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FROM THE EDITOR LAURA GRIFFITHS

Reasons to be cheerful

It’s not an easy time to be in the additive manufacturing (AM) industry. Cost reduction plans, consolidation and non-compliance notices from the stock exchange (I promise, there’s a positive point to this), have painted a somewhat bleak picture of an industry that, on top of its own challenges, is facing the same economic constraints and uncertainty as countless other industries around the world.

But then, it would be too easy to wash your hands of it and decide it’s just too hard. Of course AM is hard. It’s turning raw materials into powders, designing geometrically complex parts, building them with lasers, and sticking them onto planes or into human bodies. AM is hard. But, as you’ll read throughout this issue, it is also, remarkably, possible.

Some of the milestones the AM community has marked with this technology today should still be the stuff of science fiction. Yet, they’re not: FDA-approved joints for human implantation (p. 16); personalised medical models that use unique patient data to plan lifechanging surgery; and flying engine components produced on massive 12-laser machines are a reality (p. 34).

When times are hard, it is important to take a step back and reflect on how far you’ve come and acknowledge the good – and perhaps also the bad and ugly. It is precisely why I feel it's more important than ever to take stock of this industry’s technological advancements, application developments and collaborations. Just before this issue went to press,

we announced the finalists for the TCT Awards 2024. The shortlist includes more than 100 products and applications across 11 categories, with the likes of Boeing, Deutsche Bahn, Jabil and Siemens Energy featured among collaborators. The TCT Awards is the biggest celebration of AM and industrial 3D printing, and on page 23 you can meet this year’s TCT Hall of Fame nominees, each of their tenures proof of the AM industry’s impact and of how far we’ve come in such a short time.

If you’re looking for a boost of additive positivity, I guarantee you’ll find it, and then some, at the TCT Awards black-tie ceremony on 5th June in Birmingham, UK (get your ticket here: tctawards. com). In the meantime, you’ll also find plenty of it in this issue. In our business case feature, we’re taking a practical view of AM adoption by speaking to service providers about why using AM doesn’t necessarily mean owning AM, and how businesses can future-proof their AM investments. We’ve also got an interview with Collins Aerospace, which has installed not one but two of those huge multi-laser metals systems; a through the doors report from Sam Davies following a visit to 3T AM’s UK production facility; and in our Oliver Johnson’s last pieces of content on the TCT Magazine team (don’t worry, he’s not going too far away - you can now find him editing our sister magazine Med-Tech Innovation News), a conversation with Nicholas Jacobson of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus on using bitmap 3D printing for complex medical applications.

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8. INDUSTRIAL AM

Siemens Energy details what it takes to get into serial production with additive manufacturing technology.

HEALTHCARE

11. PARADIGM SHIFT

Nicholas Jacobson of the University of Colorado talks to TCT about the opportunities for a new 3D printing method in the medical space.

14. A CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP

The focus of this conversation is just that as Laura sits down with new Materialise CEO Brigitte de VetVeithen.

16. TITLING THE BALANCE

AddUp & Anatomic Implants discuss the development of a 3D printed toe joint replacement.

19. A NEW SMILE

Oli Johnson reports on 3D Systems’ new solution for jetted, one-piece, multi-material dentures.

21. #COLLABORATE

Laura Griffiths speaks to Arburg and Hashtagtwo about their TCT Award-nominated Personal Fit Breast Prosthesis application.

23. TCT HALL OF FAME 2024

Here, we introduce the seven AM leaders to have been nominated for the TCT Hall of Fame.

INNOVATORS ON INNOVATORS 26

26. POINTS OF CARE

Two biomedical engineers provide a glimpse into point of care 3D printing workflows.

BUSINESS CASE 30

30. PROVE IT

AM Service bureaus and resellers explain how manufacturers can future-proof their AM investments.

32. GOOD SERVICE

Laura explores the use of service providers as a business case for AM.

34. DOUBLING DOWN

Collins Aerospace breaks down the business case for its second investment in SLM Solutions’ 12-laser NXG XII 600 machine.

28. GET HIP TO HIP

Quintus and Hiperbaric deep dive into Hot Isostatic Pressing technology.

THROUGH THE DOORS

37. DON’T GO CHASING RAINBOWS

Sam Davies reports back from a tour of 3T AM’s facilities, where CEO Dan Johns explained why AM’s place in the manufacturing value chain isn’t where you think it is.

42 EXPERT COLUMN

42. DOWN TO BUSINESS

PrintCity’s Mark Chester delves into the skills needed to make a success of your AM investment.

INDUSTRIAL

Siemens Energy’s journey to serial production.

There are 15,000 production components additively manufactured annually across Siemens Energy’s five global additive manufacturing (AM) sites.

For over a decade, the company has been on a mission to industrialise AM, using its own parts as a playing field for innovation, and turning it into a robust service for AM production.

How it got there is a story of additive learning, transformation and purpose, and one the company is ready to tell as it steps into a new era uniting its AM operations across Europe, North America and the UK.

INNOVATION AND QUALIFICATION

To step into a Siemens Energy AM facility today is to step into perhaps the closest reality to the coveted ‘smart factory’ holy grail. Rows of metal Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) systems populate clean factory floors supported by materials and post-processing machines to ensure parts come out finished and validated for end-use. Getting there has taken a lot of time, energy and R&D.

“It has taken decades to qualify material, develop our print parameters and fully validate the print and heat treatment processes. That depth and knowledge level isn't so easy to replicate,” Manish Kumar, Head of Business Development, Strategy and Sales at Siemens Energy told TCT. “When we offer components to similar companies, whether it is for flying people in the sky, satellites going to space or drilling for oil offshore, a similar level of expertise and capabilities will be required. It is just a necessity.”

Those rigorous requirements have been proven via in-house precision printed metal parts that have spent over two million operating hours in Siemens Energy gas turbines and given the company a level of confidence that enables it to go out into the marketplace and deploy the same technology for its customers outside of Siemens Energy.

"Many customers come and think, ‘we'll just buy a printer, no problem, and we'll push the button and get the part,’” Kumar said.

“I want to humbly go and tell them that that's not true. You want to start that journey

today? We will meet after 20 years… Or we can join hands and work together today.”

Siemens Energy has already been there, done the legwork, felt the pain points and found the solutions. Kumar compares it to making a home cooked meal for your family; there’s an inherent trust, and Siemens Energy says it will only offer solutions to the market that it trusts to use itself.

“The rigour, commitment and care has been there because we are putting this into billions of dollars of our own gas turbine product line and now we are offering this to other customers who are hungry,” Kumar added.

ADDITIVE VALUE

When Siemens Energy first got into AM in 2008, it did so in search of a better way to enhance the performance and working lifetime of its gas turbines. Having been sold the common ‘control + print’ narrative from the AM industry, Siemens Energy quickly learned that this simply wasn’t the case but recognised there was value to be tapped into, unlocking the design and engineering freedom that AM technology brings. A call made by the Siemens Energy CEO at the time insisted additive would be engineered into its turbine products going forward. Since installing its first EOS M270 system in Finspång in 2009, the team has followed that mantra and believes it has been able to realise “the true value of additive.”

“We're an engineering company which just happens to have printers,” Jem Drew, Head of Sales Europe at Siemens Energy, said. “But printers alone are not enough. You also need the right material, processes infrastructure and people in place to deliver AM in tens of thousands of parts, consistently and repeatably.”

Today there are over 200 dedicated employees at Siemens Energy AM, including 45 DfAM

“Engineering your printed parts at scale.”

(design for AM) engineers. Helping lead the charge in the US is Tad Steinberg, Manager of Siemens Energy’s Additive Manufacturing business development, who says AM is just another tool in the design/production engineer’s toolbox.

“What's the best manufacturing method given all the constraints, performance, cost, lead time and any of the other litany of things that could bear witness on these parts?” Steinberg said. “The mindset within the Siemens Energy business has definitely been transformed. Once you think past that, AM adoption becomes a little easier. It hasn't all gone smoothly for us and like most businesses, it won't go smoothly until it has been proven. With 100, 000+ hours of run time of metal AM parts in turbines, the technology has been proven and we want to share that with others.”

Siemens is acutely focused on true industrial parts; like the two oil sealing rings installed as replacement parts in an SST-300 industrial steam turbine or the first 3D printed water pump impeller that is now in successful commercial operation at nuclear power plant. Users may have been sold the idea that additive can do everything, but Steinberg says of his six years in AM, and two decades as an engineer, one of the most powerful lessons he has learned is the ability to push back: “'No' is very powerful, but you have to say no with a background of understanding as to why.”

“I've been doing engineering for a long time and being able to see where this technology fits and be able to apply that philosophy has been beneficial,” Steinberg said.

Taking a part from ideation to finished component requires multiple steps, skilled people and knowledge. You don’t get to 150+ part numbers in serial production without figuring out that end-toend process. It is an ‘engineering ecosystem’ that spans everything from design to qualification and Siemens Energy has built a signature process

that enables it to reliably deliver a single part thousands of times across its 50+ Laser Powder Bed Fusion platforms and multiple geographies.

“It is ours,” Steinberg said of this unique ecosystem. “We don't let anybody else tell us what to do or how to do it.”

IMPLEMENTATION

One of the major ways Siemens Energy leverages AM for production is for parts on demand. Steinberg offers the example of an old gas turbine swirler that was traditionally cast and machined; a part Siemens Energy no longer sells but continues to support. The problem was, there were no patterns left to make it, and with a low volume of only 20 needed, it is a job no sensible casting house would touch. It is, however, the perfect AM candidate. The swirler took a total of six months to qualify but is now available to print on demand as and when customers need it, whether that means making five or 500 a year, and whether that is in Orlando, Florida, Finspång, Sweden or Worcester, UK. Yet to Siemens Energy, even those numbers aren’t quite what it would consider ‘production’. That label would be better suited to another swirler that the team redesigned using analysis, smart tuning of parameters and layer thickness, and consolidation from six parts to one. For that particular application, Siemens Energy now additively manufactures over 4,000 parts per year, and has done consistently and consecutive for multiple years now.

“We took it to the next level,” Jem said. “Owning the design authority provides a freedom that allows you to implement and enact change faster. We can now make the business case stack-up, more quickly and easier than ever before. With scores of proven industrial use-cases in highvalue, end-use, precision-printed metal parts. And not just from within gas turbines, but many more industrially relevant, highly engineered applications too.”

Siemens Energy believes it is positioning AM in a very real and practical way. It is also on track to exceed its decarbonisation targets, which will see its own operations certified as climate neutral by 2030, alongside aspirations for a Net Zero value chain. It is also looking to grow its fleet with targeted investments in additional machines like the EOS M400-4 and SLM Solutions’ NXG XII 600 systems.

It all takes time, and it is not easy, but Siemens Energy believes that its strong foundations for additive in its own operations, and opening that up to industry as a service can proliferate the adoption of AM, and further its ambitions for AM industrialisation, not just for itself as a manufacturer, but for anyone looking to additive as a potential production solution.

“It is difficult, it is expensive, it takes a huge amount of time, but we are in production,” Jem said. “We want to grow the business. We want to grow the technology. We want to grow the capability and we want to lead the adoption of AM at scale.”

