the future of the Silicon
facts & figures. Valley AM company.
Software & 32
13 Simulation
29 THROUGH
THE DOORS Expert Advisory
13. A PLATFORM FOR
29. ELECTRON BEAM’S Column
TIME TO SHINE
INNOVATION 32. A FLY IN THE OINTMENT
Dan visits Wayland Additive’s UK
Deputy Group Editor Laura Graham Tromans with a cautionary
HQ to discover a new metal AM
Griffiths talks to nTopology about tale on how not to cure an SLA part.
technology.
building a software platform that
unlocks AM potential.
17. JOURNEY TO GENERATIVE

ENGINEERING
ELISE tells Assistant Editor
Sam Davies how it’s bringing a
completely new way of thinking to
design for AM.
21. “WE CARE ABOUT 6

EFFICIENCY, QUITE A BIT.”
Dyndrite CEO Harshil Goel talks to
TCT about going from CAD to 3D
print in minutes.

MISSION
CRITICAL
THE TEAM BEHIND RAPID APPLICATION GROUP ON ITS
CAMPAIGN FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING EXCELLENCE
SHOWN:
FDM MACHINES BEING PUT THROUGH
THEIR PACES IN THE NEW FACILITY
W
ith the recent opening
of a new 15,000
square-foot additive
manufacturing facility,
the founders of Rapid Application Group
(RAG), CEO Terry Hill and COO Jason
Dickman, took a few minutes out to
discuss rapid growth, a social mission and
being the only Service Disabled Veteran
Owned AM contract manufacturer in the
United States.
Rapid Application Group has grown

very quickly since being founded in
2017. How did that happen?
Terry: From humble beginnings three
years ago, RAG has grown more than
3,000%. We are leading the State with the
most advanced additive manufacturing
facility in Oklahoma and our growth
is a testament to our business model,
especially for aerospace and defense “I HAVE
customers. As additive manufacturing HONESTLY
WAITED FOR MY
becomes a viable supply chain option for
all industries, we are proud to help deliver Can you share some of your history in
‘mission-critical additive manufacturing
solutions’ for customers.
additive manufacturing?
ENTIRE CAREER
TO BE PART
Terry: After several tours in the U.S.
Army, and 750 combat missions as a UH-
Jason: 3D printing delivers the
opportunity to fabricate and produce so
60 Black Hawk Medical Evacuation pilot, I
was introduced to additive manufacturing
OF SUCH AN
many different parts on-demand, from as a research pilot and engineer at the AMAZING TEAM
prototypes, production parts, jigs and
fixtures and tooling, and RAG is the tip of
Army’s Aeromedical Research Laboratory.
It opened my eyes to the possibilities of WITH THIS
the spear for customers across the United
States. We have focused on stringent
additive and allowed me to invent the ‘Hill
Helmet Mount’. Once I left the army, RAG
WORLD-CLASS
quality standards, comprehensive was founded in 2017. In combat there were FACILITY.”
traceability systems, and a commitment to multiple times that we could have used
customer service. We are the go-to leader AM to support non flight-critical parts to
in the aerospace and defense additive
manufacturing market and our new facility
increase the combat power of the United
States and we are bringing that experience
JASON DICKMAN
is a mark of our commitment and growth and knowledge to aerospace and defense
trajectory. contractors now.
06 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 6 ISSUE 1

cover story
Jason: I started off more than 30 years ago prints multiple fixtures at the same
as an aerospace engineer at GE, and later time. Varying part geometry and
moved to Hasbro Toys and other companies size of parts are irrelevant using this
where I implemented SLS, SLA and FDM process. Accuracy on these parts was
systems for part production. I co-founded critical so we developed processes to
American Precision Prototyping, an additive measure and control shrinkage, and
service bureau, in 2002. I have been in additive maintain the required surface finish.
manufacturing since its inception and I cannot The parts print in about a quarter of
imagine product development without it. We the time and we were able to cut the
also leverage 3D scanning and metrology to production costs in half.
fully assure quality parts. I am also an AMUG
Dino award recipient. Jonsey the dog is a popular
character at AMUG and RAPID + BE A PART OF
What do customers come to you for? TCT events. What’s the story there? #RAGFRIDAY WITH US.
Jason: Our customers come for our Terry: Jonsey is my trained and
application-based approach that can be used to certified PTSD service dog and VP RAG Friday foundation is a
produce parts, both via additive and traditional of Customer Service. He gives me registered non-profit organization
manufacturing methods. We are fanatics the ability to focus on growing one of that focuses on giving back to military
about customer service and quality, and those the fastest companies in Oklahoma veterans through improving quality
customers are secure in the knowledge that we and the strength to continue this of life, giving them employable skills,
will give them the best advice and service, every incredible journey. He is with me 24/7 and raising awareness about veteran
time. We also have many certifications and and so when I am at a trade show, suicide.
compliance with standards including ISO 9001, Jonsey is there too, and with his
AS9100D, ITAR and HUBZone. executive position he even gets his With the words Remember All
own name badge. Gone, every team member wears
What examples of work do you do for RAG Friday t-shirts every Friday, to
customers? What’s next for the RAG team? ensure that we Remember those
Jason: One challenge that both jet engine Jason: I have honestly waited deployed, All those who come back
OEMs and Aircraft MROs have in common is for my entire career to be part of but are still fighting a battle within
the assembly of fan and compressor cases. The such an amazing team with this themselves like Terry, and all those
assemblies require all the parts to be installed world-class facility. When we moved who are Gone, but never forgotten.
and aligned in a specific order and are then to the new facility we added four
contained by final case halves. A typical jet large production 3D printers and in Support RAG Friday through a
engine will have multiple stages of production, 2020 we will be adding additional donation and you will be supporting
so fixtures with varying outer diameters, slot polymer and metal systems. We have critical manufacturing skills training
angles and sizes are required for each stage. It advanced metrology systems to for veterans and delivery of services
is extremely expensive and time-consuming to ensure quality, and we will be adding for production of prosthetics for
CNC machine these one-off components. additional reverse engineering wounded veterans. Rapid Application
Terry: So, it makes perfect sense to use AM systems. We have an aggressive Group has donated over 1% of
to print these tools. Leveraging the massive growth plan and are excited to see gross revenue to the RAG Friday
build envelope of the Fortus 900MC, RAG what 2020 brings. Foundation. Donations can be made
at ragfriday.org
Cover photo of Jason, Terry and Jonsey by Kate Friedl

Story by Annalena Dickman and Rachael Dalton-Taggart
SHOWN: SHOWN:
ADVANCED METROLOGY SYSTEM (L-R) CEO TERRY HILL, JONSEY THE
TO ENSURE DIMENSIONAL DOG, AND COO JASON L. DICKMAN
ACCURACY

