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Voxeljet VX4000
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Stratasys' Fortus 250mc
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3D Systems' 3D Touch
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EOS' EOSINT M280
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Voxeljet VX4000
2011 has given us perhaps the biggest indications of an industry on the move that you will find in TCT’s 20 year history. It has been characterised by a handful of strong, frequently repeated themes, and also by a handful of increasingly powerful companies.
product line, is perhaps a little against the grain of recent additions but still makes good business sense for the originators of the SL technology. Other acquisitions of note from 3D Systems include Alibre, producer of low-cost 3D CAD software, and SYCODE, producer of custom plug-ins and apps for major CAD packages.
Stratasys made their own moves mid-year with the unexpected acquisition of Solidscape Inc. The acquisition immediately broadened the base of technologies offered by Stratasys (the company’s fused deposition modelling was previously employed in its consumer 3D printers up to full- scale manufacturing systems).
Renishaw plc’s takeover of UK-based SLM machine manufacturer MTT Technologies marked the movement of a truly global engineering company into the world of AM for the first time. Known globally for it’s metrology solutions, Renishaw immediately initiated a strong advertising campaign that underlines its commitment to the technology, and the sector. It’s still early days and any technological impact will take some time to filter through, but the company invested in a sound technology that can only be improved by the addition of a global engineering framework.
So, what has 2011 (thus far) been all about?
1) Acquisition
Led by 3D Systems the industry has gone mad for mergers, bonkers for buyouts and crazy for consolidation. The casual observer would have lost count of 3D Systems’ acquisitions early in the year after the stalwart company looked to flex its muscle from early Q1, but those who stuck with it would have seen a fascinating pattern emerging by Q4.
The company’s stated intention of democratising access to 3D content-to-print solutions means that on the surface its growth has seemed haphazard, or even random. But in stopping to think about not only what is involved right now in ‘content-to-print’, but also what may well be involved in the future and most of the acquisitions start to make sense. The latest acquisition, that of Huntsman’s stereolithography product line, is perhaps a little against the grain of recent additions but still makes good business sense for the originators of the SL technology. Other acquisitions of note from 3D Systems include Alibre, producer of low-cost 3D CAD software, and SYCODE, producer of custom plug-ins and apps for major CAD packages.
Stratasys made their own moves mid-year with the unexpected acquisition of Solidscape Inc. The acquisition immediately broadened the base of technologies offered by Stratasys (the company’s fused deposition modelling was previously employed in its consumer 3D printers up to full- scale manufacturing systems).
Renishaw plc’s takeover of UK-based SLM machine manufacturer MTT Technologies marked the movement of a truly global engineering company into the world of AM for the first time. Known globally for it’s metrology solutions, Renishaw immediately initiated a strong advertising campaign that underlines its commitment to the technology, and the sector. It’s still early days and any technological impact will take some time to filter through, but the company invested in a sound technology that can only be improved by the addition of a global engineering framework.
Materialise also made an acquisition earlier this year, though one that didn’t make such a splash — that of German AM software company Marcam. The addition of Marcam’s metals AM software strengthened Materialise’s offerings, which were already best-in-class across multiple AM-related areas.
2) New machines
Any new tech on the market has broadly fallen into three categories: incremental improvement; new application; or ‘lacking in physical evidence’.
Incremental improvements include 3D Systems’ 3D Touch and ProJet 1500, which were both launched during TCT Live in September. Both are aimed squarely into the ‘personal’ end of the space, and represent interesting developments for such a user, but the basic technology is well known in both instances. Likewise for the Voxeljet VX4000 launched in March — the system’s measurements (4 x 2 x 1 m) are certainly impressive, but again it represents an improvement to an existing technolgy, the filling of a sub-niche.
Stratasys (Fortus 250mc), Objet (260Connex), Optomec (Aerosol Jet Marathon Series) and EOS (M280) have all announced new machines along much the same lines, all of which represent significant amounts of investment and are in themselves the cutting edge of these technologies, each as worthy as the next. They’re just not that ‘new’!
New applications are being found all the time, and many machine makers are creating machines suited to a specific application; be it medical, dental, jewellery or aerospace. While some manufacturers go further than others and ‘lock’ a system to a specific configuration, others tailor the build size or platform configuration to best suit specific applications. The Mlab Cusing from Concept Laser represents an example of this development style — the machine is essentially a smaller version of existing systems, but this alone confers significant benefits to certain groups of potential users.
The third (and really quite unfair) category of ‘lacking physical evidence’ refers to pre-announced developments that are as yet confined to websites, press releases and glimpses at trade fairs. Of these BluePrinter and the Origo 3D printer are perhaps the most intriguing. BluePrinter offers a new technology in the form of Selective Heat Sintering (SHS), which promises similar part quality to ‘traditional’ selective laser sintering at a cost attainable by non-professional users.
Origo is a proposed 3D printer that takes simplicity of use to a point accessible to 10 year olds. With computer literacy in children much higher than the general population, coupled to a child’s natural propensity for creativity, it makes sense that this will be a significant growth area in the coming years. The inviting purple box is a significantly less scary prospect for children than many comparable systems and for the first time represents a 3D printer that wouldn’t need to be covered when guests visited.
3) Media Coverage
At the forefront of revolutionising the industry has been the massive uptake in coverage across the mainstream media, as detailed in previous issues of TCT. The importance of this coverage cannot be overstated, but nor can the need for the industry to produce a coherent message to promote. It has become evident that while producers of consumer orientated services and machines seem to have more to gain from the sort of mass marketing afforded by mainstream coverage, companies of all shapes, sizes and interests — from EADS to Bits from Bytes — have been busy spreading the word .
Todd Grimm’s column in this issue points to the so-called ‘hype cycle’ that all new technologies tend to follow. AM (predominantly in the form of 3D printing) is well on the way to the top of the hype curve at the moment, fuelled by mixed messages and unrealistic expectations propagated across a variety of media. This is unfortunate but necessary and could be seen as the technology ‘coming of age’.
The EuroMold exhibition (preview on pages 54 onwards) provides the last major gathering of AM technologies for the year and will no doubt throw up a host of developments. How many of these will be acquisitions, incremental improvements, or promises of future products remains to be seen.