BELOW: AM Printed Gas Turbine Elements

SHOWN: AM Printed Manifold

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PARADIGM SHIFT

Oli Johnson talks to Nicholas Jacobson of the University of Colorado about bitmap 3D printing in medicine at AMUG 2024.

Bitmap 3D printing, a new method of 3D printing, has emerged as a way to produce 3D prints directly from medical images at a level of spatial fidelity and spatial contrast resolution equivalent to the source images. According to Nicholas Jacobson of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in a study published in 2022, previous bitmap printing attempts have been limited to using two materials to replicate variations in high resolution, but two materials hinders the ability to define differences across an organ, defined by multiple different anatomical descriptions. Jacobson and his team created a six-material bitmap printing process, which they say simplifies the current bitmap printing process and more clearly defines differences in tissue variation.

Jacobson gave a talk on bitmap 3D printing and its uses in medicine for planning, prosthetics and implants at the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) Conference 2024. Prior to the talk, TCT got the chance to sit down with him to discuss his work. Jacobson described the bitmap 3D printing process like this: “Bitmap 3D printing is the native way that a 3D printer works.

Every 3D printer does it. People talked about the process of bitmap printing back in the early 90s. It is the language that the printer uses to control every droplet, so in a way it’s kind of like G code Some people are familiar with G code, but I’m basically telling the printer where to put every droplet, how to move, when to move, why to move.

“There’s something that happened to 3D printers not long after they were commercialised, which was that they built an internal slicer. The idea being that you send a volume, an STL model, and the printer has internal software that would slice it for you and create those slices. It makes it very user friendly, and also ties in with the current standard paradigm for making, which is STL models, or assemblies of parts. But it doesn’t take full advantage of the capabilities of the printer. The polyjet printers that I use, print very much like an inkjet printer, where you’re printing a full colour image. You just have to be able to send the right kind of file for it, so that’s what we do. It’s really powerful for medical applications because we can print all of the data volumetrically.”

The advantage of being able to print like this for medical modelling is that it allows you to see what is happening inside of the body, from one pixel to another, rather than just the shell of the brain, filled in with a solid material

As a former architect, Jacobson has drawn from his background and applied knowledge of structure to his work with 3D printing. He told TCT: “When we build buildings, we’re not able to take full advantage of how we know structure really works, because we can only represent it with beams and concrete slabs, but in actuality, stresses move in really complex ways. They move volumetrically, and there’s a gradient of forces within any structure. Voxel printing, or bitmap printing, allows us to capture all of that, because we’re slicing it volumetrically. So that’s why it’s really powerful.”

Jacobson says that with this method of 3D printing, the body can be represented better than any other method as the gradient can be captured volumetrically and there is no loss of data. He says that models created this way open up a number of new opportunities for surgeons to create new surgeries, to perform surgeries better and to better understand diseases. Pre-surgical models also allow for surgeons to explain to patients the surgery that will be conducted prior to it taking place. The technology is also used for prosthetics and implants, and Jacobson says that it can be used to create something that fits better than anything else.

On the software side, Jacobson told TCT: “To be able to create a bitmap print, you can’t do it with standard technology. So unfortunately, we have had to build all of our own software. Within that ability of voxel

SHOWN: Jacobson giving his keynote presentation at AMUG 2023

modelling, there’s a whole bunch of new opportunities, so being able to have something, a prosthetic for a cleft palate that fits the patient’s mouth beautifully, but also then takes into account a tremendous amount of data, patterns of palatal growth, we can then deform and morph this appliance to grow with the patient. So, voxel modelling is really the incorporation of a lot of data. I call it tangible intelligence, it’s a form of encapsulating a lot of data.”

Jacobson says the idea of making implants and prosthetics that are patient specific is the biggest benefit of using the software. M ost prosthetics are not patient specific, although they are starting to be because of 3D printing. Using cytocompatible materials, hemo compatible materials, a solution can be made for every unique patient. Jacobson says that implants can now be made specifically around soft tissue, which has been difficult in the past.

Another benefit of bitmap 3D printing, according to Jacobson, is the ability to print at really high resolutions: “It’s , kind of, limitless complexity. So, we can model really, really complex structures, really small w hich is a limitation of the traditional process of modelling. With the resolution, your file size becomes impossible to get down to the level that you need it. And then to be able to control it with these custom materials becomes really, really difficult, if not impossible. So, our process allows us to create these microstructures.

“Again, I’m an architect, I’ve had this idea that we’ve drugged cells, we’ve radiated cells, we’ve forced cells to do all kinds of things, but no one has ever really asked a cell what it wants and where it wants to live. As an architect, what I’m trying, what I’m thinking , is lets a build a new house for cells and see if they want to move into it. So, we’ve been exploring the three-dimensional environment for cellular growth. Do different three-dimensional microstructures, both solid and flexible, have an impact on cellular growth? And our results are showing that it does, but everything with bitmap printing means that we can to build the plane as we are flying it. So, moving into three

dimensions for cellular growth is hard on every level, but I’m excited to show some early results.”

Jacobson spoke about how the “nextgeneration” of surgeons get into this type of technology no problem, whereas older generations, who are still used to previous methods, take more convincing. He said: “I remember the first time I brought in a deep flap model to surgery, the lead surgeon who is some 60 years old, took a look at it and said, 'There’s no way that these vessels are in this location, the model must be wrong.' And he pulled up the imaging and he did some measurements, and

“I call it tangible intelligence.”

he was like, 'Oh okay, it is.' And to me, that was the greatest moment in my work because he realised that his perception was compromised based on the tool that he was looking at. And the 3D model is more accurate than an image because it’s the real life [version] of what they’re going to do.”

Jacobson says that when he first began producing these models, they were mere paperweights on desks for surgeons, whereas the younger generation of surgeons are now “beating down his door” with all kinds of ideas of what could be possible They see the models being used and the benefits, and think: “I can be faster, I can be better, here’s my competitive edge.”

SHOWN: A close up of a bitmap 3D printed model

SHOWN: Cleft palate devices created with bitmap 3D printing

A CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP

Laura Griffiths sits down with Materialise's new CEO.

2024 has already been full of milestones for Brigitte de VetVeithen. On January 1st, she took the helm of one of the additive manufacturing (AM) industry’s oldest and most respected companies, Materialise, a milestone too for a company that has been led by its same founding leadership team since the early ‘90s. Then, last month she was named as one of the top five female innovators in the 3D printing industry as part of the coveted TCT Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award shortlist, selected by industry peers, in which she advocated for more women in leadership roles in AM. Today, when I meet with the newly appointed CEO at the 2024 Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) Conference in Chicago, there’s another accolade to add to that list as de Vet-Veithen leaves Materialise’s medical division, a segment that became its fastest growing and most profitable under her stewardship, for a new seat at the table.

“One really nice fact,” de Vet-Veithen adds, “in the fourth quarter of 2023, [the medical division] has also been the largest in terms of revenue. It was a nice way to end that phase for me.”

That phase concluded with de Vet-Veithen serving as Executive Vice President of Materialise Medical, a division within the Belgian AM leader which focuses on developing software and 3D printing solutions for the healthcare sector. When reminiscing about joining the company in 2016, she admits to having never heard of ‘AM’ until Materialise’s outgoing CEO Fried Vancrean showed a case study of a patient who had been using a wheelchair for three years, but after being fitted with a customised 3D printed implant, was able to walk again within six weeks.

“That got me really enthusiastic,” de VetVeithen tells TCT. “Technology is exciting but it gets really exciting because of what

we can do with it and this was just one case that totally convinced me that there's so much potential here.”

Prior to joining Materialise, de Vet-Veithen held senior management roles at Johnson & Johnson and served as CEO of medical device company Acertys Group. With a background in business and engineering, she has led companies through growth and transformation, and acted as a consultant for several technology firms. Vancraen describes de Vet-Veithen as having “the perfect combination of internal and external experience.”

“My sweet spot has always been making the bridge between technology and markets,” de Vet-Veithen explains. “I'm a technology enthusiast but I get really excited when we manage to get that technology adopted in the market. I've always loved scaling industries or applications or businesses.”

“We've always really believed in our mission to create a better and healthier world.”

SHOWN: Brigitte de Vet-Veithen

It’s the first time de Vet-Veithen has attended the AMUG Conference, renowned for its mission to stoke conversation and knowledge sharing. The perfect playing field then for a CEO with ‘more collaboration’ at the top of their agenda.

“I think continue and even accelerate,” de Vet-Veithen says of Materialise’s arguably pioneering push for cross industry collaboration. “The state of the industry is not in the happiest or easiest place at this point in time. So, now we need it more than ever if, as an industry, we do want to get to where we eventually think this is going to be.”

de Vet-Veithen's appointment marks the first time Materialise has welcomed a new CEO since its leader Vancrean co-founded the company alongside Hilde Ingelaere in 1990. Its guiding light across the three decades since has been to create a better and healthier world, a vision that remains clear.

“That is not going to change. That's the purpose. That's what we live for,” she confirms. “We're so driven by that. Obviously the way we get there might change but the better and healthier world is what we live for, literally.”

A change in leadership often signifies a period of greater change for an organisation. For de Vet-Veithen, who has spent almost a decade overseeing how Materialise’s software and 3D printing solutions improve patient outcomes, the company’s central mission will remain unchanged, but she believes some intentional change will be necessary for the wider AM industry if it is to broaden the adoption of 3D printing technologies.

“I do see changes, not for the sake of change, but because the industry is changing,” de Vet-Veithen explains. “As the industry changes, we do need to adapt. Making it easier to adopt additive. It's been a big driver for medical so making it easier for customers to use and step into additive and personalise products on the healthcare side.

“That same mechanism applies to other industrial sectors. We just need to make it a little easier, less confusing, less complicated for people. We might not have needed to do that in the past when prototyping was the main focus but we have to do this if we want to industrialise and get big time into end use products. As that shift in the market is taking place from prototype to end use parts, and we want to accelerate that shift, now it's time to work on making it easier, making it faster, making it even more reliable.”

AM technology is as complex as the parts it seeks to make. After overcoming a rollercoaster of consumer hype and bloated expectations in the early 2010s, throw in also a pandemic, global economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, it all stacks up to a challenging few years of curious M&A decisions, layoffs and stock market noncompliance notices. While no organisation is immune to those disruptions, Materialise seems to have managed to stay away from the noise and remain focused, and despite the challenging economic backdrop, reported a total 4% revenue growth its most recent financial results.

“I think, honestly, because we've always really believed in our mission to create a better and healthier world,” de Vet-Veithen says of Materialise’s continued position in the market. “With some of the hype, credit to Fried, if he didn't believe that it really was going to create a better and healthier world, he didn't step into it.”

When Vancraen guested on TCT’s Additive Insight podcast back in 2020, he spoke about sustainability as an extension of Materialise’s health-driven mission, describing it as “another word to define that better and healthier world.”

While sustainability has become a much hotter and widely contested topic for AM, Vancraen was an early advocate for how the technology could have a meaningful impact in creating a greener future. de VetVeithen says the company’s sustainability mission will “continue on the roads that Fried built,” and must remain high on the agenda through seeking out applications that can have a positive impact, like those in e-mobility, greater demonstrations of full lifecycle analysis, and reducing its own carbon footprint.

