Made in France
This week I hopped on a plane with my "Team Plastics" cousins to Lyon where the increasingly merging worlds of plastics and 3D printing have come together for two neighbouring shows, FiP Solution Plastique and 3D Print Exhibition, at Lyon Eurexpo.
The gathering is largely populated by native companies, 3D printer resellers and bureaux, which in their strong numbers show that "impression 3D" is thriving in France, with many vendors not on my radar, until now.
First there was, VOLUMIC 3D, arguably the company with the biggest presence on the floor and its signature Stream series of fluorescent green desktop machines the first thing you saw as you entered. VOLUMIC offers three machines, several were dotted around on various stands demonstrating its material flexibility, the most recent being its MK2 model, built and assembled in France and aimed at the professional market. It has over 40 material offerings in everything from flexible TPU to carbon fibre for a range of industrial applications, including the ability to print the majority of parts on the printers themselves. The main attraction on the stand was the new Ultra machine, not yet on the market, designed to deliver significantly faster print speeds (300mm/s) at a resolution of just one micron. See it in action below ...
VOLUMIC 3D on show floor at 3D Print, Lyon.
Keeping with the spirit of local manufacturing, there were several companies proudly showcasing the “made in France” seal such as Stratomaker, another desktop FDM machine manufacturer which introduced its first machine of the same name in 2015, a compact, plug and play device that can be used by both makers and professionals. It’s a simple, clean-looking system and the parts on display appear on par with the quality of mainstream desktop capabilities, plus there’s an accompanying app which allows you to monitor you print progress remotely and a dual print-head version coming this year.
I also caught up with Polish 3D printing company Sinterit who recently launched an additional sieve unit to accompany its Lisa desktop SLS 3D printer. As one of the first affordable SLS systems on the market, Sinterit is expanding the platform by working with partners to develop more materials within its open parameters that will ensure the highest quality. Speaking with Radek Antosz at Sinterit about the growing number of affordable SLS machines being introduced to the market, most notably Formlabs new Fuse 1 3D printer announced last week, he assured me that they’re embracing it, confidently telling me, “competition is good”.
Speaking with Gregory Etchegoyen, Managing Director at the Centre for Technology Transfers in Ceramics, an established French association dedicated to ceramics, it’s encouraging to see how long-standing companies are using 3D technology to align traditional industry with modern manufacturing. Introducing me to a new Ceramic 3D printer, EasyCeram, that’s been shown publicly for the first time at 3D Print, Gregory said, “This is what our industry needs to get to Industry 4.0”.
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Exhibit at the UK's definitive and most influential 3D printing and additive manufacturing event, TCT 3Sixty.
Fellow French ceramic company, 3D Ceram was also present, demonstrating its universal capabilities and openness for collaboration. Speaking about the company’s knowledge and application-agnostic approach to ceramics, which spans over a decade further than its first commercial machine launch in 2015, Laureen Ferchaud, Sales Manager at 3D Ceram said, “Our goal is to let people internalise our expertise.”
OWA recycled PS filament
I also met with several plastic filament manufacturers, some offering 100% recycled materials such as OWA which introduced the industry’s first recycled PS (polystyrene) 3D printing filament just six months ago, Spanish manufacturer, Smart Materials 3D with its SMARTFIL range (full disclosure, I went over because they had a Baby Groot on the booth - beautifully printed in SMARTFIL Wood), and TAG In 3D who showcased a new range of technical materials designed for specific industries such as prototyping and architecture. Perrine LeGrand of parent company Corextrusion, showed me a chain link built using its Fibreglass filament that was able to withstand the weight of an entire car.
I also had the opportunity to meet with several 3D printing service providers, many of which operate out of France but with a global customer base. 3D PROD is a bureau with two facilities in France and one in Germany, specialising in prototyping, design and architectural models and low volume production. Poly-Shape, a global solutions provider with 10-years' experience in the industry, has five locations across France and offers five different technologies. This year it has introduced Poly-Shape Industry, delivering both additive and subtractive technologies, of which there were plenty of examples demonstrating these hybrid capabilities through a range of complex metal aerospace parts.
TAG in 3D's TECH filaments in action.
Elsewhere on the showfloor there were new products including Clotoo, a collaborative cloud-enabled 3D printer aimed at professionals in an office environment, a concrete 3D printer leveraging robotics from Constructions 3D, Wacker presented its ACEO silicone 3D printing technology, and Swedish company Stäubli showed how it's robotic arms can be applied to additive manufacturing.
Entrance to 3D Print in Lyon.
In addition to being inside a refreshingly bright and communal-feeling exhibition centre (a decent trade off to missing out on lazing around in the scorching temperatures outside!), the location here in Lyon should not be taken for granted, placing itself in close proximity to Europe’s highest concentration of plastics companies. Situated between Lyon and Geneva is the “Plastics Vallee”, a heavily populated industrial sprawl, home to around 600 companies dealing in the greater plastics industry, much like the show floor itself combining everything from materials manufacturers, to moulding companies, finishing experts, and more.
Just as the plastics and 3D technologies industry are complementing each other this week at Eurexpo (similar to what you can see in the UK at TCT Show 2017 in September, which takes place alongside our sister show, Interplas 2017 - though we hold our hands up, we can't guarantee the sunshine), it makes good sense that these 3D manufacturers, many of which were major players represented by local providers, were present at the country's meeting point for the plastics community to demonstrate where they fit into this traditional supply chain and how they could stand to enhance it.
