The ‘killer app’ is additive manufacturing’s holy grail. Find something that only 3D printing can do or do better, and you’ve cracked it. For Domin, a UK-based manufacturer of high-performance hydraulic valves, that moment came from a series of fortunate events and a conviction that additive manufacturing, somehow, somewhere, could be used to change an industry.
“We thought that metal printing could be the vehicle with which we could solve some of the problems around us,” Marcus Pont, Domin CEO told TCT. “We didn’t quite know which problem to solve to begin with, but we thought that printing was going to do it, and that it would do it at scale.”
Pont recalls, though he’s not quite sure if it’s the truest memory, being handed a set of metal 3D printed parts from 3T Additive Manufacturing, and together with cofounder Andrew Collins, thinking “there’s something here.” That was over a decade ago, but it set them on a path, researching materials, design opportunities, economics and skills sets, which eventually took them to hydraulics, an industry, they believed, was ready for disruption.
“There were a lot of problems in the industry that were looking for solutions,” Pont said. “And we believed that those solutions could be brought by metal printing.”
The hydraulics sector, Pont details, can be prone to waste and resistant to change, with technologies developed in the 1950s amid the boom of powered flight, still being relied upon decades later. But it’s also ripe for organic forms, the kind that promote efficient fluid flow, the kind that additive happens to be very good at producing.
“We found that the best way for us to disrupt this industry was not to look at the way things are done today, but to completely start from scratch,” Pont explained. “This isn’t just an opportunity for 3D printing, this is an opportunity to create the new stable technology and products within hydraulics and motion control.”
‘Liberating’ is the word Pont uses to describe the development process. There was no blueprint, no existing mould to fill, but with that liberation also came challenges; like, how far do you take the prescribed additive tagline of ‘anything is possible’?
“With great power comes great responsibility,” Pont explained. “For the first five or six years of the company, what we were really trying to do was reduce the definition of what was possible. So, the first thing we did was understand how strong the material was. That gave us a limit of what was possible from a material side. How much does it cost? That gave us a limit on, if we use a hundred grams of metal, we must add this much value. Those limits allowed us to invent new things, so you have this situation where, by applying more constraints, it gave us more freedom.”
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Even within those self-imposed parameters, they tried lots of different ideas. But instead of diving head-on into the weird and wonderful, they started simple, choosing to experiment with tubes and arcs first over the complex lattices and elaborate structures that are typically the trademark of an additively manufactured part. Crucially, Pont believes, they treated AM like any other manufacturing process. The goal was simply to add value.
“It’s incredible how using the process in a simple way can add a lot of value,” Pont said. “There are some things you can make. And there are some things you can’t make. And if you can find the answer to a very simple equation, which is: ‘Does the part that I print add more value than it costs me to make it?’, you’ve got a production process, and that’s what we did.”
Domin
There is no inherent value in just printing a part. If it can be made better with CNC machining or more cost effectively through casting, then that’s probably what you should be doing. Manufacturers don’t typically care how something is made – it just needs to work and work well. Yet 3D printing has long had a sort of quality, those honeycomb channels and complex geometries adding intrigue and perceived value. But do Domin’s customers, those in the aerospace, automotive and manufacturing sectors, really care about 3D printing?
“Most customers don’t care,” Pont said. “Most customers we sell products to don’t ask how we make them. They ask, how does the product work? Is the product reliable? Does it solve my problem? Is it fast enough?”
The feeling is mutual at Domin’s Technology Centre in Bristol where 3D printed parts are, Pont says, “just part of the fabric.” There are three Renishaw metal powder bed fusion systems on-site, two of which were installed in that last 12 months, including a pair of RenAM 500Q Ultras equipped with TEMPUS – a new technology from Renishaw that’s powered by a new scanning algorithm and said to cut production times by up to 50%. Then there are the steps that happen after printing, the lathes, grinding machines, and CNC mills, that ensure parts are fully finished and ready for assembly into final products.
“That’s a key part of successfully utilising additive, you really benefit more if you can do some of the fine tolerancing on post-machining,” Pont explained. “One of our design philosophies is make the printed part complex and the machining simple.”
There are, however, often reservations in conservative industries to embrace newer processes like AM, and Domin has invested heavily in securing qualifications and embedding itself in projects that are actively seeking to revolutionise established sectors. Last year, its production processes were certified for maritime applications, where valves are typically required to operate under harsh environments on boats and rigs, having tested thousands of parts to ensure confidence and manage perceived risks. It’s also on board a project from the Advanced Propulsion Centre to develop an integrated wheel motor and active suspension technology for EVs alongside YASA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz AG, and Cranfield University.
“What we are trying to do is prove that we have enough process control and enough understanding of the material, the product, and the requirements so that we can prove that the product is fit for purpose,” Pont said.
Look anywhere and you will find examples of hydraulics and motion control - from a production line to the brakes in your car. For Domin, that ubiquity has led to interactions with customers from across the industrial gamut; like Peerless Engineering, the sawmill operator which, after having to replace the valves on its planking machine every six months, upgraded to Domin’s Domin S6 and S10 Pro valves five years ago, and hasn’t replaced them yet. Or INEOS Brittania, the British sailing team, which adopted a customised version of Domin’s product, quickly iterated through 3D printing, to improve the control accuracy of its hydraulic systems, and won last year’s Louis Vuitton Cup. In 2024, Pont estimates that Domin printed around 10,000 components. This year, he expects that to double.
“It’s a binary switch for us,” Pont concludes of AM’s impact on the sector. “We wouldn’t have been able to solve all the problems that we’ve solved and create all the benefits that we’ve created for our customers at all. It’s a zero to one thing. It’s hard for me to imagine an alternative reality. I don’t know what I’d be doing, I don’t know what the company would be doing, I don’t know that the company would exist.”
This article originally appeared inside TCT Europe Edition Vol. 33 Issue 1 and TCT North American Edition Vol. 11 Issue 1. Subscribe here to receive your FREE print copy of TCT Magazine, delivered to your door six times a year.