“We really want to set an example because it can be done, and it should be done,” de Vet-Veithen adds.

It’s interesting spending time with de VetVeithen at AMUG where several exhibiting companies are users of its products; whether that’s its e-Stage for Metal+ for laser powder bed fusion, which was announced as a module inside its flagship Magics software suite at the event, or next generation Build Processors which power additive hardware from the likes of Nikon SLM Solutions. While much of its business comes from providing these kinds of software products to users, Materialise is also a user of its own with Materialise Medical and Materialise Manufacturing segments facilitating production runs for some major manufacturers – like Sartorius, which has ordered 26,000 biocompatible plastic bioreactor parts over the last five

years. This, de Vet-Veithen believes, provides Materialise with a unique understanding of the needs of the marketplace.

“We always talk about our kitchen concept,” de Vet-Veithen says. “We cook the recipes in our own kitchen so that we understand our customers even better to bring the right recipes to them. It's really important because we test our products internally before we bring them out to the market. We listen very much to our Medical unit and our Manufacturing unit because they run into the same trouble as our customers, and they can inform us about what we need to do to industrialise, to scale, and really tap into that end product market.”

When we discuss the future of the AM technology, de Vet-Veithen's grasp on the opportunities for the medical sector is both hopeful and practical. She believes “we've only been scratching the surface,” particularly in terms of personalised devices but should only be looking to use it where necessary.

“Take orthopaedics as an example,” she offers. “It doesn't make sense to have a personalised product for every single patient, but it does make sense to have personalised products for a lot more patients than we treat today. In some countries, in some of the applications we are serving, there are hospitals that say 100 percent of their patient population, for example the cranial maxillofacial application, get personalised products. You can imagine what that means in terms of the potential that we still have to cover. This is not going to happen overnight and it's not going to happen by itself. There's a lot of building blocks that we need to put in place.”

One of those building blocks takes us back to the topic of collaboration; between both technology providers and the people – the surgeons and healthcare providers – using them. “Great progress” is being made there, according to de Vet-Veithen, and she believes a lot of those learnings can be applied to other industrial segments as well.

There’s still a lot of 2024 left and de VetVeithen plans to use it to make progress on that collaboration pledge, which she believes can be achieved with more honest conversations between industry leaders leaving their own interests aside in the interest of the bigger industry picture.

“Let's work together and make it happen and let's collaborate, let's see how together we can make a difference,” de Vet-Veithen concludes. “And let's keep our enthusiasm around it. That's the most important one.”

TILTING THE

Sam Davies reports on the development of a 3D printed toe joint replacement product which could obtain FDA clearance by the end of the year.

Having your first product cleared by the FDA would represent the launchpad for most start-ups.

It would be validation of the company’s processes, approach and expertise. There would be cause for the founders to think they did it once and so they can do it again.

But for Anatomic Implants, it will be the end of the road. The company expects its Anatomic Great Toe Joint product to receive FDA 510(k) clearance by the end of the year.

Then, in co-founder David Nutter’s own words, “the future for Anatomic Implants is putting the Anatomic Great Toe Joint in a good home with another orthopaedic company to buy it from us once we get FDA clearance and let them help patients by bringing it to market.”

Metal additive manufacturing OEM AddUp is helping them to see this mission through. AddUp, in the last 18 months, established a medical advisory board that is helping the company refine its services to the medical industry. A strategy was put in place to build on AddUp’s existing play in the sector, with one idea being to identify a novel medical application and support a company through the FDA 510(k) clearance process.

“Allen Younger, our sales leader for the medical space, has been in additive for ten-plus years, mostly in the medical segment, and he’s built a great deal of relationships,” explained AddUp Deputy CEO Nick Estock. “So, as we brought this idea forward, he knew somebody that had a perfect fit. He called David up, said we have this idea, we want to partner with somebody with a novel product and help you bring it to market.”

It was perfect timing. Anatomic Implants – a start-up founded by David and his dad, Dr. Scott W. Nutter – had by now been working on the development of the Anatomic Great Toe Joint, 1st

metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint, for five years. Additive manufacturing had been decided as the manufacturing method a long time ago, but Anatomic Implants had never been able to find the right partner. Eighteen months ago, it was at somewhat of an impasse.

“It just fell in my lap,” David said. “AddUp came along at the right time. We’ve been helping them validate their machines, get the OQPQ validations – that has to be done to get the validation of our parts – and we hope to start testing things within the next two and a half months.”

As the partnership was finalised in October, AddUp invested into the Anatomic Implants business, and will now provide the manufacturing expertise to help get the product commercialised. Using AddUp’s FormUp 350 metal 3D printing platform, the Anatomic Great Toe Joint is manufactured in Ti64, selected in accordance with ASTM International’s F3001 Standard Specification.

With AddUp taking care of the manufacturing, the partners are now preparing for the comprehensive review of safety and performance data of the Anatomic Great Toe Joint to ensure it is ‘substantially equivalent’ to implants already on the market. FDA clearance is anticipated by the end of 2024, but not before tests have been carried out to assess biocompatibility, instrument reprocessing, cleaning and sterilisation.

What then will be taken to market is a 1st MTP joint that is believed to be the first to be developed with metal 3D printing technology. It is said to replicate the human anatomy ‘nearly perfectly’ thanks to complex lattice geometries, enabled by a technology that also facilitates osteointegration through porosity. This capacity for osseointegration will give the implant a much higher chance of bonding to the bone, ensuring a successful surgery and reducing the likelihood of the implant being rejected by the body.

“The bone in-growth properties that a net structure can give you with 3D printing, you can’t get that lattice structure [with conventional technologies],” David said. “3D printing is omni directional, it’s the most important thing in getting that structure, it’s integral.”

The use of 3D printing has allowed Anatomic Implants to manufacture in the most accurate way, according to the company. In the development of the device, Anatomic Implants used laser scanning on human bones to capture data which was manipulated to create the STL file, then leaning on 3D printing to output this data in its true form.

Once the design was settled on, it was then about finding the right partner to help Anatomic Implants bring the project to fruition. With its ISO 13485 quality management certification, industrial backing and medical sector experience, that turned out to be AddUp.

“What we understand is how to optimise the orientation, support structures, parameters, etc, to produce the best possible products,” Estock said. “The design is outside of our scope, but we help them go through that manufacturing

THE BALANCE

SHOWN: The toe joint is manufactured by AddUp

“3D printing is the most important thing in getting that net structure. It’s integral.”

ABOVE: 3D

printed Anatomic Great Toe Joint

process. That’s when we can start to grab hold of a project and pull it through that industrialisation process.”

As Anatomic Implants will tell you, it’s very necessary that this know-how and capacity is in place. The company had tried and subsequently failed to get this far with two other 3D printing companies, but now partnered with AddUp, there’s an expectance that FDA 510(k) clearance will be secured.

What David and his father see before them is an 800 million USD global market for MTP toe joint reconstruction that isn’t being as well-served as it should be. Patients are experiencing hallux rigidus, where arthritis has become so bad that the cartilage has been worn away and bone is now at risk of fusing to bone, and hallux valgus, where a bunion has developed and is pushing the big toe into the other toe. The big toe, because of its role as a main point of balance, is likely to be the first part of the foot to develop arthritis. And if you live long enough, you’ll probably experience it.

Inspired by the use of the technology for spinal and maxillofacial implants, Anatomic Implants has moved to fill an industry gap.

“We’re seeing these new 3D printing technologies come down further into the smaller joints, filling these gaps that need to be met,” David finished. “The bigger companies tackle the bigger problems and smaller start-ups, like me and my dad, we’ll go capitalise on a market that is underserved.”

Oli Johnson speaks to Martin Johnson, Technical Fellow & VP, Product Development at 3D Systems, about the company’s new solution for jetted, one-piece, multi-material dentures.

3D Systems recently launched its new solution for jetted, monolithic (one-piece) dentures that utilise multiple materials to deliver a durable, long-wear prosthetic to the patient, a product which it says is the first of its kind in the additive manufacturing industry. This solution is enabled by the creation of bespoke materials for both teeth and gums, and the company says that the unique materials deliver ‘the desired combination’ of aesthetics, wear and stain resistance in the teeth, and ‘exceptional’ break resistance in the gums.

When the solution was announced, 3D Systems said it is ‘superior’ to all other currently available, monolithic, jetted denture solutions. Speaking to TCT at the 2024 AMUG Conference, Martin Johnson, Technical Fellow and Vice President, Product Development at 3D Systems told us why: “It’s multi-material, not one material, multi colour. We’re able to provide a solution that’s compliant and a little more durable, that’s easier on the gum. Then we can add that to other materials and get the hardness, colour, and the rigidity in the teeth. The ability to put that all in one print and get the colours makes a really nice denture, so that was really significant.”

Materials scientists at 3D Systems developed NextDent Jet Denture Teeth and NextDent Jet Denture Base, the former created to mimic tooth rigidity and aesthetics, and the latter to absorb impact. The company says that when the materials are used as part of the monolithic, jetted denture solution, dental labs are able to produce dentures with ‘exceptional’ performance, including high break resistance.

3D Systems says it expects 510(k) clearance from the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for its solution in the second half of 2024. Johnson told TCT: “Initially things will be going through Glidewell Dental in the second half of this year, and as we get into the next year, and we start to expand, where do we want it, where does it go, and how does it populate? Gildewell Dental is a great company to pair up with to get this out because of where they stand in the industry and they’re so well respected. It was great to work with them and push that out initially, so we’ll see where we go from there. But the second half of this year is when we want to see dentures in people’s mouths.”

In the announcement of the new solution, Stephenie Goddard, CEO of Glidewell, said: “The capabilities presented by the new jetted denture solution are unmatched in the industry. The combination of 3D Systems’ high-speed printing technology and its unique materials deliver dentures with superior durability and aesthetics. I’m looking forward to our implementation of this solution later this year, and the

“There’s lots of opportunities for where this can go.”

benefits it will deliver not only for our business but for our customers and their patients.”

Speaking about the opportunities this opens up for dentists, Johnson said: “It opens up the availability for a lot more dental labs to be able to do this, and you don’t have to have the high-skilled labour because, making dentures in the traditional process requires very skilled people. Now you can go in there and take lower-skilled labour, because now you have people that don’t have to be experts at making the teeth, they can go in and start digitally fitting, they can get parts out to you really fast, if you have problems, you can get them replaced really fast. If I’m travelling for instance, say I go to the beach in South Florida and break my dentures, because they’re digital, I can find somebody that offers the service down there, and get them printed while I’m at the beach. There’s lots of opportunities for where this can go.”

The company also plans to offer the solution outside of the USA once the FDA approval process has been completed, and the solution has begun its rollout stateside.

SHOWN: A denture created with the new solution

#COLLABORATE

Dr. Didier von Zeppelin (DVZ), Manager Additive Manufacturing at Arburg, and Alexander Reutelingsperger (AR), CTO at Hashtagtwo, discuss their TCT Award-nominated Personal Fit Breast Prosthesis collaboration.

TCT: How did this collaboration start?