AMT’s Chief TeChnology offiCer, luis folgAr,
will presenT AT The posT proCessing &
finishing AM roundTAble pAnel.
dATe & TiMe

monday, march 23rd at 1:30pm
loCATion
room pdr 2 | 3rd floor
amT will attend amug conference from march 22-26th, 2020.
contact info@amtechnologies.com to secure a meeting with an

amT manager.
The only auTomaTed Turnkey addiTive manufacTuring posT-processing

Technology delivering end-use parTs aT scale.
pArT eXAMples:
AMTeChnologies.CoM

INDUSTRY REPORT
STATE OF
THE INDUSTRY
WORDS: DANIEL O'CONNOR
A
nalyzing the health of the additive manufacturing
(AM) industry is a tricky task; ask the OEMs, and
“THE REALITY IS
they'll no doubt tell you all is well, even if there
has been some serious restructuring. Ask a user,
AM IS STILL A VERY and they'll likely only see it from their positive perspective of a
broader range of materials and machinery. Ask some industry
SMALL INDUSTRY; analysts; they'll give you doom and gloom or a booming
bonanza, dependent on their leanings.
WE USE THE
NUMBERS WITHOUT
The truth of the matter is that the state of the industry is
almost impossible to judge. And what else do you expect from
PUTTING THEM an industry in which the machines vary in price from hundreds
to millions of dollars?
INTO ANY SORT "It's always weird to talk about the 3D printing market
OF CONTEXT.” because there's hardly one market," says Chris Connery VP
Global Research & Analysis at Context. "That's why we break it
down at this super high level of personal, professional, design
and industrial machinery shipments. Take, for example, the
DR PHIL REEVES industrial category [machinery over 100,000 USD typically
metal]; overall, we talked about the metal 3D printing industry
having a good quarter (Q3 2019), but only because of this
new material extrusion metal technology like Desktop Metal
and Markforged. When you break it down, you had a bit of a
difficult Q3 for the powder bed fusion players. GE and EOS, for
example, both saw a decline year over year in Q3."
Those figures are odd given that powder bed fusion

technologies are maturing to the point BMW is using the
technology for automotive series production, and the metal

extrusion technologies are just hitting the market with relatively
few use cases. Chris was keen to point out Context sees no
correlation between the growth of one and the decline of the
other. Perhaps there are not enough buyers to go around?
"The reality is that AM is still a very small industry," says Dr.

Phil Reeves, Managing Director at Reeves Insight. "We use the
numbers without putting them into any context; I always listen
out for other industry figures to put the AM industry into context.
Yesterday on the news, they were talking about wild birds, and
the market for wild bird seed in the UK is 360 million GBP a
year or about 400 million USD. So that's over half of the global
revenue of Stratasys in 2018 (663.2 million USD for full-year
2018)."
When HP talks about carving out a bigger slice of the 12 trillion

dollar manufacturing industry for 3D printing, it is worth noting
that, according to the 2018 Wohler's Report, the 3D printing
market was worth 7.34 billion USD. That's 0.06% of that 12 trillion
dollars; it's a relative drop in the ocean, but that drop is growing
at a faster rate than that of manufacturing.
The investment in additive manufacturing over the last

ten years has been nothing short of phenomenal. According
to Crunchbase's statistics, 93% of investment in 3D printing
companies has come since 2010. The total level of funding in
some 2,800 companies has been 4.1 billion USD. A quarter of
that has flowed into two companies alone, Carbon and Desktop
Metal, both of whom have been shipping machines for less than
five years.
A PICTURE OF HEALTH?
Despite the boom times in venture capital funding, there is an
air of pessimism you get from spending so much time reading
about the AM industry. Along with the slow Q3s for EOS and GE
Additive, 2019 saw Renishaw shutter the doors to its dedicated
additive manufacturing site in Staffordshire, UK. Although the
company remains dedicated to AM technology, with the board
discussing "next-generation machines" in its most recent earnings
conference call, the Stone plant closure and the resulting round
of redundancies was a cause for concern.
In 2019 alone, we saw Mcor collapse, Lulzbot fold only to

be rescued, plus Carbon, Stratasys, EOS, and HP all change
leadership teams. These are rocky times for the AM industry
and what with geopolitical difficulties like tariff wars and Brexit
plus the outbreak of the coronavirus practically shutting down
China - AM's fastest-growing market for what appears to be some
months - the start of 2020 doesn't look much brighter.
Reeves believes it's inevitable that in the not too distant future
we'll see some consolidation in 3D printing companies:

INDUSTRY REPORT
"The biggest barrier to adoption is economics,"

says Phil Reeves. "There's a lot of talk about the
ecosystem now; Formnext was a great example
of this, you've got machine manufacturers,
materials companies, material handling equipment
companies, post-processing, you've got software
for the design side, you've got software for the
CAM side, you've got shop floor management
software tools, DRM [digital rights management]
software companies... you've got a huge
ecosystem. The reality is, the industrial adoption
is predicated on the weakest part of it. And the
weakest part is still the economics of the process."
Phil's opinion is reflected in a recent TCT

in association with Altair survey in which Cost
Justification ranked as the number one answer
to the question, 'What challenges does your
company face today regarding adopting additive in
production?'
TO TCT 3SIXTY
Although it's difficult for those in our position to
do much about the economics of the processes
themselves, we can help with the runner up,
Business Case Identification, which, in turn, may
help with cost justification.
“THE BIGGEST Spotting this trend for slowing machine sales
BARRIER TO
and a lack of adoption, TCT has taken it upon
itself, as an independent organization, to help
drive adoption. TCT 3Sixty (29th September - 1st
ADOPTION IS October, Birmingham, UK) is the new brand for
what was TCT Show. To help exhibitors sell more
ECONOMICS.” machines, the content for the new event will focus
on three areas on an AM roadmap:
• Evaluation: From 20-point plans before raising

that purchase order to cautionary tales of
"There are far too many 'me too' companies, adoption gone wrong, the evaluation track
particularly in metals. If you look at the number of will feature speakers aimed at helping visitors
powder bed laser metal companies, it's tough to understand why, how, and when they should be
differentiate one from another in terms of the product purchasing equipment.
offer, which can't be good for the industry because
there's only a finite market. You're diluting the market • Adoption: Once the decision to buy has been
between multiple players, which means that none of made, the adoption track focusses on some of the
them gets stronger, and potentially you're repressing the low-hanging fruit use-cases that offer quick ROI.
market and investment because nobody knows which
way to turn." • Optimization: For users who may already have a
machine or use a service bureau for some of the
Adoption is still the most significant factor holding more mundane tasks and are looking to enhance
back the industry; a recent Ultimaker survey of over their machine(s)' output, be it through part-
2,500 engineers and professionals revealed that the consolidation or a step into series production.
adoption rate of those aware of the technologies was a
little over 50%. TCT is on the lookout for speakers to
present use-cases in the three above areas.
At the recent TCT Japan 2020 event, Tim Shinbara, If you feel like you have something that
VP & CTO at The Association For Manufacturing can help to accelerate the adoption of
Technology suggested the four most significant additive manufacturing, get in touch with
challenges were; lack of verification and validation tools; daniel.oconnor@rapidnews.com.
inconsistent processes; surface finish quality; and high
materials cost. Dr. Phil Reeves leans more towards the
final point:

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SOFTWARE & SIMULATION

FEATURE sponsored by
WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS
A
dditive manufacturing (AM) technology
is outpacing our current software
toolset. At least that is the take from one
New York-based software developer
nTopology, with 30.7 million USD in funding to do
something about it.
“People have been working in AM for many years

and they've had these dreams of things that they’ve
wanted to create. It's not easy to do that with the
tools that they have today,” Blake Perez, Application
Engineer at nTopology tells TCT during a meeting at
last year’s TCT Show.
It’s a good introduction as to why the company’s

computational modeling platform exists today,
described by Perez as “a modeling tool and
engineering knowledge-capture tool for high-
performance geometry.” The comments were made
back in September when the company made its
debut at the Birmingham event and scooped up a
TCT Award for its nTop Platform.
Co-founded by Grey Schroy and CEO Bradley

