An Overview from Formnext 2018

Progress and Growth 

                               

The annual gathering of the global additive manufacturing (AM) and 3D printing sector took place in Frankfurt last week, for Formnext, which is now, indisputably, the de-facto event on the calendar. 

The physical size of the show – should visible proof be required — was testament to the expansion and growth of the AM and 3D printing sector. More than 600 exhibitors congregated within Halls 3 and 3.1 of the Frankfurt Messe, with some prominent AM companies hosting stands that were comparable in size to small mansions. Moreover, I understand that the floor space for the 2018 edition of Formnext was sold out over 10 weeks before the start of the show, with a waiting list of more than 20 companies looking to fill any late cancellations, most were left disappointed and attended the show as visitors. This goes some way to explain the move that Formnext will be making next year — a shuttle ride away, as in the Euromold days of yore — to halls 11 and 12. I have mixed feelings about this as I will be sorry to lose the natural light of Hall 3/3.1 as well as the identity that Formnext has established in these halls. On the flipside, however, I will not miss the logistical inelegance of navigating three sets of elevators between meetings or press conferences, often at speed and madly tweeting or messaging my next appointment to apologize for being late. The health and safety issues are not inconsiderable and thus remaining on the ground floor throughout the show will be welcomed. 

Visitor numbers were up too, to almost 27,000 and the busy aisles and stands, not to mention literally bumping into people at a frequent rate, attested to the increasing interest in this technology set for designers, engineers and manufacturers identifying solutions for their industrial applications.  

Some Highlights 

Most of these are based within the context of a continued evolution of progress — through hardware development / extended features, increasing numbers of dedicated materials and a definite thrust with AM software development. Overall, the theme that came through is one of developing and offering holistic AM solutions. Countless numbers of conversations at Formnext, both on and off the record, pointed to this. Notable this year, was that there were very few announcements of anything really new in the here and now (although there is plenty new in the pipeline – see later in this post). 

Renishaw has things coming, that were not ready for this show, but they will probably emerge early in the new year. The imposing Renishaw stand was a great demonstrator of how far this engineering company has come in making AM more reliable, more productive and just better — by joining the dots and getting involved in application development. A stand out example here is the collaboration with Betatype on the production of higher volumes of parts through intelligent and powerful software.  

BigRep unveiled two new large scale industrial machines (the Pro and Edge 3D systems) that extend the capabilities of its portfolio courtesy of them being compatible with high performance materials and featuring the company’s innovative metering extruder technology (MET) which reportedly permits higher print speeds along with increased precision and quality parts.  

High resolution, full colour 3D printers also made a resurgence at Formnext this year, with two notable developments; one from Japanese company Mimaki, with its binder jetting system: the 3DUJ-553 (ultra jetting, with build size of 500 x 500 x 300 mm). The system was launched last year but is now commercially available with more than 1 million colour options. Mimaki’s strong credentials in the 2D printing sector with advanced technology and processes have served it well, and it has to be said, the output from the machine is impressive, if creepy at times. 

RIZE also showcased its new full colour system based on its augmented deposition process. The XRIZE 3D printer is the planned progression from the RIZEOne 3D printer and introduces the same fast and precise build capabilities with minimal post-processing for functional prototypes, tools and end use products with the option to select from a colour palette of more than 800k colours (CMYK). In a nice twist, the company was offering a free RIZEOne 3D printer to anyone purchasing an XRIZE, which will be shipping in the next few months. The deal is still live, but not for much longer and was a new one on me. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, the dominant narrative across every aisle I traversed (numerous times) at Formnext was about production – whether that was 'real', serial or increased. 

One company doing this to its own tune, and admirably so, is Carbon. The company offers a sophisticated AM solution for production with polymers using its Digital Light Synthesis process and intelligently joins the dots with an emphasis on software and, most pertinently, materials to make it perform. Moreover, the company is keeping its promises in lowering operating costs for production applications. Just ahead of Formnext, Carbon announced it was slashing the cost of bulk volume orders of its most widely used resins, from $150 down to $50 per litre. Phil DeSimone, co-founder of Carbon with his father, wasn’t at the show but messaged me when I posted a picture of the many pairs of Adidas FutureCraft trainers on their stand (still tickles me, but there were no pink ones!). Phil told me: “Since Carbon first installed a 3D printer in 2016 we have gone from $300 to $150 [and now] to $50 based on the back of large scale production applications like Adidas; and based on the fact that our printers are being used and used a lot (97.5% of our install base prints every month). We firmly believe in providing this savings back to our customer base in order to drive digital manufacturing further and to blur the lines for when one needs injection molding. Our competitors have been in business for 30 years and over that time no one has been able to drive down costs of materials (roughly remaining the same price over that time frame) because no one has been able to get to production at scale.”