DVZ: Arburg and Hashtagtwo crossed paths during the research phase of a 3D printing startup at Chill (Chemelot Innovation and Learning Labs) in the southern region of the Netherlands. The concept revolved around harnessing new 3D scanning, printing techniques, and materials to create custom-made external breast prostheses.

TCT: What unique advantages does 3D printing, specifically the freeformer, provide?

DVZ: The quest for the appropriate 3D printer involved extensive collaboration with Chill, the innovation and learning lab of Zuyd University of Applied Sciences at Brightlands Chemelot Campus.

The open system of the freeformer was the key to rapid success in identifying the settings for the different materials. This endeavour culminated in the selection of a medical certified original material (Cawiton SEBS) with a Shore A value of 40. The granule is processed and the prostheses printed using ARBURG's freeformer. This material is exceptionally lightweight, flexible, and breathable, allowing the prosthesis to be worn directly on the skin without the need for a special bra. Few others can replicate the open structure of the prosthesis as effectively as the freeformer. ARBURG supported the Limburg-based company in developing this application. The material used is much lighter than silicone, can be worn directly on the skin, and is suitable for activities such as swimming and sports. Additionally, it is suitable for reuse.

TCT: Can you talk about the demand for this product?

AR: Unfortunately, the global incidence of breast cancer continues to rise. The options for external solutions were extremely limited and, until recently, consisted only of standard silicone products. However, women do not have standardised breasts, so these products were either

too large or too small. Reconstruction often relied on implants, but there is a growing trend of women questioning the use of silicone in their bodies. Another option involves reconstruction using the patient's own tissue, but not all women are willing to undergo or qualify for this lengthy process. A custom-made, personalised 3D prosthesis provides an additional choice.

The difference between wearing a standard silicone prosthesis, which needs to be worn in special bras and is heavy and warm, compared to a lightweight, custom-made, personalised prosthesis that can be worn in a regular bra is substantial. With silicone prostheses, women must always adapt to the prosthesis and consider its vulnerability. In contrast, the printed prosthesis adapts to the wearer and her lifestyle.

TCT: How does the process work?

AR: The entire process takes place online. Users need a smartphone, the Hashtagtwo app and a QR code. Women can scan their breasts and/or scars in their own

environment at any time of the day using their smartphones. The application captures a total of four point clouds: two for the shape and symmetry of the breast in the bra, and two for the scar area. These point clouds are then sent to the central computer. The app and the phone are then empty. The application, developed by Hashtagtwo, converts the point cloud into a model that can be printed, tailored to the woman's scar and body in the colour of her choice. A post-operative variant can be printed if the mastectomy is recent, followed by a final version when the scar has healed, fitting snugly in the bra.

TCT: Can you talk about the sustainability element and why that was important?

DVZ: Sustainability was a top priority in selecting suitable materials for soft 3D printing. The goal was to reuse all materials. No inventory and no waste. Silicone prostheses are not sustainable at all. For our innovation, we aimed for a cradle-to-cradle approach, ensuring ownership of the materials throughout the process. Hashtagtwo's prostheses are available through a subscription model, where wearers pay a fixed monthly fee for a duration of one year. Wearers return the prostheses they no longer use to Hashtagtwo. The material is processed into new feedstock for the ARBURG freeformer.

TCT: What has the feedback been like so far from users?

AR: No longer confined by standard sizes or uncomfortable fittings, wearers enjoy newfound freedom and confidence, seamlessly integrating the prosthesis into their active lifestyle. Women are taking control again. They now have a choice. Nothing to hide anymore. Delighted to finally have the freedom to choose their own bras and swimwear.

www.tctawards.com

Quintus Purus®, less oxides and more consistency for your HIP component surfaces

The Global Leader in High Pressure Technology

Quintus Purus ®, the latest addition to Quintus Technologies HPHTTM (High Pressure Heat Treatment) series of innovative heat treatment solutions can help you solve common oxidation problems, such as alpha case formation on titanium alloy components and general surface oxide formation.

Quintus Technologies designs, manufactures, installs, and supports high pressure systems in three main areas: densification of advanced materials, sheet metal forming and high pressure processing for food and beverage innovation, safety, and shelf life.

Quintus has delivered over 1,900 systems to customers within industries from energy, medical implants, space, aerospace, automotive and food processing. The company is headquartered in Västerås, Sweden, with a presence in 45 countries worldwide.

Visit www.quintustechnologies.com for more information!

www.quintustechnologies.com

TCT HALL OF FAME 2024

Seven additive manufacturing (AM) leaders have been named among the shortlist to be inducted into the TCT Hall of Fame in 2024.

The TCT Hall of Fame celebrates those members of the AM community who have made a positive, significant and long-term impact on the industry. This distinguished group so far includes 14 people, who made their names in the invention, development and application of 3D printing technology.

The TCT Awards judging panel – which is comprised of more than two dozen additive manufacturing professionals –will now vote on who they believe most deserves recognition as a member of the TCT Hall of Fame. Meet this year's nominees.

Andy Christensen has spent his entire career focused on developing and expanding the medical applications of 3D printing and additive manufacturing. Having been introduced to SLA 3D printing in the mid 90s, Andy founded Medical Modeling in 2000, leading the Colorado-based service bureau to become a world-leading medical device company. With 3D printing, Medical Modeling developed entirely new toolsets in the areas of patientspecific anatomic modeling, virtual surgical planning, personalised surgical guides and personalised implants, including the very first FDAcleared, 3D printed titanium implants.

During his tenure, Andy and his team contributed to the care of more than 70,000 patients, including more than two dozen sets of conjoined twins. In 2014 Medical Modeling was acquired by 3D Systems, and Andy went on to aid the creation of a new business vertical for the company in the healthcare sector. Today, Andy is President of his consulting company, Fingerprint Additive, focusing on strategic guidance in the healthcare and 3D printing fields.

BRENT STUCKER AM Consultant and Technology Strategist

Dr. Brent Stucker is an industry consultant whose career has spanned 30 years of expertise in additive manufacturing, academia, entrepreneurship, and executive leadership. After 18 years as a Professor, Brent co-founded 3DSIM, a leading AM simulation technology provider, which was acquired by ANSYS in 2017. Brent then served as Chief Technology Officer at 3D Systems where he worked within the executive leadership team to champion innovation within the company and throughout the Additive Manufacturing (AM) industry. Dr. Stucker was the founding chairman of ASTM International Committee F42 on Additive Manufacturing Technologies and was elected to the ASTM International Board of Directors in 2015. Currently Brent is Chief Technology Strategist for Wohlers Associates, powered by ASTM International. He is also President of 3DX Consulting, a company he founded in 2023. He holds numerous patents, has authored and co-authored over 200 technical publications, and has presented over 500 technical talks.

JOE ALLISON

Early Pioneer and Software Developer

Joe Allison began working with 3D printing technology in 1988 as an engineer for 3D Systems, where he pioneered key SLA advancements resulting in 12 patents over three years. By 1991, Allison had left to co-found Solid Concepts, one of the very first 3D printing service bureaus. He spent 24 years as the CEO of the company, running technologies such as SLA, SLS, FDM and DMLS and helping to develop the first automated support generation software, before selling the company to Stratasys in 2014 as the world’s biggest supplier of 3D printed parts. For four years, he remained at Stratasys, leading its Stratasys Direct Manufacturing business, before setting up the 3DVentures venture capital group. In 2022, Allison came out of retirement to assume the role of Evolve Additive CEO.

ANDREW CHRISTENSEN Medical Applications Specialist & Advisor

Max Lobovsky is co-founder and CEO of Formlabs. Founded in 2011, Formlabs pioneered a new category of professional desktop 3D printing when it launched the world’s first affordable, powerful desktop stereolithography 3D printer. After a finding success with a recordbreaking Kickstarter campaign, the company went on develop and commercialise a range of industrial focused desktop solutions based on stereolithography and selective laser sintering technologies. Formlabs printers are now used by some of the world’s leading companies like Ford, New Balance and Google. Prior to starting the company, Lobovsky led the efforts at Fab@Home, one of the industry’s earliest open-source 3D printing projects which has been instrumental in setting up labs in schools worldwide. A Forbes’ 30 Under 30 recipient and World Economic Forum

Pioneer, Lobovsky holds a B.S. in Applied Engineering and Physics from Cornell University and a M.S. in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT.

Sheku Kamara is the Dean of Applied Research at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) and has been involved in AM since 1996. He oversees the activities of MSOE’s Applied Technology Center (ATC) which is renowned for transferring technology to the marketplace and undertakes more than 200 industry-sponsored research projects every year. Sheku is a technical advisor to the RAPID + TCT Conference and currently serves as the vice chair of SME’s AM Technical Community Leadership Committee. He is a past chair of the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) and was named a DINO (Distinguished Innovator Operator Award) in 2010 for his contributions to laser sintering. In 2013, he managed the development of the Additive Manufacturing Body of Knowledge (AMBOK) and the Additive Manufacturing Certificate program for SME & America Makes. Sheku holds the RTAM Master Level Certificate on AM from SME and is a 2008 recipient of the prestigious Karl O. Werwath Engineering Research Award from MSOE and in July 2021 Sheku co-authored a book on the Fundamentals of Additive Manufacturing for the Practitioner.

MAX LOBOVSKY Founder of Formlabs

SHEKU KAMARA AM Researcher and Technical Advisor

NEIL HOPKINSON

Inventor of High Speed Sintering

Professor Neil Hopkinson spent 20 years in academia generating IP that has been widely licensed. Hopkinson's High Speed Sintering patents, first filed in 2003, have generated £1Bn+ in revenues to licensees, with thousands of industrial grade machines sold globally. In 2005 he was Lead Editor of “Rapid Manufacturing” (Wiley UK) the world’s

first book dedicated to the use of Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing technologies for the production of enduse parts. Hopkinson left academia in 2016 to join Xaar plc as Director of 3D Printing where he formed a Joint Venture with Stratasys called Xaar 3D. In 2021 Xaar 3D was fully acquired by Stratasys, where Neil serves as VP for Additive Manufacturing Technology.

Join us at the TCT Awards ceremony on June 5th at the National Conference Centre (NCC), Birmingham, UK. Get your tickets at tctawards.com

TCT HALL OF FAME MEMBERS

CHUCK HULL | Inventor of the Stereolithography process

SCOTT CRUMP | Inventor of Fused Deposition Modelling

WILFRIED VANCRAEN | Founder of Materialise

HANS LANGER | Founder of EOS and Serial Entrepreneur

ADRIAN BOWYER | Founder of the RepRap Project

PROF EMANUAL ‘ELY’ SACHS | Inventor of Binder Jet Printing

DR CARL DECKARD | Inventor of Selective Laser Sintering

GREG MORRIS | Process Pioneer and Application Specialist

PROF GIDEON LEVY | AM Consultant, Research and Advisor

PROF PHILL DICKENS | AM Researcher, Consultant and Educator

TERRY WOHLERS | AM Consultant

Author and Speaker

ELAINE HUNT | Early Pioneer, Researcher and Industry Advocate

DIANA KALISZ | Process Pioneer and Material Specialist

PROF JEAN-PIERRE KRUTH | AM

Researcher and Process Pioneer

Melissa Orme is a renowned additive manufacturing innovator and leader. Her seminal work spans three decades and has resulted in 15 US patents. Melissa’s career began in academia where she rose to Full Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California Irvine. There she established globally recognised research laboratories and developed methods for controlled electrostatically charged and deflected molten metal droplet deposition for precision manufacturing. Melissa went on to hold senior leadership roles at start-up AM companies, before becoming Vice President of Boeing Additive Manufacturing for The Boeing Company. Here she sets the AM strategy for the entire business and oversees all AM activities including flight hardware, production aids and research models to increase efficiencies and accelerate new product development. As an author and technical advisor, Melissa serves on several advisory and professional committees for additive manufacturing and aerospace.