Rothenberg, nTopology first arrived on the AM scene
SHOWN:
in 2015 with its Element lattice design software. TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION OF
With a powerful modeling kernel on their hands, the AN AEROSPACE BRACKET
team started looking at ways in which the software
could be expanded to open up more applications.
After working with a number of pilot customers, nTop
Platform was born. through pre-installed data sets or allowing users to build on top
of those and input their own IP. “That’s why we call it a Platform,”
Formally launched last May, nTop Platform offers says Perez.
a number of toolkits for lightweighting, topology
optimization, additive manufacturing, design analysis, “Typically, the workflow is, you have this very talented engineer
and architected materials for users in the aerospace who takes analysis results data, looks at it, has some intuition
and defense, automotive, medical and industrial about how that gets applied to the geometry and it's back and
design sectors; the company already counts the likes forth, that person has to be in the middle,” Perez says of the
of Lockheed Martin amongst early users. Two months current workflow. “Now you can set up these loops where that
on from that TCT Award win, nTopology announced happens automatically.”
the next iteration, nTop Platform 2.0, with updated
toolkits and the opportunity for users to create their The typical design-to-manufacturing workflow is a long one
own workflows. with many components to contend with. Designers and engineers
are required to switch between multiple pieces of software in
MAKE THE WORK FLOW order to get a design to the point of manufacture and for every
nTop Platform has been designed to handle design iteration, those many steps have to be carried out all over
complex geometries in a repeatable way. Users again. That’s where repeatable workflows come in.
can design engineering workflows which can be
deployed to a whole product family or organization “The more you enable your team to iterate, make design
to speed up the design-to-manufacturing process. changes, learn from failures, the better your outcome is, we all
Geometries can be modeled directly in the software know that,” Perez says. “We kind of tied all these processes
or design data can be imported from most major together, bringing in the simulation data, bringing in your existing
CAD tools, optimized, latticed, sliced and supported geometry, the optimization, and putting that all together in a
within a single platform, holding the user’s hand single tool. So now you can say, okay I've learned from my part,

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freeformer_TCT_Magazine_US_219x282_Februar_EN_US.indd 1 14.02.2020 13:30:39
exactly what's happening with the software. to outpace the other. Perez doesn’t
You as a user can put this together and you think that’s such a bad thing.
can generate your multiple outcomes, you
“INNOVATION can choose based on the constraints that you “I don't think we ever want them to
IN EACH AREA
have, the machine that you have.” be on the same playing field, because
innovation in each area is going to
IS GOING A FRESH APPROACH

Those advancements in software products
drive innovation in the others,” Perez
explains. “Right now, we're essentially
TO DRIVE positioned towards additive manufacturing
mean some older ways of doing things are
seeing our hardware advance leaps
and bounds beyond our digital
INNOVATION gradually being phased out. STL, for example, capabilities, our software capabilities.
IN THE
a file format that has been subject to a Software is catching up and then
committee of industry leaders wanting to see somewhere in the middle is the
OTHERS.” it gone in favour of a modern format, may want

to watch its back.
material space where I think we also
have incredibly advanced materials.
Now we have to figure out how do we
“One of our main efforts right now is to really process them? How do we represent
get rid of the STL file entirely,” Perez says. “If them in the software? […] There's so
you think about it, STL adds no value to your much good hardware out there. We're
digital tool chain. It's a translation mechanism. just waiting for the tools.”
I need to make this design change and go
So, we're slicing parts directly, we're providing
back and make it. Your part rebuilds and then
slice outputs from our software directly The last year has been one of huge
you can just print right way, you don't have to
to machines, we're working with machine growth for the company. It recently
worry about costing your company man hours
vendors and I see that attitude changing as opened an office in Regensburg,
in making that design change.”
well, where people are being a little more Germany to cater for its growing
open about the types of files that they accept European customer base and raised
There are a growing number of programs
from their customers, from their users. So, an additional 20 million USD in
on the market offering tools like topology
slice export has been incredibly successful in funding. nTopology says it is now
optimization and we’re seeing more examples
getting these geometries out of the screen and focusing its efforts on user experience,
of generative design everywhere from
into the machines and that has relied heavily ensuring nTop fits into existing
aerospace brackets to car steering wheels.
on our relationship with the machine OEMs.” workflows and building out the
nTopology’s take is, topology optimization is
platform to allow people to customize
just another tool in the box and nTop allows
nTopology has been actively working with it to their needs, giving them the
users to quickly create geometry directly
OEMs like Renishaw and EOS to further ability to create optimized workflows,
from that without having to manually remap
explore the potential of this technology and package them and then share
engineering data. That said, it’s still very much
how it meets the needs of various processes. across an organization or the wider
a collaborative process between engineer and
“We know that there are hundreds of AM user community. It is also turning its
software.
technologies out there, we're not going to attention to other forms of advanced
build for just one, we're going to build for all of manufacturing like composite layup
“If you Google generative design, you'll
them,” Perez says. Most recently, the company and hybrid technologies where it
get hundreds of answers," says Perez. “What
joined EOS’ Digital Foam program as a believes, like additive, there is a
we do is we provide a toolkit for generative
partner to support 3D printing for applications sizeable gap in the design tools readily
design. We give you all of the basic tools that
like protective headwear and performance available.
you need to sort of string together whatever
footwear.
workflow you would like to have. It's not a
There’s “One of our next big expansion
black box, everything is very open, you know
also an efforts is, what does that community
ongoing platform really look like?” says Perez.
discussion “Are there communities based
around the around it? How can I download new
relationship functionality that maybe nTopology
between AM didn’t create but someone else did?
hardware and That's where you really gain a lot of
software, the collective knowledge and you'll see
idea that just leaps and bounds of where the
one is software goes.”
always
going
LEFT:
ROCKET NOZZLE WITH
LATTICE STRUCTURE DESIGNED
IN NTOP PLATFORM

0 13:30:39
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comprehensive;
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TCT 3Sixty goes beyond simply raising

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Untitled-1 1
TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 16 28/10/2019
24/02/2020 15:24
16:39
WORDS: Sam Davies