I’ve quoted this at length because I agree with his assessment. Material costs are a vital part of the business equation of AM for serial and higher volume production applications. Until a similar path emerges on the metal side of the industry that contributes to significantly reduced cost-per-part, wider adoption and growth will remain slow. It won’t stop, by any means, but I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard someone say “cost-per-part” is the ONLY thing that matters for production. It’s not actually the “only” thing, but it’s probably top. 

I also attended meetings and/or press conferences for a whole host of other leading AM companies and without fail the emphasis was on growth, expansion and progress. 

XJet, just the week before Formnext had a breakthrough with supports for its metal process as well as expanding its ceramics business and company headquarters. Dror Danai was his effervescent self as he informed a packed press conference of the latest developments, including a show and tell to demonstrate the safe means of support removal they have achieved. His hospitality, along with the rest of this smart team at the stand party later that evening, was equally engaging. This was conducted in collaboration with contract manufacturer Oerlikon, who last year invested in the first Xjet ceramic system and continues to grow its AM channel business with full integration of AM systems into its wide ranging capabilities. A conversation I had with Dan Johns of Oerlikon more than a year ago now, continues to ring true in terms of how important it is to get the integration of AM right. This company is a beacon in that regard, I believe. 

Desktop Metal remains bullish about its metal production system, citing installations with partners in 2019 and positive responses from partner application development projects. Progress at Voxeljet, 3D Systems, and SLM Solutions was evident through collaborations and significant application development. VJ, CEO at 3D Systems could not overstate the importance of partnerships to drive applications, even while introducing system portfolio extensions. At SLM Solutions, the traditional vast stand was an eye-catcher, but I can’t quite put my finger on what’s going on there. I do know a lot of people have left or are leaving. The rumour mill is rife with theories and opinions, which I am not prepared to repeat or comment on. But from my own experience of the the press conference, I will say that the company does seem to have lost its way a little. There was the familiar narrative, of production and growth, but it was literally read from a script. 

OR Laser has taken a different route to secure growth with its respective metal AM developments. The company, now under the umbrella of Coherent Inc, continues to drive its accessible AM portfolio of metal systems and showcased the latest developments for reactive materials as well as mobile flexible units. Talking with Uri Resnik about the transition was both enlightening and encouraging. 

Catching up with Neil Siddons and Sean Wootton at GE is always a pleasure, those two just make me smile, without fail and we made plans for some deeper insights away from Formnext. But even getting down to the serious, albeit brief, discussions at the show the dominant theme from GE is currently about consolidation — “making what we have even better,” as Neil put it, and this is being driven by customers and partners. 

AddUp is another company that is very quietly and industrially going about its business. Of course, this strength and belief comes from the insider knowledge – proven, high volume application of metal AM for Michelin, which was the very foundation of the company. The growth here, from the company’s launch just a couple of years ago is telling, including the acquisition of BeAM. 

It’s probably getting a bit boring now, but HP’s Formnext narrative was similarly all about new partnerships, growth and progress. The “new” metal system remains years from being commercially available, even while it teased with some metal parts. Lots of new applications with MJF were on show – for prototyping, tooling and manufacturing (as opposed to production) applications. 

So even while the messaging is bordering on repetitive and boring, what this goes to show, I believe, is that there is a real consolidation taking place across the industry — of technology, processes and adoption. And even while there are a growing number of new and joining players, the technology is becoming increasing “normal” and embedded across industry sectors. 

Software Development 

Another stand out theme from the show was the progress around software development specifically for AM. 