POINTS OF CARE

Victoria Sears of Mayo Clinic and Nicole McMinn of Walter Reed National Millitary Medical Center come together to provide insights into the make-up of their in-house, point of care 3D printing workflows.

On the latest instalment of TCT’s Innovators on Innovators podcast series, two biomedical engineers came together to explain the impact 3D printing at the point of care is having on the care that is provided to patients.

Nicole McMinn [NM] of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was joined by Victoria Sears [VS] of the Mayo Clinic to provide insight into a typical day inside an on-site 3D printing medical facility.

VS: My day to day varies. One day you can go in with a plan but being at the point of care inside the hospital, you never know what type of physician is going to come through the door and maybe they have surgery in a couple of days, because Mayo is a Destination Medical Centre, so we will see people that might fly in and Monday and leave on Thursday because their surgery is Wednesday.

Often we have to work based on those unpredicted interruptions to our day to day, but for the most part we work on the clinical cases. First, we assess based on surgery date, what's the most important and then go from there. If there's any extra time in the day, then we'll work on those nonclinical projects such as the simulation trainers, or any retro-engineering things we need to do for replacements around the hospital. For instance, for an X-ray machine, a battery cover was lost and in order to replace that, it's 3,000 USD. So, we're able to retroengineer that just to provide a cheap and very fast and efficient way to get that X-ray machine back into operation.

NM: Sounds like a lot, especially with your patients coming in with that fast of a turnaround pretty routinely, especially because at Mayo you see a lot of the really complicated cases that probably benefit from using medical 3D printing and having medical and anatomic models for the surgical team to plan the surgery.

VS: Yeah, definitely. I will say also, I am the lead of the craniomaxillofacial surgeries of doing the virtual planning and the device design creation. So, I do a lot of that, it takes a lot of effort to virtually plan the surgeries and then pass it by the surgeon and then create that device in order to help them facilitate that plan in the operating room. It is a lot of effort, but we're always willing to stay late and work extra hours for any of those rush cases that are coming in. So, does your day to day sound a little bit different? Maybe a little less rushed?

NM: Yeah, we generally don't have quite the same rush as you do. I think part of that is because we provide 3D printing services to the entire DOD and even the Veterans Health Administration facilities. But there are seven of us here, we have an administrator, our director of services is a biomedical engineer, I'm the other biomedical engineer, we have a quality engineer. And then we have three engineering techs, two of which were former CT technicians, so they're very skilled with segmented anatomy. And then we have a dental tech, we do a lot of dental cases here - partly, we are across from the Naval Post Graduate dental school, so they know we exist and know we can provide them with 3D printed

SHOWN: 3D printed anatomical model

models. We're able to spread our work out a little bit more, but patient care always comes first, if there is a rush case, you drop everything else you're doing and take care of that rush case and get it printed as quickly as possible.

Right now, myself and our quality engineer have mostly been focusing on building our quality management system. So, when cases are not coming in, we are spending a lot of time doing that. And because we're trying to become a medical device manufacturer, and register with the FDA, so that we can then market a lot of our medical devices that we are making right now. Mostly, it sounds similar to your day, maybe not quite as hectic, but it's really rewarding, I should say, to work on patient cases, and know that you're providing a service to the providers and the care team for that patient that they wouldn't otherwise have access to. Or if they did have access to it, it would take a long time to get that product in-house because third parties, manufacturers that do make these and there are quite a few in the

field, but they're not on site. And it might take longer to get that product, it might be more expensive, because you have to pay out of pocket.

We are both on site, point of care 3D printing facilities - do you want to talk a bit about some of the pros and cons of working on-site versus going through a third party? And the benefits of having us be directly involved with the care team? I know you've spoken at conferences that you have been able to be in the OR during the surgeries. Can you talk a bit about that?

VS: So, I think the huge benefit is to directly interface with the surgeons,

“Having access to the operating rooms allows me to see the sticking points.”

physicians and patients, it really expediates innovation and we're able to provide solutions and products within a short amount of time due to the increased access to clinicians and patients. Like you mentioned, I do, fortunately, have access to the operating rooms, to observe certain surgeries as a device designer, which really allows me to see what parts of surgery are the sticking points and be able to suggest new ideas.

All of the physicians we work with are super encouraging to come down to the OR, they want us to because they know that they have been in that position where one of us are observing and they're able to say, 'would this be easier if we were able to maybe create this device to help you guide this portion of it?' And they're like, 'yes, we would love for you to try that.' It would save 20 minutes, but that's a lot of time in the operating room. And then the other thing as the device designer, you're able to see maybe what you developed and came up with and you can see it in use and see, 'it would be more feasible for this device to be designed maybe with a handle for positioning a little bit better because they're maybe fumbling with it in their hands to try and to get it in the correct placement on the patient.' So just observing as a device designer is huge. It's an incredible experience for sure.

NM: Absolutely. And I think that helps a lot because even if you've been working in this field for a while and you do have a lot of similar vocabulary with medical providers, there's still that disconnect. And I feel like it's an interesting job we have where we get to do so many different things on a day to day basis. But also, communication is so huge because your provider may come to you with what is in their head. And they're not fully aware of what we can do at our 3D printing facilities. So, it involves you as the engineer, as the person who works in the 3D printing lab explaining to them what our capabilities are, and what types of materials we have, and what materials are going to be safer for patient contact and which ones aren't. And so I think that I'm sure it's really beneficial being in the OR, because then there's less of that communication gap, because you can see directly how the surgeon is using the device that you designed or the guide or whatever it is they're using that you build.

This passage has been edited for clarity and brevity, with the conversation available in its entirety via this link: https://tinyurl.com/2s4y8e2n

GET HIP TO

Laura Griffiths speaks to two companies bringing high pressure technology to additively manufactured parts.

This is not the simplest of topics,” starts Peter Henning, Director Marketing & Sales at Quintus Technologies, a company that has been specialising in high pressure technologies for half a century.

Around a decade ago, the Swedish company underwent a rebrand, adopting the name ‘Quintus’ in a nod to a secret 1947 project, code named under the company’s founding ASEA brand, which led to the invention of a heat and pressure process for the production of synthetic diamonds. It was around that same time in 2015 that the company also began to seriously turn its attention to another emerging industry where it felt its technology could offer a significant advantage: additive manufacturing (AM).

“We started to discuss with our customers what our technology could offer them in terms of value,” Henning told TCT. “We increased our awareness and competence and we started to build not only a very strong experienced team in machine building, but also a team of material scientists that could apply those features to a machine and bring real customer value.”

Up until that point, the company had supplied some lab style equipment to the AM market, but as the demand for AM as an end-use production process grew, and conversations continued, Quintus decided to develop a high-pressure heat treatment technology that could be deployed by industrial AM users, and combine the benefits of high-speed cooling with temperature uniformity,

“Our equipment can do what you normally do in two different processes,” Henning explained. “So it has obvious advantages, not only financial or sustainable, but also speed.”

Ultimately, what Quintus was offering to the AM market, as Henning describes it, was a solution to go from “printed product to a functioning, real-life application.”

“HIP has enormous potential.”

While Quintus had established itself in Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP), a process used to eliminate the porosity in metals and ceramics to improve their mechanical properties, AM's unique demands meant there was work to be done on how the traditional HIP process works for AM and how to apply it.

“HIPing is a known technology to many in the industry and it is applied very late in the process,” Henning explained. “But there are so many advantages to our technology that are not really incorporated in the setup.”

The unique, as printed, microstructures of metal AM parts require different

treatment considerations. While printing can be optimised to maximise part density before a part even leaves the build plate, HIP uses very hot gas under very high isostatic pressure to act on all surfaces and internal structures on even the most complex AM parts.

“You can design a process for the final step of HIPing,” Henning explained. “Those products, in most cases, come out much better. You have to think what does your entire process look like? People are investing a lot of money in process steps that don’t necessarily contribute to the performance of the whole product.”

Stresses, porosity, cracking. These are all challenges that HIP aims to remove from additive parts while improving ductility, fracture toughness,

SHOWN: Hot Isostatic Press from Quintus Technologies

TO HIP

elongation and fatigue life. Nickel-based alloys can be difficult to print without cracking, and even if you were to print parts with a high level of density, there is still a risk that porosities will occur. But HIP can be used to remove those defects.

“For AM we tend to see a lot of high performing alloys put into challenging applications where there's a high degree of geometric complexity,” Henning said. “You need to do it right. Just because it is HIPed in one way for a cast product, doesn't mean that this is the right way to get the maximum out of a printed part.”

Quintus’ HIP technology is being applied to a range of high-performance applications, particularly in industries like aerospace, medical and space, the latter of which is becoming a “significant part” of the business and “really contributing volume of parts.” Demand from those verticals is mirroring that of the AM industry itself: bigger parts, made faster. As print build volumes get bigger, the capability of AM-ready HIP equipment needs to follow and Quintus is continuing to grow with the same performance but at a larger scale.

“We are engineering something for a higher performance rate but it should

be used [correctly],” Henning said. "Everyone is trying to replace one part by making it a new way but the real benefit is when you use the flexibility of AM rather than trying to replace a forged or cast part.”

Bigger parts are one thing, the next frontier is new materials. Printing of aluminium is growing but its high cooling rates can be difficult to deliver within a traditional quenching environment. Quintus says it is already working on low temperature solutions and fine tuning its process to respond to those applications. The next step is to scale.

“I'm convinced the best is yet to come when it comes to AM,” Henning concludes. “We are very committed to this industry.”

AM'S BEST ALLY

For Hiperbaric, having kept a close eye on HIP for some time, it was the promise of AM, bolstered by the design and manufacturing synergies between its flagship High Pressure Processing (HPP) technology for the food industry and HIP, that encouraged the development of its own technology in 2018 with the AM market in mind.

“The most demanding industrial sectors – medical implants, aeronautics, nuclear, military –are already benefiting from the advantages of AM and HIP, and the synergy between the two concepts provides an answer to all the technical and productive requirements of these industries,” Rubén García, HIP Project Manager at Hiperbaric told TCT.

García offers up examples of automotive parts where HIP has provided another level of confidence in part properties and reliability, and customers like Aenium Engineering, for who Hiperbaric's HIP technology has become a “decisive tool” for certifying materials and parts with the strictest quality and safety controls for the space sector. While

Hiperbaric’s 1 metre HIP unit means part size is rarely a challenge – and it is currently developing an even bigger system – he notes that there are some limitations for HIPing AM.

“Parts with sandwich structure configuration are not eligible for HIP since the interior is a mesh structure and it will collapse during treatment as a consequence of high pressure,” García explained. “Advanced ceramics present a challenge not only for HIP but also for AM. These materials such as silicon carbide, silicon nitride or boron carbide push the HIP equipment to operation limit which is to 2000 °C / 2000 bar and at this range the furnace component suffer severe degradation.”

