Gordon Styles
"If we want to make 3D-printed metals really popular we have to start giving courses on how to design using 3D printing."
Star Prototype, set for a rebrand in the new year, is a company offering services in 3D metal printing, plastic injection moulding and CNC machining.
Yet two of the technologies, namely plastic and metal 3D printing, aren’t to be mentioned in the same breath, according to the company’s founder and president. The differences between the two, and ultimately Gordon Styles’ outlook, is in the supports of a 3D print. Those made with metal are significantly more complex to deal with. Those made with plastic can be easily removed by hand.
“The supports required for 3D printing of metals are literally thin steel plates,” Styles told TCT. “With an SLA build all I had to do was tear it off with my fingers. You try that with a metal build, you’ll have no fingers left. It is a full engineering job and very time consuming to get the supports off a metal part. So you have to think through how you’re putting these supports on. You have to be very efficient at support building and support designing.”
Styles looked at buying his first metal 3D printer in 2005, the year he founded Star Prototype. Initially, he was unimpressed with the quality of output and it was nine years before he eventually purchased one. Over the last few years, Styles has been impressed with the progression metal 3D printing has seen so far this decade.
Star Prototype
Gordon Styles 2
Styles believes the complexity of metal 3D printing is something that takes a lot of getting used to.
“The most exciting developments (in additive manufacturing) I think are going on in the realm of metals because metal printing right now is going through a revolution in speed, material mechanical properties, accuracy and breadth of materials,” Styles added. “Right now speeds are going through the roof. You are seeing annually the doubling of build speeds. That’s really impressive. Everyone who is in the game is in this race to build faster, more precise machines with more materials.”
But while the technology has come on in leaps and bounds over the last few years, the application of it still needs to be polished according to Styles. Not a slant on innovators, Styles believes the complexity of metal 3D printing is something that takes getting used to.
“When you build a metal 3D-printed part, you are almost guaranteed to scrap two out of three parts the first time you build them,” adds Styles. “You need to test the build, then you learn from it, you learn to put supports in different places, you learn to tip it over at a slightly different angle, then you build it again.
“Once you’ve got your parameters set, you’ve got your design, your orientation, your supports right, you’ve done it a few times and the customer’s happy and you’re happy with the build parameters, that thing will build the same thing every time, part after part, build after build. It is so reliable once you get your parameters set but it’s getting to that point in the first place.”
Star Prototype Renishaw
Metal 3D printing with Star Prototype
And these struggles invoke a particular passion, and as of next year, a real service that Star Prototype – or Star Rapid as they will be known – will offer. Styles’ company is looking to provide free training courses to bona fide designers, serious about innovating with metal 3D printing. Without yet knowing when the courses will specifically be available, or exactly how the company will select who gets taught – though a competition whereby the entrant proves why they need to learn how to metal 3D print has been mooted – Styles knows exactly what he wants to achieve with the sessions.
“2017 is, I hope, the year that everybody acknowledges this fact that there is a massive design-knowledge deficit, a massive design-process deficit out there,” Styles said. “If we want to make 3D-printed metals really popular we have to start giving courses on how to design using 3D printing.
“Once you’ve actually done some building you get it. You really get it. When you see a build fall apart you (realise) you made a classic mistake. And then when you’re designing later in life, you’ll know not to design it like that because the thing will fall apart. It’s practical knowledge.”