P
iling suitcases, laptops and commercialization in 2018 after positive successfully deployed the ELISE platform
sample parts into the back feedback from clients. A six-month beta during the beta program.
of a van. Progressing from phase then attracted some of Germany’s
microscopically small plankton most renowned manufacturers, each of MAKING HEADWAY
organisms to bionic lightweight construction. which extended their usage of the software The software that has caused such a
ELISE GmbH, embarking on an eight- while more early access customers came stir as to result in BMW’s backing at this
hour road trip in November 2019 from on board too. early stage combines generative design
Bremerhaven to Frankfurt, having previously Weeks before Formnext 2019, where capabilities with process automation to
spent ten years inside The Alfred Wegener the start-up was showcasing applications create a single platform that houses tools
Institute for Polar and Marine Research, is in from Premium Aerotec, Volkswagen for topology optimization, stress analysis,
the mood to talk about its journey. and Brose, ELISE had joined the likes of fatigue analysis and more. ELISE calls it
The company’s origins are in the research Carbon, Desktop Metal and Xometry in ‘Generative Engineering’.
of single-cell plankton organisms called being backed by BMW i Ventures. A sum “Let’s try to imagine a world where all
diatoms which need to float to get maximum of 3 million EUR was raised in the seed the necessary steps and people needed
intake via photosynthesis and require a funding round led by the automotive for such a huge production are in one
permeable structure to take in nutrients. giant’s venture capital arm after the place and if you change something in the
Over the years, Daniel Seigel, Sebastian Group’s Motorsport division had design you would instantly know the costs
Möller and Dr Moritz Maier, the
eventual co-founders of ELISE,
would study plankton organisms,
seeking to harness the lightweight
construction principles of these
microscopic entities and
apply them in the fields of
automotive, aerospace and
more.
ELISE (Evolutionary
Light Structure
Engineering) started
as a design
service, with the
co-founders
deciding
to pursue “IT’S A
COMPLETELY
NEW WAY OF
THINKING.”
SHOWN:
ROCKET BRACKET DESIGNED
BY ARIANE GROUP USING ELISE
19 15:24 TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 17 24/02/2020 16:39

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LEFT:
ELISE’S GENERATIVE ENGINEERING PLATFORM
“We've done engineering services for

eight years now – for seven years in additive
manufacturing – and what we experienced is
that it is a field where this design freedom comes
along with complex design steps. We have tried
out nearly every software on the market, starting
from CAD tools, simulation tools, pre-processing
tools, and it was a mess of software conversion
and import and export steps. This process takes
forever,” Maier bemoans. “If there’s a project
timeframe of two or three months, then you can
of the production, the weight, the simulation do little iterations and then the time is up. You
resolves, the displacement, the energy cannot come up with new designs, you cannot
absorption; it’s all in one place and instantly create new ideas, you cannot explore design
available. This is the vision we have in mind,” preparation, before finite element analysis spaces. You get stuck in your old design and,
Maier tells TCT. and cost evaluations take the user to a therefore, a huge potential gets dropped when it
It’s a vision, so far at least, enjoyed by the view of the fully designed component. comes to additive manufacturing.”
likes of Volkswagen Osnabrück GmbH and According to Maier, the implementation
Premium Aerotec, whose applications of the of Generative Engineering is leading ARRIVING AT A SOLUTION
technology were presented at Formnext. The some companies to reconsider how they ELISE’s Generative Engineering platform is
VW component on show is an A-pillar inlay approach the designs of parts. still in development, with early access available
manufactured with Selective Laser Melting “It's a completely new way of thinking,” on request and most of the seed funding set to
(SLM) technology. It boasts a reduction he says. “This was the feedback that we be used to further enhance the product. The
in weight of 74% and a reduction in the got: ‘If we are using Elise, what we do is company is not looking to add ‘super fancy’
number of parts by 67%. Premium Aerotec’s throw away our construction department, features but instead make sure the platform is
application, meanwhile, is an auxiliary now we are all like process designers’. The robust and easy to use. Indeed, the group hasn’t
stabilizng point which is installed between teams come together and sit on the table: come this far to underwhelm visitors to its trade
two frames in the lower shell at the rear side there's the purchasing department, stress show stands nor disappoint the likes of Brose,
of an Airbus A320 passenger aircraft. Again department, the development department BMW or MAN, all of whom had testimonials
combining ELISE with 3D printing, there is an and they are discussing their workflow, plastered on ELISE’s walls at Formnext.
80% reduction in time and a 40% reduction in their product development process, and The company is determined to provide these
weight. what it should look like.” companies, and more once its Generative
Both of these components have been While bigger companies might have Engineering software is fully commercialized,
designed from what ELISE calls their ‘technical different departments for each step of the with a platform that is simple, effective and
DNA’. This incorporates input cells like product development process, in plenty doesn’t require them to carry out work in another
manufacturing constraints, material properties, of firms one person will be responsible for software, unless they wish to.
load case data and cost data; generative cells the entire workflow, suffering the multiple How the company differentiates itself from
made up of bionic design algorithms and file imports and exports that go with it. the generative design solutions on the market
design templates; and evaluative cells, which ELISE’s software isn’t just designed to is by giving users access to the entire product
take into account multiphysics simulations, assist additive manufacturing users, but development workflow, rather than just the
support generation and printing analysis. This taking these processes as an example, design phase. One thing they have in common,
technical DNA then goes through modeling the company believes this back and forth however, is that the value of the technology is
and design phases, then meshing and AM can impede the design freedom that 3D not so much in the destination, but instead in the
printing technology promises. journey.
“The most critical point of this product is not
the result in the end, it’s the way to the part,”
Maier says. “If you design an aluminum part,
you optimize the thicknesses and overhanging
areas for the specific manufacturing technique,
and somebody raises the question, ‘would it be
cheaper in titanium?’ I have to redo the whole
project to find that out. [But with ELISE,] you
simply can change the parameter of the material
and the rest of the process is 100% identical; all
the cross-section optimization, all the fatigue
analysis is already there and recalculated
automatically with the new material properties
and you instantly know [the price].
“The final part you could do with a classical
CAD system by hand, but the design possibilities
behind it, this is the interesting part.”
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DYNDRITE: “WE
WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS
CARE ABOUT
EFFICIENCY,
QUITE A BIT.”
T
he above is the key theme that the many steps that designers and after more than three years in stealth
Harshil Goel, founder and CEO of engineers have to go through day in, to a captivated crowd at the Additive
additive manufacturing software day out to take their design from file Manufacturing Users Group last year.
developer Dyndrite, says he wants to finished part. The recent Forbes Backed by Google’s Gradient Ventures
me to take away from our conversation at last 30 Under 30 inductee makes it look and former Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, the
year’s Formnext. so simple that I walk away believing company aims to provide an alternative to
even I, three engineering degrees less the software tools which Goel and his team
It’s a concise introduction from a company qualified, could take the mouse and of mathematicians, scientists and software
built on the enormously complex language churn out some successful parts. experts saw were holding the additive
of kernels, GPUs and CPUs, but a few manufacturing industry back.
simple clicks into a demo, I quickly discover “That's the point,” Goel tells me.
that making complex tools efficient and “Honestly, if someone has difficulty “We're at a unique point in time where
approachable is what Dyndrite is all about. learning how to use this, we did not do the hardware has actually outpaced the
our jobs right. This is supposed to be software,” Goel tells TCT. “It's not even just
'Quick' is a prime word here. Within the like English and this is supposed to be on the design side. It's just how do you go
first five minutes of our meeting, Goel has really, really accessible. You should be from CAD to print?”
successfully imported a model into the able to go from CAD to print within five
Dyndrite platform, generated supports, made minutes of installing the software.” Dyndrite is not a design tool. It’s not a
some changes, run the next iteration, copied simulation tool either. So, what exactly does
and pasted the new design, added some Dyndrite (pronounced “den-drite”), is it do? Behind the bold statements about
crucial labels, performed slicing - basically a Seattle-based outfit which emerged ushering in a new era of manufacturing, its
interests lie in geometry and the crux is to
help people gain control of their CAD to 3D
print process. At the core is the Dyndrite
Accelerated Geometry Kernel (AGK) and
Dyndrite ACE (Accelerated Computational
Engine), the world's first fully GPU-native
geometry engine. Put simply, the kernel
is the central maths behind a program’s
operating system and you can do a tonne
of stuff with it. Powered by NVIDIA Quadro,
ACE has been built from the ground up
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for modern computer architecture, modern
manufacturing and modern design needs,
according to Goel.
“We specifically decided to build an additive

manufacturing application because we saw a
bunch of people in quite a bit of pain running
around with their heads on fire and said you
know, I think we can build you something to
help.”
That "something" is Dyndrite's Additive

