Q and A: Overcoming obstacles with 3D printing

Our editor Laura Hughes caught up with Blake Teipel, CEO and co-founder of 3D printing firm Essentium, to discuss future challenges and predictions for 3D printing.

Firstly, please tell me about Essentium and the company’s vision.

As innovators in both materials and production platforms, our vision is to transform traditional manufacturing processes by bringing strength and speed together, at scale, with a no-compromise material set. By developing an entire system, our goal is to reinvent the financial aspect of industrial 3D printing to make it more accessible to a wider range of manufacturers.

Recent advances in industrial 3D printing, such as the introduction of the Essentium HSE 3D Printing Platform which resolves speed and scale obstacles, are clearing the way for a rapid shift to full scale production runs using 3D printing in manufacturing. The Essentium HSE is designed to move the needle on the economic problem that has prevented additive manufacturing from really taking a foothold in global manufacturing. We have also introduced a range of innovative materials such as our unique ElectroStatic Discharge (ESD) safe 3D printing material, critical to protect electrostatic-sensitive devices in electronics manufacturing, oil and gas, and aerospace industries; and high-temperature materials to deliver high heat, chemical and fatigue resistance and high strength for industrial applications.

What are the main challenges additive manufacturing presents for plastics manufacturers?

Plastics manufacturers using additive manufacturing for industrial applications are challenged with the ability to scale, agility to innovate and bring the right product to market quickly, and affordability - which is key to driving competitiveness. We’re working on removing these barriers and ensuring that additive manufacturing is a valuable part of the manufacturing mix of the future.

Ability to scale

In the past, additive manufacturing has been seen as a prototype, one-off, custom, jig or fixturing solution - not a production solution. That creates a gap between innovation and scale that clearly needs to be filled for additive manufacturing to fulfil its huge potential. The Essentium High Speed Extrusion (HSE) 3D Printing Platform enables the ability to scale in two ways. Firstly, by delivering speed, or time to part, and secondly, by delivering value, or better cost per part. Without shorter manufacturing, or printing times, and lower material costs, scale cannot be achieved, and additive remains a tool for manufacturers to prototype and to build jigs and fixtures.

Agility

Now more than ever, manufacturers and the brands they serve are looking for more agile solutions to provide faster time to market and greater flexibility to make changes and to customise. Extrusion 3D printing processes like Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) can be painstakingly slow, taking hours to produce a relatively simple geometry and days to produce complex designs. At Essentium, we tackled this barrier head on. The HSE 3D Printer prints parts 5-15x faster than conventional FFF printers. From idea to finished product it can unlock agility and flexibility, impossible with traditional manufacturing methods. Being able to make rapid design changes without a big impact on time to market or cost is a game-changer along with an ability to customise individual products or product subsets.

Affordability

In a recent study commissioned by Essentium, 91% of manufacturing executives viewed 3D printing as strategically important in the next five years, but 51% indicated that the high cost of materials is hindering adoption of large-scale 3D printing, while 38% believe current 3D printing hardware is too expensive. So, you've got an expensive solution on the floor, and then an expensive ongoing commitment from a closed materials strategy. Essentium addresses both of those issues. We make the cost to procure the device very accessible and we make the cost to use the device also accessible. By driving down costs we can allow our users to rely on this technology, and design for this technology in ways that we think will be transformative.

What are the key differences between an open and a closed system?

Currently, the majority of 3D printer vendors adopt a closed system whereby customers are locked into using the vendors’ hardware, processes and materials. While 3D printer vendors argue this ensures consistency and reliability, it forces the customer to buy materials only from their 3D printer vendor, often at premium prices.

Essentium’s research shows that this strategy isn’t working for manufacturers. While 85% of manufacturers reported that industrial-scale additive manufacturing has the potential to increase revenue for their business, 22% said their 3D printing efforts have resulted in vendor lock-in that limits flexibility. In order to be competitive, large production manufacturers are demanding open materials for differentiation, cost and scale, in fact, virtually all (99%) manufacturing executives surveyed believe an open ecosystem is important to advance 3D printing at scale.

In an open ecosystem, 3D printing platforms can use open materials to give customers greater control of their innovation, more choice in materials, and industrial-scale production at ground-breaking economics.

Do you think a fully-open ecosystem is achievable?

Yes, we believe open additive ecosystems will begin to prevail in 2020 and we will see the expansion of an open additive ecosystem where customers finally have their hands on the steering wheel of their own futures, able to unlock their own innovations. An open market focused on developing new materials, such as the recently introduced high-temperature materials from Essentium, and better and faster machines is the only way for manufacturers to create new applications and new business opportunities. With this approach, the future belongs to the customer, not to the OEM.

Concluding remarks

Once 3D printing overcomes obstacles to large-scale production, it will help companies gain market share, bring manufacturing closer to customers, win more business and increase customer satisfaction.