Simulation software definitely dominated here, but there are other software disciplines that are also being recognized and developed at pace, albeit by fewer players. I mentioned the increase in visibility of AM-specific simulation software after the TCT show in September, when Materialise, ANSYS, Autodesk through its Netfabb brand and GE were all promoting significant developments with this genre of software. At Formnext these companies were all talking it up, joined, notably by Siemens and ESI.  

Siemens’ main driver at its Formnext press conference was the launch of its simulation software. Not at all surprising, and the software capabilities have been driven by the company’s own internal and prolific application development with metal AM. Not surprisingly it came over as an extremely robust and intelligent solution for improving workflow and reducing failed builds. There was also news of the new AM manufacturing centre opening in December in the UK. However, the nugget of news that really caught my eye from Siemens was in the form of its financial services offering. Siemens has identified investment and financing as a barrier to adoption of AM and is proposing financing solutions and extended payment terms through colloaboration with OEMs in the AM sector. Don’t get me wrong, this is one small step on a very long (probably painful) journey, but it is to be applauded and more financial institutions and OEMs need to be looking at initiatives like this. 

My first appointment of the entire show was with start-up co-founder Lee-Bath Nelson of LEO Lane. I’d done a bit of background checking to have my ducks in a row when sitting down with Lee, I’ll confess, I was a tad intimidated to learn that she had been a VC for a large part of her career, but I was also intrigued to understand more about this patented software development for AM workflow process control for serial production applications. As it turned out this was one of the most insightful and delightful interviews of the week, followed up by an in-depth conversation later that evening at the Women In 3D Printing gathering, post-show hours, and with a glass of wine in hand. 

Lee is highly intelligent, extremely knowledgeable when it comes to AM (having invested in 3D printing companies over the years, including but not limited to Objet) and, best of all, really open and easy to talk to. The proposition LEO Lane offers is a workflow system that can be easily incorporated into existing production workflows, but specifically builds in IP protection and consistency enforcement through automated parameter and settings analysis for AM processes, as well as archive a digital inventory and track everything. Lee summed it up as “software-as-a-service, that allows management to sleep at night AND save money.” She was also effusive about “playing nice with others,” supporting this statement by telling me about certified partnerships with SAP and Materialise. There are others, but none that can yet be discussed in the public domain. Any company looking to integrate AM for production, should not overlook this development — particularly if peace of mind is an important factor.  

Looking Ahead: New Products & Processes on the Horizon (Not Commercially Available)

When I said above that there was nothing really new at Formnext this year, that was not to say that there are not new and interesting things in development. Some of these were introduced or revealed in more detail at the show last week — but it is really important to make a distinction here between what is new and commercially available to the market now, and what is “potentially” on the way to market. I’ve been around the block enough times now to understand that exciting new processes, with genuine potential to disrupt the status quo don’t always scale up and make it to market, and even when they do, it invariably takes longer than originally planned and/or stated.  

Stratasys teased the introduction of its new, metal AM process earlier in the year. Details were sparse, to say the least, but at Formnext the company drew back the curtain a little further on the details. Layered Powder Metallurgy, or LPM, was described by Andy Middleton, Stratasys’ EVP as “unlike any other metal AM process to date and offering very competitive economics.” And as more of the details were revealed at the company’s press conference, I would concur with the former and am keeping an open mind on the latter. LPM is a metal powder bed process, but unlike powder bed fusion (PBF) or binder jetting, it uses compression and a “secret sauce” jetting material around the outside of the metal part. No other material other than the metal powder makes up the part composition. Parts are reportedly 99.9% dense but do require subsequent sintering. Moreover, the company is only releasing the process with Aluminium material to begin with, a strategic decision based on customer demands and a current pain point across the industry. This, again, according to Mr Middleton. But other materials are destined to follow. Still very much in development, Stratasys reported that Beta LPM systems will be installed in 2019, with commercial availability remaining a question mark. 

Another company that generated a great deal of interest with a new ‘in development’ additive manufacturing process was EOS. When it comes to robust reputation and market penetration, EOS is right up there with its polymer and metal industrial laser sintering / melting systems. So it is right to take the introduction of the LaserProFusion system seriously. This system is all about reaching the potential of serial production with AM through increased productivity and automation, through the increased use of lasers (up to a million, the company quoted) which results, with some clever number crunching, in producing production polymer parts in high volumes that compare with injection moulding. Each part (as shown in the picture) is reportedly produced in 7 seconds. (100 parts per build, in 700 seconds = 7 seconds per part [I think!]). However, this system is [at least] two years from commercial availability, according to EOS. I added the ‘at least’ because one assumes this is 'if' all goes according to plan. With such hardware developments, it rarely does. 