Manufacturing Toolkit (AMT) and accelerated
production preparation build processor for 3D
printing, both unveiled at Formnext. The platform
allows users to import native CAD data, any
geometry type and huge data sets (goodbye
STLs), and export to any 3D printing process. SHOWN:
It also comes with integrated Python API for DYNDRITE IS DESIGNED FOR
scripting automated workflows and applications SERIAL PRODUCTION WORKFLOWS
which can be used on laptops, desktops, local “THE IDEA
IS TO MAKE
servers or the cloud.
“Of course, making complex geometries is

difficult but I actually think that's a red herring. I EVERY SINGLE Renishaw and EOS, recently teamed
up with Dyndrite to adopt the AMT
don't think many people really care about lattices
at all. They look interesting but you can't QA PERSON into their respective workflows. For
Renishaw, that means integrating
them, you can't clean them, you can't service
them and you can't figure out how to fix them,” SUPERMAN OR AMT into its QuantAM build processor
to accelerate slicing, latticing and
Goel explains. “On the other hand, being able to
iterate is significantly more important. If it takes
SUPERWOMAN.” lightweighting while also speeding
up the overall CAD-to-print process.
you 15 minutes to load a file and you do that For EOS, it will support the build
four times a day and you have 10 people in your processor for its direct metal laser
company and your burn rate is $100 to $200 an sintering portfolio to increase
hour, you've now burned $10-20,000 a week just part of the Dyndrite Developer Program which performance, portability and
opening files.” provides OEMs, software vendors and service repeatability.
providers with the necessary tools to develop
Processes that have traditionally taken for the platform. 3D Systems, ExOne, SLM After just under a year in beta
engineers multiple pieces of software and hours Solutions, ANSYS and Altair announced their mode, Goel says the company is
or days to complete can now be done in a matter participation at Formnext, bringing this industry getting close to having a product
of minutes. Goel shared how some customers working group to a total of 15 members. that’s ready for a full release. It
who were used to taking up to 70 hours to also recently launched its limited-
slice a design were now able to do so in under The company says it wants to be friends time Magic Amnesty Program that
two. Furthermore, the ability to handle complex with everyone in the room. “There's no reason will close in April. Until then, it's
geometries natively without constant importing why we couldn't licence ourselves to everyone continuing to push the platform, bring
and exporting means part quality is controlled. here,” Goel says, alluding to bigger ambitions in more developers, and excited to
of having a Dyndrite sticker on every machine (I see what those first users do with the
“The idea is to make every single person spotted several Dyndrite logos already dotted technology.
Superman or Superwoman," Goel adds heartily. around various booths on the show floor) but
"Again, the whole point is efficiency. Everything he asserts that while there is a lot of scope for “As you can probably tell, we're
that we do is basically ROI guaranteed. If we are this technology, Dyndrite is staying focused, pretty paranoid about making
not saving you money or time in some way then honing in on five market segments: aerospace, something perfect," Goel concludes.
we're probably not interested.” automotive, energy, medical and service "We think that we're going to be
bureau. flipping the switch sometime [this]
Another big part of Dyndrite’s growth plan is its year.”
Developer Council which has already on-boarded It is clearly doing something right. Two
an impressive roster of AM leaders. The council is major metal additive manufacturing players,
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CREATIVE
INSPEX
WORDS: Sam Davies
A
s a leading manufacturer Despite having powder atomization and do so more efficiently. In the ATO
and supplier of precious capability already in-house, these Noble, the company believes it has
metals, Cooksongold capabilities and features proved too found just what it was looking for.
figureheads get pitched good to ignore for Cooksongold. “It’s a fantastic technology, ideally
technologies aplenty as they sample “We think this technology has the placed for our market,” Bach assessed.
conferences across the globe. potential to offer better quality powder, “Conventional machines for producing
Such is the frequency of these more tightly controlled distribution and atomized powder are big, big things.
conversations for Managing Director therefore lower costs because yield is They’re not designed for low quantity
Martin Bach, he plays them straight, better. And with a piece of equipment and so your losses are significant. [The
offering an honest appraisal of what has ATO Noble] is much more flexible.
been put before him. Take Vicenzaoro It has the potential disadvantage of
2020 in January, for instance, where being a low volume approach, but you
he was being told all about a fully “IT’S A FANTASTIC very rarely talk about high volumes of
TECHNOLOGY,
automated CNC machine, which was precious metals, so you don’t need to
being used to make rings in a number of worry about it.
different materials. “That’s not the right
way to go,” Bach determined. “It doesn’t IDEALLY PLACED “So, the fact that it’s a small, self-
controlled, enclosed system is perfect
matter how good your machine is. It can FOR OUR SORT OF for precious metals.”
be the most incredible machine, totally
robot loaded with zero labor cost, if MARKET.”
it’s not dedicated to a given alloy, my
system’s cheaper.”
His assessment of 3DLab’s ATO Noble
powder atomizer device at another which is much smaller, losses are going
trade show, meanwhile, was the polar to be less” Bach explained. “It’s not
opposite. So impressed were he and rocket science. Precious metal is all
his colleagues of the Polish company’s about not losing precious metal and
patent-pending Ultrasonic Atomization refining it as little as possible. Otherwise,
technology, they agreed to optimize it’s fiendishly expensive.”
the parameters and performance of Hence, much of Cooksongold’s
the machine, before commercialization parameter development on the ATO
later this year. Customers will be able Noble is focused on making sure the
to either buy powders atomized on the machine is easy to clean down and
ATO Noble or buy the machine outright ensuring material doesn’t get stuck in
and begin to produce the powders joints and filters.
themselves in-house. The cost of precious alloys, plus the
The ATO Noble uses plasma arc potential need to refine the material,
melting to turn wire material into molten is what inhibits the more frequent
material, which is then subjected to application of the materials in 3D
vibrations with a specifically chosen printing, despite them being safer to
frequency, atomizing the liquid metal process than reactive materials. But for
before it solidifies to form a powder. 3D Cooksongold, who’s invested big in 3D
Labs says this resulting powder – which printing and launched the Precious M
could be reactive alloys like aluminum 080 laser sintering machine with EOS,
or, more pertinently for Cooksongold, printing precious metals like gold is
precious ones like gold – will boast almost unavoidable. “It looks pretty, it
excellent flowability, perfect sphericity won’t tarnish, and everybody wants a
and narrow particle size. The 760 x 1100 gold piece of jewelry,” Bach explained.
x 2000 mm machine also promises So, when Cooksongold send Bach and
100% material atomization and a his colleagues to places like Vicenzaoro,
minimizing of material loss thanks to it’s in the hope that they come across
a filtration system that recovers it for technologies that can facilitate high- SHOWN:
reuse. quality parts printed in precious metal 3D LAB’S ATO NOBLE