Yet García believes HIP offers “enormous potential” for new AM applications and materials. Hiperbaric is currently working on an R&D project, DioSiC, which uses HIP to improve polycrystalline silicon substrates from Spark Plasma Sintering. Treating silicon carbide (SiC) with HIP is said to significantly improve its properties by eliminating any possible defects in polycrystalline SiC wafers. Solidifying that belief in AM even further, Hiperbaric has also adopted AM inhouse to improve the functionality of fan and heat exchangers for the Fast Cooling technology inside its HIP systems.

As AM adoption progresses, García believes HIP has an important role. The future integration of AM to reduce costs for solid state batteries, for example, could see HIP applied to densify and consolidate different components. Today, for printed components in satellites, rockets and their respective engines, turbomachines and burners, the impact of HIP is already being felt.

“There are strategic materials and components in the space sector that can only be manufactured by AM in a specific way,” García said. “The key to this is Hiperbaric's HIP technology, which allows materials to be cooled very quickly using Fast Cooling technology, especially in materials whose capabilities may be impaired if they are not cooled quickly.

“This is where HIP becomes AM's best ally.”

SHOWN: Hiperbaric HIP technology

WORDS: SAM DAVIES

Service

bureaus and resellers explain how manufacturers can future-proof their AM investments.

Across eight locations, the UK subsidiary of an Italian multinational aerospace and defence firm is looking to engineer a culture of additive manufacturing (AM).

As the company looks to prove out AM’s capacity as a ‘valuable production process’ it has commenced a series of training initiatives. So far, ten engineers have been put through design for AM training, ten have received tuition around the qualification and certification of critical parts, and ten have been educated in non-destructive testing. Most recently, 17 engineers – who are said to be involved in ‘critical high value projects’ – have been trained in how to build an effective business case for additive.

“This,” Ross Herbert, Additive Manufacturing Lead at Leonardo UK, said at the recent AMADS Conference, “is so important to address the risk factor in the eyes of the program managers. How do you make sure we're managing risk in adopting additive?”

For many business leaders and procurement managers, investing in additive is exactly that: a risk. The technology can be expensive to buy, expensive to run, and expensive to understand. More than that, the technology is still developing, so businesses are also tasked with avoiding obsolescence of their processes.

This has often been a big worry for ADDMAN, a US business comprised

of five separate brands offering subtractive and additive manufacturing services. It has, in recent years, expanded its offering to include the polymer 3D printing capacity of Dinsmore and the metal AM proficiency of Castheon, all the while working to ensure its growth is sustainable. That means making some serious considerations and realistic projections before investing in equipment.

To do that, Laser Lines Sales Director Mark Tyrtania offers, all buying decisions should start at the desired customer/end user outcomes. Working back from there, the buying company should then consider a myriad of factors, from the required facility upgrades to the performance of the OEM supplying the technology. At CIDEAS, another US service bureau, CEO Mike Littrell and his team will assess the power requirements, ventilation requirements, warranty prices, material suppliers and waste stream, before also doing some due diligence around the OEM.

Then, they’ll look inwards to chart a course for how they achieve a return on investment.

For ADDMAN, that’s being organised, conservative and transparent. Projections will be made prior to the purchase of a machine around the volumes the company will be able to print at, bringing customers into those conversations and being honest about the amount of capital required to install new machinery in its factories. Among the considerations for ADDMAN is how quickly projects get launched and how quickly they return the investment that will allow the company to proceed with other capability enhancements. It also looks to fill 50% of its volume before committing to an order.

“Our bar is typically whatever the return math we need to have, we want to have strong conviction on half of that volume as we’re making the investment,”

ADDMAN CEO Joe Calmese tells TCT. “So, we’re starting with some momentum, that’s the concept, and then we build out the other half as fast as possible. As you increase utilisation, it decreases the cost of manufacturing on a per unit basis, and so as you decrease the cost, you increase the utilisation and adoption. It’s a great cycle.”

This approach helps to relieve the pressure of an investment for ADDMAN, with the company knowing from day one that it has filled half of its machine’s capacity for a certain

period of time – whether it be one year or five years – from day one. That isn’t that, however.

CIDEAS is a company that deals with customers big and small, old and new. It therefore has to cater for both of these types of client not just in terms of technology and capacity, but in payment terms too. For new customers, CIDEAS requires immediate credit card payment, but there are larger, longer-term clients who are pushing payment intervals from 30 days, through 60, 90 and occasionally 120. This, Littrell says, can be taxing on a service bureau.

“We have an old saying in our shop – ‘Getting the work isn’t the problem, getting paid for the work is the problem,’” Littrell remarks. “At the time of an order being placed, we are allocating the material, maintenance, labour, post-processing, electricity and, more importantly, fixed production time – our most valuable and precious commodity. If we aren’t paid for a large program, it doesn’t just affect our profitability but more importantly, lost capacity that could have been used for profitable ‘paid’ work.”

Across the pond at 3T AM, there is a similar mindset to taking orders. Service providers are there to support OEMs and end users, of course, but only on terms that work for them. So, having invested in expensive AM machinery, every piece of equipment and every staff member operating that equipment at 3T has an hourly rate, helping the company to calculate the real-terms cost of the manufacture and inspection of parts.

3T has gone further still. As you’ll read on pages 37-39, the company has adopted a slightly different philosophy when it comes to AM, and it’s integral to how it can justify its continued investment in the technology.

“If you’re a metal AM contract manufacturer, you need to expand your internal capability to include all the downstream,” Johns suggests.

“It’s the only way you can then optimise your cost to be able to make your parts competitive. If you keep outsourcing your machining, outsourcing your heat treatment, outsourcing all the other ops because you’re only focused on the AM print bit, you’ve been oversold where AM is in the value chain. By outsourcing all those additional operations, you’ve got margin on top of margin on top of margin. You have no control over the cost and time from a delivery perspective.”

Finding a business case with AM and maintaining its viability over the long-term is all about control. And, ADDMAN would argue, know-how too.

“Our approach – our metal additive approach in particular – is a fundamental physics-based approach to additive manufacturing. It’s not completely unique to others, but we do it on a larger scale,” Calmese says. “This fundamental materials property knowledge and ultimate control of the laser disconnects us from the software control and the OEM parameter sets and things of this nature. And since we have such a great understanding of how to manufacture these parts and, in particular, how to produce the material properties that are needed for qualification in these systems, it gives us a great leverage of the technology.”

What can’t be ignored, since most buyers need to understand the pathway to ROI before a

“Getting the work isn't the problem. Getting paid is.”

purchase is made, is the company a machine is being bought from. In the manufacturing world, that can be from the OEM directly, or more likely, via a distribution partner. Whichever it is, the buying company must seek to understand the position that company is in, the services they offer, the warranties they provide.

You can bring the technology in-house to control the costs of the process, you can get good at understand materials and parameters, but you’re always going to want the support of the supplier.

“Work with a respected and established partner,” Tyrtania emphasises.

“We’ve been supplying and supporting Stratasys AM solutions for over 30 years. We have multiple customers that are on their third or fourth generation of 3D printer and many have multiple 3D printers of different technologies to cover off a wider range of applications and uses.”

“While looking at equipment, take note of the available material portfolio and ask the manufacturer what is in the pipeline,” Littrell finishes. “Our customers have been requesting more exotic high-performance materials in rigid and in elastomers. Your needs should align with your current and forecasted needs. Ask the manufacturer about life expectancy and repair part replacement policy after the machine is discontinued or if upgrade paths will be available –and document your correspondence.”

GOOD SERVICE

Laura Griffiths explores the use of service providers as a business case for AM.

Almost ten years ago, as a junior on this very magazine, I got on the phone to several additive manufacturing (AM) service providers to find out if video was in fact killing the radio star. The theory, fresh off the back of a wave of consumer hype, was that customers would bypass established model makers and prototyping houses in favour of simply printing stuff at home with their own low-cost desktop printers.

That, of course, never happened. In fact, in some cases, as Matt White, Business Development and Sales Manager at Ogle Models & Prototypes tells us, it went the other way.

“There's a couple of examples of people that have had [AM] in house and decided to close it down and outsource based on costs and various other reasons,” White shared. It paints a broad picture of the challenges companies face when deciding to invest in AM. The first question you might ask when starting that journey is: which machine should I buy? The right question, White offers, should really be: is AM suitable for my application?

“If it isn't right, we'll always advise,” White explained, adding that the last thing this industry needs is more disgruntled users throwing in the towel when AM isn’t the plug and print experience the 2010s advertised. “That can be quite damaging to the industry and the customer doesn't get the most cost effective or best results they can get. That applies to one-off aesthetic models or functional prototypes all the way to volume manufacture."

Application discovery is key but finding the business case for AM is multi-layered, and piece cost isn’t always the most accurate

metric when comparing with traditional processes – rarely is it the most favourable towards AM. Value comes in various shapes and sizes, as White explained.

“Utilising AM and optimising design can unlock cost savings on the assembly line. For example, multiple parts can be merged together to save on assembly costs. Parts could be more lightweight, so operational costs reduced over the lifetime of the product or have improved serviceability. Even if the AM part is slightly more costly, overall, it may not be!”

This year Ogle is celebrating its 70th anniversary. The UK-based model shop’s first customer was Bush Radio, which commissioned Ogle to design a transistor radio and a record player. When former Managing Director Len Martin saw the stereolithography process on Tomorrow’s World in the early 90s, Ogle made the decision to bring it in house and, within five years, AM transformed the business.

“It's the years of experience,” White said of Ogle’s near 30 years using industrial AM. “It does make a difference. Quite a lot of our customers think 3D printing is plastic filament extrusion. They visit us and they see these huge industrial style machines which cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and it's a different ballgame.”

Oftentimes, it not a case of either or, and clients with their own kit in-house can rely on the capacity and flexibility of bureaus to take on certain production tasks.

“We're an extension of that company,” White said. “We could do bits that they find quite challenging because we’re used to working with tens of thousands of different parts and geometries.”

Service providers, with years of expertise and a diversity of technologies to tap into, can provide a good starting point for newcomers who haven’t yet built up their own AM knowledge or infrastructure. Jonathan Rowley, an AM consultant, and former service bureau leader, advocates for new users starting their AM journeys via service providers to build confidence and combat that all too common narrative of users buying an AM system, without the knowledge to fully leverage it, and becoming disillusioned.

“Using AM does not mean owning AM,” Rowley told TCT. “For most people, it will never mean owning AM. They just need to be encouraged to procure AM, the right stuff from the right people.”

3D printing bureaus are not just rows of machines. Those machines are run by people, and Rowley urges users to seek out those that are open to having a dialogue about their application rather than relying on automated ordering systems. Whether buying a machine or using a service, the needs of one customer requiring a prototype will be completely different to those of another ordering a run of 1,000 parts in a particular material, under certified conditions.

“If the right choice isn't made by the adopter in whatever context they're trying to use it, it's very unlikely that they're going to have a successful outcome,” Rowley said.