Other interesting developments, some way off commercialization, could also be found at Formnext from Aurora Labs (Australia) for large components produced in metal alloys on the fly, the Fraunhofer Institute with its innovative TwoCure process, V Shaper with its 5D printing proposition (based on 5 axis machining), LSS and Aerosint.

One issue I do believe needs to be raised here is that while I do love discovering and reporting on these new technology developments — they are amazing with some very driven people working on them with passion and belief — these breakthroughs can be misleading for uninitiated and/or new visitors to a vast event like this. You would hope that common sense would prevail, but in today’s world that is not something that can be taken for granted, so it is important to clearly distinguish between what is possible now and how long potential users may have to wait for a solution that is in development that may work for them. Sometimes even seasoned professionals (industrial and press) struggle with this. Moreover, there are marketing people that (sometimes intentionally) blur the lines, which is unhelpful. 

In Conclusion

Full disclaimer, despite the inevitable wordy and unwieldy nature of this post, I barely made a dent in what was on show at Formnext during my two and half days. I should have gone for the full four days!  

Main point here, though, for visitors and non-visitors alike, read overviews like this — find the nuggets that may be interesting for your work. Then follow up, talk to other people, create internal and external networks, collaborate. And keep pushing the industry on through new and improved applications, whether for prototyping, tooling, manufacturing or production. That’s the real value in Formnext for the AM and 3D printing sector, and it comes after the boot pounding. 

The other best bit is the people. I met up with so many lovely people, new friends and old. Thank you one and all. You’ve all given me lots to think about. 

ADDITIVE INTERNATIONAL 2018: A Round up of the Pre-conference Conference in Nottingham

My annual pilgrimage to Nottingham for the Additive International conference happened recently (10^th-12^thJuly). As I may have mentioned once or twice previously, I am a big fan of this event, due to the huge amount of new information I always discover during the three days, not to mention the networking opportunities that always throw up plenty of off-the-record insights. This year proved to be no different.

The Nottingham event, renamed and rebranded for 2018 as “Additive International” under the organisation of Added Scientific and the company’s rapidly growing team is a permanent calendar fixture for many people in the additive manufacturing sector, me included. There are always new faces, however, and at the Nottingham Belfry venue, this event has reached capacity in 2018, according to Sophie Jones, Managing Director of Added Scientific. 

For some years now, the event is split into two – with day one offering a pre-conference day full of updates on UK AM research activities. I have always found this to be extremely valuable in that it provides keen insights into trends around AM, the often overlooked challenges and issues and where the next breakthroughs are happening. Traditionally, this pre-conference conference has highlighted a great deal of academic work, but this year saw a change of pace. The day was run in collaboration with Innovate UK, which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) the national funding agency investing in science and research in the UK.

Under the banner “Business Innovation in Additive Manufacturing” the day was dedicated to highlighting 32 of the 50 AM projects that Innovate UK is supporting. You may wonder why not all 50? I’ll admit it did occur to me, too, but according to Robin Wilson, who heads up Innovate UK, fitting 32 into one day was quite stressful enough. And as the day unfolded, I took his point. Sessions were dedicated to specific areas of research, specifically: 

New Additive Manufacturing Processes

Med Tech

Post Processing

Inspection Systems

New Materials / Conductive Components

Large Scale / Construction

Tooling / Hybrid Processes

Aerospace – Large Project. 

Each session then started with a 10-minute presentation, with a headline project that provided insight into this area of research, development and commercialisation progress. The session then progressed to a series of 2-minute pitches highlighting the progress of other projects in this area. It was fast paced and, barring a singular mishap, slick in operation providing some key insights. The 2-minute presentations all followed the same formula – throwing a spotlight on the key objectives of each project, the progress that has been made to date, future goals and how the project contributed to the UK National AM strategy. It really worked very well and fulfilled the self-imposed remit of sharing information and highlighting some of the UK’s most advanced AM research heading towards commercialisation. 