CEO ELLEN KULLMAN
TALKS CARBON’S
NEXT CHAPTER
IN THE FIRST OF OUR NEW SERIES OF EXECUTIVE
INTERVIEWS, TCT TALKS TO CARBON’S NEW CEO AND
PRESIDENT ELLEN J. KULLMAN ABOUT THE FUTURE OF
THE SILICON VALLEY ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING PIONEER.
TCT: You’ve served on the board at Carbon for a number of that achieving more sustainable materials for digital
years, what made you want to take on this leadership role? manufacturing can also simultaneously mean achieving better
EK: As a Carbon board member I had a first-row seat to performing materials. This is a major focus for Carbon, and
the incredible innovation coming out of this company. I really going forward, we are firmly committed to building on this work
believe that Carbon is in a position to pave the way for a by continuing to expand efforts to achieve more sustainable
stronger manufacturing future. I always said it would take a materials and practices.
compelling reason for me to take another operating role. And
Carbon is compelling. Everything we are doing to reimagine TCT: Coming into this industry, what applications or
the way products are designed, engineered, and manufactured potential areas for AM excite you the most?
across many different industries is inspiring. I have the relevant EK: I’m really excited about the applications that are coming
experience building and leading businesses so it’s really an out of our performance and protection vertical. The Carbon
honor to take on this responsibility to propel Carbon into our Digital Manufacturing Platform is the perfect solution for any
next chapter. company looking to create superior, differentiated products,
and especially previously unmakeable product designs.
TCT: Can you give us a sense of what that next chapter For example, our ability to create complex lattice
may look like? structures that can be tuned to be both energy
EK: Right now we’re focused on scaling our damping and absorbing with varying
business and supply chain operations, pushing functional zones within a single part
ahead on research and development, and enables superior performance for
delivering the best products and services to products previously made from foam.
our customers and partners. Further, partnerships with global
brands such as adidas, Riddell,
TCT: You previously served as CEO Specialized, and CCM are examples
at DuPont for seven years. With your showing how companies that have
experience in the field of materials adopted Carbon to advance product
science, can we expect to see increased innovation can not only design
focus on Carbon’s materials roadmap? and manufacture better products,
EK: I’m really excited about the role but also bring products to market in
digital manufacturing will play in achieving timelines not possible with traditional
a more sustainable future for our planet. manufacturing methods.
Digital manufacturing can offer cleaner, more
sustainable approaches to making things. For TCT: Much of the conversation
example, last year Carbon announced RPU around AM is about how we take
130, a new rigid polyurethane material for the technology from prototyping to
automotive and industrial applications. 30% of production, which Carbon has been
RPU 130 is composed of a fully plant-based exploring through partnerships with
material called Susterra, developed by the likes of Ford and Riddell. What
DuPont Tate & Lyle BioProducts. A challenges do we face in taking
rigid, tough, high-temperature AM to that next level? How
material comparable is Carbon tackling those
in performance challenges?
to unfilled EK: Sticking with the
thermoplastics, status quo is always
SHOWN:
RPU 130 ELLEN J. KULLMAN, the easy answer.
demonstrates CARBON CEO & PRESIDENT Adopting a new

026

Executive Q&A
technology that fundamentally transforms the way

LEFT:
PRODUCTION PART
you make things requires a company to be open to 3D PRINTED FOR FORD
thinking about innovation coming from the outside.
Manufacturing and supply chain are generally not
areas where companies are open to change or risk.
The main challenge the AM industry faces is helping
companies see the long-term value in adopting AM
and how that will pay off in terms of shortening go-
to-market timelines; achieving lighter, consolidated
parts; making new, complex geometries for improved
part performance; and the opportunity to make
parts with better performing and more sustainable
materials. The proof is there but we haven't quite
crossed the chasm as an industry to mainstream
adoption of AM at scale.
TCT: You are one of the first female interests of all our employees, because
CEOs in the AM industry and are not only is it the right thing to do, but it
active in eﬀorts to fix the gender gap also strengthens our ability to innovate
in leadership through the Paradigm and better serve our customers and
for Parity coalition - is that something partners.
“I’M REALLY you’re also aiming to champion in AM?

EK: Absolutely. Throughout my career TCT: Finally, as Carbon transitions
EXCITED ABOUT I’ve advocated for important issues like

salary equity for people of the same job
from its start-up phase, what can we
expect to see from the company in 2020?
THE ROLE DIGITAL level regardless of gender, ethnicity,
religion, or any other characteristics.
EK: Our focus in 2020 is to continue
scaling Carbon’s Digital Manufacturing
MANUFACTURING I’m really proud to inherit a culture at Platform to deliver on the promise
WILL PLAY IN
Carbon where there is a very strong of digital manufacturing. In 2019 our
commitment to making a positive partnerships with global brands like
ACHIEVING A MORE difference in the world and to creating

a work environment that enables
adidas, Riddell, Specialized, Ford,
Lamborghini, and Dentsply Sirona
SUSTAINABLE people of all genders to thrive. I believe

we must embrace and celebrate the
demonstrated how Carbon Digital Light
Synthesis technology is accelerating
FUTURE FOR OUR diversity of experiences, capabilities,
talents, backgrounds, identities, and
product innovation, and we look forward
to developing these programs further.
PLANET.” We’ll also continue to expand access of
our platform to product designers and
engineers around the world.
SHOWN:
CARBON 3D PRINTING LAB

Together
we lead the
Additive
Manufacturing
Revolution
www.materials-solutions.com