There's a strong argument for 'try before you buy.' Rowley ran a successful selective laser sintering-based bureau Digits2Widgets for eight years and tells us, to his knowledge, that out of the thousands of clients he worked with, only one ever bought a machine. Often, customers would

“Using AM does not mean owning AM.”

come in to see the process for themselves and quickly learn that amongst the powders, printers and post-processing systems, adopting AM requires more than plugging in a printer.

“Most of the people who are ever going to get involved with AM are already in it to some extent,” Rowley added. “But nobody, not even huge multinationals, should buy anything until you've tried it.”

Rowley is, however, a 3D printing optimist, believeing that anyone who makes anything could use a little AM. But understanding how and building relationships with the right people and providers is vital, which is why he recently set up the AM Manifest Companion as a guide to AM via real case studies. The more success stories AM has, based on those foundations, the greater adoption could be.

“That will only happen on the back of everybody coming on board with it and understanding it's value because that kind of faith and level of adoption stimulates the R&D that's needed to bring it forward,” Rowley concluded. “The success of this industry isn't based on machine sales. It's based on how many people are working, making things, and enjoying the value that it brings.”

DOUBLING DOWN

Laura Griffiths speaks to Renee Begley at Collins Aerospace about its second 12-laser metal additive manufacturing investment.

We really believe [additive] is the future of aerospace technology,” Renee Begley, Director and General Manager at Collins Aerospace told TCT during a conversation about its latest machine installation.

The aerospace engineering and manufacturing company has been investing in additive manufacturing (AM) technologies at its site in West Des Moines, Iowa since 2016, and last year solidified its commitment with the opening of a 14 million USD expansion to its AM centre there. A year earlier, it launched another AM centre at its multi-million-dollar campus in Monroe, North Carolina. That future, for this RTX business, it seems, is very much in sight.

“There are so many different benefits that it gives to our customers,” Begley explained, offering examples of lead time reduction, unique design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) freedoms and part consolidation that it now wants to make readily available to its customers across the aerospace gamut.

“We do a lot of brazing and welding and when you design for additive manufacturing, you're able to eliminate some of those braze joints and weld joints,” Begley elaborated on the technology’s unique value. “There are some designs that you can only do additively, and we're able to design unique, complex features to meet our customers’ needs.”

Collins Aerospace’s additive journey at its West Des Moines site started out like a lot of large engineering organisations, with a modest single laser powder bed fusion system. But in the space of just two years, the company was

able to conceptualise and ship its first production component from that system and eventually grow its fleet to three single-laser printers and in-house auxiliary equipment, allowing it to go from file to finished printed part within its own 9,000 square foot capacity.

“We've continued to advance the technology,” Begley said, “and we're really excited to continue to grow our different capabilities.”

Indeed, those capabilities have grown, with bigger build sizes and more laser power, two factors, alongside material capabilities, which Begley tells us have been key to the AM adoption decision making at Collins Aerospace in recent years, and made its installation of Nikon SLM Solutions’ 12-laser NXG XII 600 back in 2022 a no brainer.

“The build volume gave us eight times the volume of our current capability with the single lasers. That was really important for us,” Begley said. “Looking at the parts that we're manufacturing and then with the 12 lasers, that was the technology that was on the market that enticed us.”

Collins Aerospace was one of the first 10 companies to invest in the technology as the trend for more lasers

SHOWN: Nikon SLM Solutions NXG XII 600 at Collins Aerospace

“Additive is the future of aerospace technology.”

inside powder bed systems dominated the AM industry. With a build volume of 600 x 600 x 600 mm, the machine will ultimately be put to work producing aircraft engine components and is now in the materials characterisation phase. This new multi-laser capacity led to a lot of learning, which Begley shared has been critical to optimising the machine’s capabilities and production costs, and soon after proving out its business case with that first system, the organisation began to evaluate the total list of parts that it could potentially produce with AM. It all pointed to more; more parts, and more machines, and earlier this year, Collins Aerospace decided to double down on its investment by purchasing a second NXG XII 600 machine. The plan is to run different materials on each platform to add another layer of flexibility.

“When we produce additively with the build volume we have, it can be one big part, it can be two mid-sized parts, it can be hundreds of small parts,” Begley said. “That's really exciting, it gives us a lot of different options.”

As Begley explained, investing in additive is not always a straightforward financial business case. The complexities of printed parts, from latticed internal features which can be costly to produce, to time-consuming post-processing steps to clear up supports, can mean it’s not always effective to simply compare with a cast or machined product.

Begley notes that there are “so many other things that we take into consideration,” and that usually starts with taking a step back and looking at current internal and supply base capacities to see if there is a pertinent challenge that additive could help solve.

“We take a look at the total landed cost model, which is really start to finish,” Begley explained. “What are all of the factory costs? What are some of the advantages that we see with additive, whether it be freeing up capacity to do other things or eliminating some quality issues? Those are the types of things we take into account when we're looking at that business case and what kind of value we can bring to the customer, whether it be weight reduction or an inventory reduction, or a lead time reduction.”

With each of those considerations, Collins Aerospace has its intentions set on pursuing future additive applications in aerospace engine components where it sees a multitude of benefits, particularly in weight reduction which could help contribute to grander ambitions around reducing fuel consumption and providing more sustainable alternatives to the aerospace sector. Collins has already done the work and proven its own business case for additive. Now it’s up to the industry to take the leap too.

“The aerospace industry is a pretty risk averse industry,” Begley said. “Many of our customers have invested a lot of money certifying aircraft and certifying engines. So, getting the buy in to change and go to a new technology takes a little bit more time and a little bit more thorough testing.

“But other than that, there's just so many advantages that that we bring in. That's why we're continuing to pursue it.”

SHOWN: Bigger build volumes led Collins Aerospace’s latest AM investment

Lithoz ceramic 3D printing:

Unlocking the next generation of surgical and multi-functional tools

Ceramic tools come into play where metal devices reach their limits, with ceramics increasingly becoming the preferred material for various medical applications. Thanks to their exceptional heat and wear resistance, perfect biocompatibility and easy sterilization, ceramic surgical tools are quickly gaining interest as an alternative to metal. Traditional manufacturing methods are typically only economical when used for large-scale production, greatly limiting the possible designs of ceramic surgical tools until now. Lithoz’s ceramic 3D printing technology introduces a new level of design flexibility coupled with efficient scalability to mass production.

In the medical field, the 3D printing of highperformance ceramics is unlocking previously unachievable advantages – not only in terms of geometry, but also resources. This technology enables rapid and efficient production of both large and small batches of tools, while the wide range of

3D-printable ceramics available - such as alumina, zirconia, silicon nitride and ATZ - greatly expands the range of possible innovative tools and applications.

One example of such a surgical tool is an arthroscopic knee shaver 3D-printed via lithography-based ceramic manufacturing (LCM) technology. Traditionally, these shavers are simple tubes manufactured from metal - but thanks to ceramic 3D printing, multiple new design features can now be produced. In this instance, the shaver tip has an integrated channel for optical fibres, ensuring constant illumination of the critical area. These channels could also be used for rinsing, suctioning, or wiring an electrocautery tip.

Dental burs made from ATZ are another application showcasing the endless possibilities enabled by combining advanced geometries with the hardness and enhanced durability of ceramics.

These burs also avoid the risk of metal debris during procedures - a crucial factor in metal-free surgeries. Produced using the Lithoz CeraFab S65 Medical 3D ceramic printer with its 40 µm resolution, this machine not only offers intricate precision for complex parts but also has a build envelope specially designed for efficient high-volume production. Over 100 burs can be manufactured in a single print run, meaning an individual burr is very costeffective at less than €10.

Steinbach AG, a German company at the forefront of ceramic 3D printing, recently presented a 3D-printed ceramic tube fabricated using Lithoz technology for integration into the Da Vinci™ surgical robot. 12,000 tiny yet highly precise tubes were manufactured per year, with sharp bends and

intricate inner contours to accommodate optical fibres. The tubes featured perfectly smooth surfaces with roughness values of Ra max of 0.4 µm and minimal wall thicknesses of 200 µm, showcasing how the capability of Lithoz ceramic 3D printing processes has already been scaled up for successful large serial production.

The emergence of ceramic 3D-printed surgical tools, with their precision, durability, biocompatibility, and cost-effectiveness, marks a transformative era in modern medicine. As research and development progress, the medical community anticipates a future where surgical precision and patient well-being are elevated to unprecedented heights through the fusion of highperformance ceramics and cutting-edge 3D printing technology.

3D-printed arthroscopic knee shaver made from alumina-toughened zirconia (ATZ).

Milling dental burs made from alumina-toughened zirconia (ATZ).

DON'T GO CHASING RAINBOWS

Three years on from BEAMIT’s acquisition of the company, 3T AM opens its doors to TCT Magazine.

Seven days ago, the additive manufacturing (AM) manager of a large aerospace player was walking these floors, sipping this coffee, and looking at this set-up.

They were in the neighbourhood on business and wanted to see some additive manufacturing innovation before the flight back to the US.

“Do you have anything exciting and innovative to show me?” the email in 3T AM CEO Dan Johns’ inbox read.

“Not really,” came his reply.

“Oh… that’s interesting.”

The response was not meant to be rude, nor was it even meant to be modest. That there’s nothing particularly interesting about this facility is, in fact, a point of pride. Having worked for both GKN Aerospace and Airbus, Johns has seen how manufacturing plants tick. And so, what has been built since he came into the business

upon BEAMIT’s takeover of 3T AM is nothing to write home about. But because of that, it is.

Tours of 3T AM’s factory begin at the end. For good reason. The first is because the hundreds of cylindrical enduse parts that are being ferried around the facility via trolley are the whole point of a factory like this. It’s not about the printing, it’s about the parts. Another is because this is where most of the 3T AM team lives. And Johns likes 3T’s guests to get acquainted as much with the team as the machinery.

Before a tour gets fully underway, however, Johns will make use of the coffee machine. This was the very first capital expenditure signed off when BEAMIT made its acquisition of 3T – the theory being that you can’t risk stocking bad coffee with Italian owners. It’s also

an excuse to go via the commercial team’s office where Johns likes to provide a bit of context to what his guests are about to see.

Here, two of 3T’s Strategic Account Managers, Matt Wennington and Sarah Powell, reveal the average order price has increased tenfold and their order ‘win ratio’ is up from 8% to 72% in the three years since the new ownership came into the business. The company’s highest order in that time – celebrated, apparently, with a team outing to a steak restaurant –was over 1 million GBP.

“That value has come from these guys building what we call customer intimacy,” Johns says. “It’s very much about engaging with them, understanding the customer’s requirements, the customer’s product, and the customer’s decision-making processes. The customer intimacy is a core part.”

The 3T AM conference room is where tours of the factory conclude. While his guests find a seat and the clock ticks towards the end of the day, Johns takes the opportunity to do two things. The first is to deliver a presentation, adding more colour and more context, and the second is to grab Commercial Director Eddie Andrews to contribute – and to make dinner arrangements for tonight.

Neither live locally to 3T’s base in Berkshire – Andrews is in Bristol, and Johns is even further away in Devon – so this is a frequent occurrence when spending multiple days on-site. Fine dining, it turns out, is a particular interest of Johns’. And not just as a source of sustenance.

WORDS: SAM DAVIES

SHOWN: Inside the 3T AM facility

Like anyone who drives long distances, Johns can appreciate the transactional, quick turnaround nature of a fast-food joint, but he prefers the kind of restaurant that provides a high level of service, quality, and intimacy; the kind you might even have to book months, maybe a full year, in advance. That’s what he wants 3T to be.

“Our ambition is three-star Michelin restaurant,” Johns says, “That’s a big difference in what we serve, who our customers are, and how long our customers spend with us. Everything to understand about making AM a success is in that analogy: McDonald’s to Michelin restaurant. You’ll never have a kitchen that has got Michelin customers in the front of your restaurant and in that same kitchen is a window at the back with a drive-thru doing burgers. That kitchen operation can’t do that because you’ll never give the right quality of service to either side. You have to choose what you want to be. You can’t be both.”

Derek is another team member to be introduced. Briefly. As Head of Operations, he can usually be spotted rushing, clipboard in hand, across the shop floor. He was brought in to help set the factory up like it should be set up. The EDM and CNC equipment are now neighbours, with the operators, programmers and technicians all

door that not even Johns has the keycode for.

These are some of the customers that remained after a significant consolidation of the number of clients 3T works with.

“Our ambition is three-star Michelin restaurant.”

sitting on the same bank of desks in the heart of the shop floor. 3T’s inspection space also lives next door, having been brought over from the facilities that house the 3D printing systems across the industrial park.

There are more than half a dozen machining systems here – one of them a Matsuura machine purchased recently to help scale the manufacture of those aforementioned cylindrical components. These parts are down-the-hole oil and gas applications, machined to their end-use shape after being printed on a metal powder bed fusion system down the road. It’s a part that, initially, had no redesign. 3T secured orders on this component, transitioning the production from subtractive to additive, by processing the design the client had been working with for years. When the design was revisited at a later date, the client merely removed one of the two flutes that supported the structure of the part to improve gas flow. 3T is now manufacturing this component at around 1,000 units a year and expects to have ramped up to around 3,000 in the next 18 months.

Elsewhere, parts are being manufactured for the likes of Airbus and the MOD, including one for the latter which is locked away behind a secure

That consolidation of clients has been part of 3T’s transition from a branch of McDonald's to a Michelin-star restaurant, though Johns concedes 3T is merely a ‘two-rosette gastro pub’ at this stage.

To get to where it has got to today, though, has required some brave decisions. By working with fewer customers, 3T has managed to enhance the quality of its services. It is winning more business and bringing in more money per project. In an act of transparency, Johns opens the company’s books to his guests, showing how the annual losses of 1.2 million GBP when the new ownership took over has been turned into

SHOWN: 3T AM's machining centrewhere parts are manufactured rather than finished

SHOWN: A 3T AM part under inspection

SHOWN: Part inspection has been moved closer to the point of manufacture at 3T AM

profit, with a 2 million GBP swing in profit in less than four years, and 60% YoY growth.

The company has even been prepared to say no. One customer application, for example, was losing the company money when the new ownership came in, so 3T was minded to walk away when the contract came to an end if the client wouldn’t renegotiate the terms.

3T has also stopped doing rapid prototyping jobs and works less now with motorsport users than it ever has done – its sister operation in Italy is used for ‘Fast Make’ projects – though it doesn’t stop the business from thinking like one.

As he leads the way through its 3D printing facilities, Johns is keen to place the emphasis on manufacturing rather than additive. The entire structure of the business and its factory layout has been built around that single word. It is what a facility looks like when it treats AM as just another tool in the toolbox.

But a guest touring these facilities will not leave Berkshire thinking that the people here aren’t passionate about AM. They love it.

At the window of an EOS M290, Johns will encourage his visitors to take a peek inside. He knows they know what a printer laying down powder looks like, but there’s something different about the spectacle inside this machine. And it’s that, in the corner of the chamber, you can see the build plate. The print is halfway done, but there’s no powder being laid down in the corner to the left-hand side. The machine has been short-fed, deliberately, because there’s no part there, ‘so why lay down powder in that area of the plate?’

“Powder that goes into overflow is cost and it’s a quality concern,” Johns explains. “Every little part of this business is about continuous improvement. When people say you can’t compete with AM, you can, but you’ve got to make tiny, marginal gains in absolutely everything. It’s the same philosophy as a Formula 1 team. We’ve made the dramatic changes at the beginning. Now, it’s incremental, 1% gains, every single day.”

3T’s engineers are KPI-managed to reduce the usage and waste of material, which has helped

bring down the cost of implementing additive. And it’s a good job because the company’s dozen or so EOS M 290s and three M 400-4s are booked up for the rest of the year, so the company is going to be getting through a lot.

If the printers are busy, so too are the machining systems. 3T doesn’t have a single customer job where parts are shipped without machining. And that has shaped the way the company thinks about AM.

Per 3T’s philosophy, it is the machining centre that makes the parts. The AM factory down the road? That merely makes the material.

Johns makes the point throughout his tours. It is mentioned before the guest is even offered a cup of coffee, it comes up again when walking the machining factory floor, and once more as he delivers his presentation. From his experience, 3D printing machine manufacturers aren’t always on board with the idea that their machines are used much earlier in the value chain, but 3T and its customers are apparently on the same wavelength.

As he returns to the point at the end of the day, a second cup of coffee now in hand, Johns flashes a presentation slide across the screen. It depicts the typical supply chain for metal products, from the end part all the way back to the ore extraction point. He notes how once metal is mined, it is put through heat processes, then shipped to have manufacturing and machining processes applied to it, then shipped to be put into a sub-assembly, and then shipped again to be put into a product for use.

“But if we consider AM prints the material billet, we’ve shrunk a foundry into a box and that box produces the billet,” he explains.

This thought process started to develop sometime ago. In the early 2010s, while working at Airbus, Johns commissioned an environmental engineer to conduct a lifecycle mapping study of AM versus a traditional machining process. The study found that by doing things the conventional way, to manufacture a 1kg part, 10kg of billet would be machined away and 26 tons of rock would need to be mined. Using additive without a redesign would only require 9 tons of rock to be mined with 1.2 kilos of ‘billet’ being used.

It is this approach that Johns is interested in sharing with the wider additive manufacturing community. To glance at the AM industry, you would see some success and some frustration, some who have identified suitable applications and others struggling to make a business case

for the technology. But in 3T, there is a company making the technology work across a myriad of applications. Johns puts it down to the decision not to position AM as the leading part of the company’s value chain.

“The cost of the machines are too expensive,” he says, “but people saying [this part] is too expensive is because, I bet, they are not comparing apples for apples. They’re looking at that [part] and saying if I CNC machine it, I’m just going to look at the cost of CNC machining time at 40 pounds an hour [for example] versus the AM print time at 40 pounds an hour. And then they go, ‘It’s too expensive.’ They need to consider the cost of producing the material, as well as the CNC machining, because you compare it on what your cost of billet is not your cost of machining. Comparing CNC machining and AM is not apples for apples. Our philosophy is that AM prints a billet and then you make parts. So, if you want to compare AM, compare it to the cost of the billet.”

Back in 3T’s conference room, Johns and Andrews are now stressing the importance of focus. In the last three years, the company has focused on low-mix, higher volume applications, it has honed in on manufacturing rather than design, and it has moved away from the common pitfall of trying to offer every service to a client from inception to finished part.

It's at this moment, the squelch of marker pen on whiteboard brings a halt to the conversation.

A conversation that has been establishing the 3T AM way of thinking. That you need to build your business on your core competencies and your core competencies alone. That you perhaps need to think differently about AM’s place in the manufacturing value chain. And that you can’t adequately serve series production applications and quick prototyping jobs with the same operation.

With that, it’s time for coffees to be sunk, for bags to be packed, and for Johns to find a restaurant he can take some inspiration from.

As the lights are switched off and door is closed, four words are left alone on the whiteboard.

“Don’t go chasing rainbows.”

DOWN TO BUSINESS

Despite the doom and gloom additive manufacturing (AM) headlines over the last year, PrintCity saw an extremely promising year with a plethora of industries engaging with the technology. This year feels no different. I’ve personally felt a real excitement from companies exploring digital manufacturing technologies from 3D scanning to 3D printing. For many, now seems the right time to consider if they should utilise or invest in AM technology.

Why do I think companies are choosing now to explore digital manufacturing technologies? Many companies that I have engaged with recently have asked about lower priced 3D printers offering higher speeds. In most cases they have enquired about the quality of these machines off the back of a quick investigation. Many times, this has led to companies buying an entry level printer due to its affordability which has then led to further conversations at our facility around what other technologies are available and to seek specialist advice. Once companies decide to invest in 3D printing, they can procure one quickly, with many suppliers holding stock and offering next day delivery. At PrintCity we recently had a new SLS system installed, within a week of raising the order the machine was in our facility printing TPU. It’s genuinely an exciting time to explore AM with new materials being released on a regular basis on machine of all levels. Having access to materials such as Silicone or Polypropylene at a lower price point really does open new applications and opportunities that AM can provide.

There are a number of companies exploring 3D printing for sustainability reasons, whether it be more localised manufacturing, part consolidation or material options. I have experienced several businesses considering 3D printing due to external factors such as Brexit, COVID 19 supply chain disruption, labour shortages and inflation, which are accelerating decisions to consider new methods of manufacturing locally. In my experience, more SMEs are seriously considering whether to invest in 3D printing as part of their research and development activities or plan.

Although there has been a lot of excitement this year, we still face the same issues when engaging with new companies. A common issue we find is the confusion

WORDS: Mark Chester, Product Development Specialist at PrintCity

around which technology and material is most suitable for their application. As an industry demonstrator, we are always more than happy to advise on each of the AM processes. However, I do often find that companies have some disillusion with AM due to not fully understanding which technology best suits their needs. This can often be down to misleading applications and marketing material which does not represent the true value of AM. For any companies out there looking to engage with 3D printing, my suggestion would be to do your research. There are many fantastic institutes and facilities across the UK who can support your journey at any technology readiness level. At the end of the day, we all want to keep pushing AM forwards. Confusion, disillusionment and wrongly applying technologies stagnates the pace of AM adoption and discourages companies who would clearly benefit from

We’re also proud to by producing our own graduates through our MSc Digital Design and Manufacturing course.

At Manchester Metropolitan University’s PrintCity, we are excited to see the continued progression of AM in 2024. And on a personal level, we’re excited to be starting our own journey into Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing - so watch this space!

“Now seems the right time to consider AM.”

JUNE 25-27, 2024

Los Angeles Convention Center

Meet the leaders harnessing cutting-edge applications of additive manufacturing. Hear these visionaries reaffirm the possibilities of technology, explore inventive opportunities, and discuss key trends shaping the future of industrial 3D printing.

JUNE 25

Driving Innovation: BMW Group’s AM Strategy and Vision

Maximilian Meixlsperger Head of Production, Additive Manufacturing Campus

JUNE 26

The Story Behind COBRA GOLF’s AM-enabled Golf Clubs

Ryan Roach Director of Innovation

JUNE 27

The New Space Race: How Relativity Space is Revolutionizing Rocketry with AM

Joshua Brost Chief Revenue Officer

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