through
INSPEX
the doors
ELECTRON BEAM'S
WORDS: DANIEL O'CONNOR
TIME TO SHINE
W
ayland Additive is a new LEADING THE WAY
SHOWN:
British company with a NEUBEAM IN ACTION Wayland team invited TCT to its
technology that recently new HQ in Huddersfield, UK to see
secured 3 million GBP the machine and team in action.
(3.9 million USD) in funding from Longwall There are, refreshingly, no-frills to
Ventures. Fundamentally, it is a metal electron the Wayland team, it is experience
beam powder bed fusion technology, but its and expertise with frugality and
backstory is a classic case of the mother of the functionality at the forefront.
invention being necessity.
With regards to the machine,
Ian Laidler, CTO at Wayland Additive, was there’s not a great deal to report on
tasked by bosses at Reliance Precision - a its appearance, but that is precisely
one-hundred-year-old engineering firm - to the point; the team including
investigate metal 3D printing technology: software engineers, materials
scientists, as well as Ian Laidler's
"I have a background in electron-beam aforementioned electron beam
lithography from the semiconductor industry experts, are there to make the
and realized that there were things in current process repeatedly work, not look
electron-beam additive manufacturing that The answer, developed by Ian and his team great from a marketing perspective.
could be improved. I recruited my old team is what Wayland is calling Neutral Beam Looking forward, the team’s next
from the lithography world and first set upon Technology (NeuBeam). By addressing the task is to get the machine up-to-
resolving the Achilles heel of current electron fundamental physics of the electron beam speed with a machine befitting of an
beam AM - charging of the powder." additive process, NeuBeam technology industrial piece of equipment.
allows printing of fully dense parts without
The charging of the powder is the reason for creating a hard sinter-cake. "Electron beam technology has a
what is known as a smoke event or 'smoking'; better suite of tools for in-process
which can ruin both builds and requires "Powder charging no longer exists in our monitoring because we have the
machine clean down. To minimize smoking, machine," CEO Will Richardson revealed. electrons, we have optical, we're
current systems pre-sinter the surface layer “NeuBeam is a best of both worlds situation; a true thermal process. You can
with rapid scanning of the beam before the you still have the ease-of-use you get monitor everything in that chamber.
actual melting. This pre-sintering workaround with laser-sintering while maintaining We can actually give you the true
means de-powdering is difficult, processing the advantages in the productivity and temperature of your whole powder
options, materials and metallurgy you expect from electron beam. bed in-process as it happens. We
recyclability are You also have fewer supports so can tell you about the thermal
restricted. you don't need Wire EDM history of your material during the
to remove your parts process. We can tell you about
from a build plate, the topography of the surface so
you don't need a you can look to defects as they
stress-relieving occur. We're trying to cover all the
furnace, you bases, make sure that we've got
don't need a information someone needs to
complicated make that process reliable, as well
powder as making it more stable and more
recovery capable from the outset.”
system.
And In 2021 the Wayland team expects
because to build and sell just six machines.
we've Each machine and customer will
removed the have a dedicated team working
heating step on applications, material and
from the layer repeatability. "The worst advert is a
build, there's a machine sitting idle," says CEO Will
SHOWN: speed advantage Richardson.
A FAN BLADE MANUFACTURED too."
ON WAYLAND’S TECHNOLOGY

AMUG 2020
PREVIEW
MARCH 22-26, HILTON CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
W
hether you're receiving this in the OTHER CONFERENCE
mail or picking up at the Additive HIGHLIGHTS
Manufacturing Users Group 2020 There are a dizzying array of talks
itself, planning your time at the over four days of conferences, across
event is essential. Since the whole agenda would a variety of applications and research
take up an entire issue, the TCT team has spent topics. For the full agenda head here:
some time unpicking not-to-be-missed highlights amug.com/conference-agenda-planner.
from the keynotes, conference and the expo. Below we've selected a few talks we
will not be missing during the event.
MONDAY | MARCH 23
THE KEYNOTES TRACK: AEROSPACE/
AMUG Keynotes have a distinctly different flavor TRANSPORTATION
this year, not just from previous years but from 1500-1600
each other. The contrast in applications from Advancement of Metal Additive
healthcare to entertainment demonstrates the Manufacturing Techniques and
breadth this technology now has. Materials for Rocket Propulsion
Applications | Paul Gradl | NASA
TUESDAY | MARCH 24
0900-1000 TRACK: MEDICAL
James Hobson, a.k.a. The Hacksmith, 1630-1730
Hacksmith Entertainment Biomedical Additive Manufacturing for
James Hobson, a.k.a the Hacksmith, will take the Warfighter | Vincent Ho | Uniformed
the stage to share his experiences with exciting, Services University of the Health TRACK: AM METAL
intriguing projects featured on his YouTube Sciences TECHNOLOGIES
channel, which has over 8 million subscribers. 1630-1730
James, who has roamed the halls of past AMUG TUESDAY | MARCH 24 Practical Use-Cases for
Conferences, left his engineering/product TRACK: CASTING AM Designs in Gas Turbine
development job to make the coolest inventions. 1030-1200 Combustion Applications |
His company, Hacksmith Entertainment, turns Panel Session - A World Shared Zachary Dyer | Siemens
fictional ideas from movies, video games, and Between 3D Printed Metal and Castings
graphic novels into working prototypes. THURSDAY | MARCH 26
TRACK: AEROSPACE/ TRACK: AEROSPACE/
Dr. Jonathan Morris, co-director of the 3D TRANSPORTATION TRANSPORTATION
Printing/Anatomic Modeling Laboratory at the 1330-1430 1115-1200
Mayo Clinic Boeing Additive Manufacturing | Naval Expeditionary Support
Thursday, March 26 | 0900-1000 Dr. Melissa Orme | of Fielded AM Systems | Ryan
Dr. Morris will share his AM experiences The Boeing Company Fisher, Scott Ziv and Justin
in medicine on Thursday, March 26. His Artis | U.S. Navy
special interests are the use of 3D printing for WEDNESDAY | MARCH 25
preoperative planning and custom surgical TRACK: MEDICAL TRACK: AM METAL
guides. Clinically, he focuses on minimally invasive 1330-1430 TECHNOLOGIES
thermal ablation of tumors in the neuroaxis. How Ceramics AM Enables Breast 1630-1730
Cancer Prevention | Raymond Harter | AM Metals Safety, Let's All Go
Marvel Medtech Home in One Piece Every Night |
Paul Bates | UL

AMUG
INSPEX
2020
AMUGexpo
Running from Sunday evening (March 22) This collaborative work
through to Monday (March 23), the AMUGexpo incorporated an extensive
is the place to start your journey of discovery. machine design, system and
The AMUG team is keen to stress that this component review, and an
is NOT a trade show; this is a place for extended testing period, which
networking and the sharing of ideas amongst has resulted in the new M2 Series
companies usually battling it out for leads. 5, configured to meet the exacting
Exhibitors are actively encouraged to engage requirements of highly regulated
in 'technical information exchange' during the aerospace and medical industries.
activities.
STRATASYS
SOME EXHIBITS TO LOOK OUT FOR: An addition that will please
keynote speaker Dr. Jonathan
GE ADDITIVE Morris of Mayo Clinic is the J750
Leveraging its substantial umbrella of Digital Anatomy 3D Printer, which
engineers, GE Additive partnered with GE Stratasys launched last year
Aviation to develop its new Concept Laser M2 aimed specifically at medical
Series 5 machine. modeling applications. To begin
2020, Stratasys has also launched
the J826 series, promising multi-
material and full-color at a lower
cost point with a smaller footprint
than previous iterations of the
PolyJet technology.
CARBON
Carbon will be joined by service
provider Fast Radius at AMUG
2020 to showcase how they
are using Carbon Digital Light
Synthesis for the production of
a new, innovative part for the
automotive supplier Aptiv. Fast
Radius turned to Carbon for
their capabilities in performance
prototyping and low-volume
production to bring a trailer-tow
connector cap for trucks to market
in record time.
INNOVATOR SHOWCASE
WEDNESDAY
MARCH 25 | 0900-1000
TCT Hall of Famer Dr. Hans J. Langer "Hans' journey in additive
was announced as the recipient of the manufacturing is an interesting
prestigious Innovators Award for 2020. tale that begins with him
Hans will take to the stage for the annual capitalizing on an opportunity
Innovators Showcase - an informal fireside created by the possibilities that
chat on his career in AM, which started others' had rejected. He built
when he founded EOS in 1989. on that to bring the world new
solutions in stereolithography,
AMUG bestows the Innovator Award polymer laser sintering, and
on those that have cultivated ideas that, Direct Metal Laser Sintering and
in turn, have advanced the additive to develop an ecosystem of
manufacturing industry. Previous recipients companies supplying end-to-end
include technology creators Chuck Hull, solutions to industry," commented
Scott Crump, and Carl Deckard - inventors Carl Dekker, AMUG President.
of Stereolithography, Fused Deposition "With his background and a
Modelling, and Selective Laser Sintering, lengthy list of achievements, he
respectively - Fried Vancraen, founder is an excellent addition to the
of Materialise, and Gideon Levy of exemplary list of recipients of the
Technology Turn Around. Innovators Award."

A FLY IN THE OINTMENT
WORDS: GRAHAM TROMANS
GRAHAM TROMANS IS ONE OF THE FOREMOST INDUSTRY CONSULTANTS, HIS

HISTORY AND EXPERTISE HAVING INSTALLED ONE OF THE FIRST SLA MACHINES IN THE
UK IS SECOND TO NONE. AS A MEMBER OF THE TCT EXPERT ADVISORY BOARD WE’VE
ASKED GRAHAM TO TELL US A CAUTIONARY TALE FROM 3D PRINTING’S DAYS GONE BY.
T
he year is 1990, I - a Principal watching this part rise from the vat. By hook
Engineer at Rover - am installing or by crook, the part was complete. I washed
one of the UK's first 3D Systems it, broke all the supports off, flashed it in the
SLA-500 machines in the Canley PCA oven and hoped for the best. With the
site, Coventry. I'm in the process of calibrating clock ticking and the traffic between the two
the machine having just returned from training sites notoriously heavy, I got it out of the oven,
in Valencia, CA, when there's a knock on the shoved it into a box and raced to the meeting.
door.
I plonked this part on the desk, and said,
It's a director come to take a look at the "you'll need these," handing over a box of
rapid prototyping machine. "Can you build rubber gloves. The intake manifold had not
this?" He shows me a picture of an intake cured and was still wholly tacky, touching it
manifold, which I had no idea if we were probably wasn't wise.
capable of, naturally I said, 'yes.'
With this being the biggest and most
He wanted the print for a missionary successful build in the SLA-500's short lifespan,
meeting to convince the board of the benefits I knew I'd need it again and had to cure the
of solid CAD packages. Rover was using thing. Looking out the window, with the sun
wireframe and advanced surface finish CAD shining, I was taken back to my time in
packages, which were tricky to learn and Valencia, CA, where during our training we'd
bulky, and he was to prove how a switch to regularly cure parts in the sunlight. I took it
solids, despite being hugely expensive, would home, put it on my patio table and went out
be worth it in the long run. The print was a key with the wife.
point in the argument. No pressure then.
Upon returning to my crown and
I'd had the machine barely a couple of days glory, on the approach I could tell that
when the CAD file landed on my desk. The the part was cured, but that it was
first snag was supports; in 1990 3D Systems also covered in little black specks.
required you to have third-party software Closer inspection revealed those
to generate supports, which was another specks to be flies; like a roll
£10,000. My boss said absolutely no chance. of sticky fly tape, the engine
manifold had attracted and
I sat for hours on end making these generic killed thousands of the
shapes like cubes, cones and spheres; then pests.
I had to position the model on top of these
shapes, I'd then open up the scan-spacing to With a scalpel
about five millimetres to create almost an egg and some
box underneath the parts. Each one of those tweezers, I
was an STL file, so imagine how many shapes removed as
you need to create on an intake manifold; you many as I
have to look for all the downfacing surfaces, could but
you have to look for anywhere you thought those that
the part might collapse. made it into
the internal
I put it into build on the Tuesday morning, channels
the SLA-500 informed me that the part remained as
would be finished in the early hours of Friday a warning to
morning. The meeting to decide the CAD always cure your parts
fate of Rover was 10.30am on Friday, not correctly.
only that but the venue was 30 miles away in
Longbridge. No margin for error. Nevertheless, the Rover directors agreed,
thanks to this part, that solid CAD packages
An anxious 60-hour build saw me get were the way forward.
into the office at four o'clock in the morning,

SLM Solutions is Your Metal
Additive Manufacturing
Equipment Partner
High-performance, high-productivity and repeatable metal

additive manufacturing systems for metal part production
Additive manufacturing can be a challenging environment due

to rigorous certifications requiring reliable, repeatable, high-
quality processes. Speed, robustness, quality and safety are the
top priorities in the selective laser melting systems SLM Solutions
develops for certified metal additive production.
Case Studies and More information: http://bit.ly/2oRKInm
SLM Solutions North America | 1.248.243.5400 | info@slm-solutions.us
EQUIPMENT | POWDER | SOFTWARE | CONSULTING | SERVICE | WWW.SLM-SOLUTIONS.US
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STATE OF THE

MAG AMUG 2020

TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 1 24/02/2020 16:39

No mechanical processing steps involved Removal of powder cake

TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 2 24/02/2020 16:39

PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR PROTOTYPING

The TCT Magazine is published bi-monthly by Rapid News Publications Ltd

TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 1 24/02/2020 16:39

50 & PLASTIC PROTOTYPES

Such is the brevity of the additive manufacturing industry; we don’t

But in December, we were saddened to learn of the passing of Dr

As is convention at times of loss, Carl’s story has been recounted

Indeed, if it wasn’t for an assistant professor at UT named Dr Joe

Three years later, another moment of fortune. Back then, it wasn’t

Highlighting these instances is not intended to do a disservice to

In the instance of Carl Deckard, twice he could have been stopped

Life is short. Back potential.

VOL 6 ISSUE 1 / www.tctmagazine.com / 03

4:49 PM TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 3 24/02/2020 16:39

06. MISSION CRITICAL

Industry AMUG 2020

17. JOURNEY TO GENERATIVE

21. “WE CARE ABOUT 6

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Rapid Application Group has grown

06 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 6 ISSUE 1

TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 6 24/02/2020 16:39

Cover photo of Jason, Terry and Jonsey by Kate Friedl

VOL 6 ISSUE 1 / www.tctmagazine.com / 07

TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 7 24/02/2020 16:39

dATe & TiMe

amT will attend amug conference from march 22-26th, 2020.

contact info@amtechnologies.com to secure a meeting with an

The only auTomaTed Turnkey addiTive manufacTuring posT-processing

TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 8 24/02/2020 16:39

Those figures are odd given that powder bed fusion

VOL 6 ISSUE 1 / www.tctmagazine.com / 09

TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 9 24/02/2020 16:39

"The reality is that AM is still a very small industry," says Dr.

When HP talks about carving out a bigger slice of the 12 trillion

The investment in additive manufacturing over the last

In 2019 alone, we saw Mcor collapse, Lulzbot fold only to

010 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 6 ISSUE 1

TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 10 24/02/2020 16:39

"The biggest barrier to adoption is economics,"

Phil's opinion is reflected in a recent TCT

“THE BIGGEST Spotting this trend for slowing machine sales

• Evaluation: From 20-point plans before raising

VOL 6 ISSUE 1 / www.tctmagazine.com / 011

TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 11 24/02/2020 16:39

WATCH THE VIDEO

TCT NA 6.1_progress.indd 12 24/02/2020 16:39

SOFTWARE & SIMULATION

“People have been working in AM for many years

It’s a good introduction as to why the company’s

Co-founded by Grey Schroy and CEO Bradley

VOL 6 ISSUE 1 / www.tctmagazine.com / 013

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