Obviously there was a huge amount of IP beneath these glossy 2-minute presentations. The representatives of each project, usually fronting for wider partnerships, had been asked “to share as far as possible” but there was always an awareness that there was much more going on beneath the surface. From a business point of view – that’s a given and was generally well accepted across the audience. 

One observation across the day was the high number of these projects that are due to end in March 2019. In line with the Brexit deadline. It was never explicitly said out loud, but the implication was clear and as in many other areas across UK industry, it threatened a darkening cloud with no clear solution. 

Two other key themes that emerged time and again across the day, and across sessions, were automation and connectivity. The focus on these areas is actually diverse but uniformed in the call to action to ensure improvements in both for successful AM implementation – specifically in-house but also across supply chains. 

It would be impossible to cover every project presented during the day in this post – to give you an idea, the shorthand notes I took during the event yesterday totalled almost 4,000 words. So here I am going to highlight a couple of projects that really stood out for me, and hopefully follow up with a more comprehensive project overview post-conference. 

I think the most inspirational project presented was the collaboration between Andiamo, Additive Flow and Barts Health NHS Trust. The name of the project — CON-DIG — does not do it justice, but hints at the focus, namely Connected Digital Additive Manufacturing to develop the interface between product design, AM systems and in-process data for a feedback loop to improve both design and production operations. 

For this particular collaboration the focus is to “create data driven, family-centred healthcare product design” with a direct impact on real, young, human lives through the accelerated, patient-specific development and manufacture of 3D Printed orthotics for children & adolescents. As Alexander Fluke, from Additive Flow, explained it: Barts has 1000s of patients that fit into this category worldwide, and while each case may have commonality, every one of them requires different treatment through the application of the orthotic providing different amounts of force over time. Conventionally, these orthotics take six months to produce from consultation and measurement through to fitting on the child or young person. Thus, often they end up being redundant by the time they are ready, due to the inconvenient fact that children tend to grow over a six month period. 

And this is the exciting part of this project, the one that really makes a difference, in that Andiamo is able to accelerate the manufacturing process from 6 months down to 1 week. Moreover, by using functional graded materials and functionally grading the orthotic in a way that is targeted to the specific requirements of each child’s medical issue it becomes easy to see why AM is such a good fit here. 

Innovate UK was obviously proud to be funding this project which is demonstrably improving lives and “empowering children to be children” by receiving BETTER treatment, faster. The project is currently half way through its 18 month span, the goal is to roll it out. It’s one of those applications where you want to stand up and cheer because it’s a real application, applied in a realistic way and DOING GOOD; but I had to stop myself, you know, being at a professional conference and all. 

The other project that really stood out for me was presented by Dan Mace of Archipelgo in the “New AM Processes” session. He introduced his two-minute pitch with three words, but it got a great deal of attention. He said: “We jet glue.” The project is called “SmartDrop” and the premise is a connected digital additive manufacturing platform, using inkjetting technology. In a nutshell, Smartdrop is a non-contact jetting process for viscous liquids targeting applications that include shaped and programmable adhesive, efficient coatings and primers. 

The objectives of this project include creating a SmartDrop prototype system, then subsequently place this system at a lead customer site, with the ultimate goal of commissioning a Smartdrop manufacturing system facility. To date the prototype system has progressed well, and has demonstrated that the technology is scalable at narrow width. Moreover, options for manufacturing have been identified. The project is running until 2020, and definitely one to keep an eye on — in the UK and globally. 

What the Innovate UK day achieved more than anything else, at least for me, was to to serve to highlight the tremendous rate of growth taking place in the 3D printing sector, it certainly seems to have tipped into exponential. The ideas, the funding, the projects and the collaborations just here in the UK are expanding at a tremendous rate and that is certainly being mirrored across Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and China, if the rest of the conference was anything to go by. 

That round up will follow. 

Who is adira & How are they Competing with GE Additive?

There has been a whole swathe of news and information coming out of Formnext powered by TCT, which is taking place in Frankfurt this week. One of the strangest stories I happened upon, is a weird coincidence, and my initial thoughts on it are recapped here.

Well, some people might call it a coincidence!

On Tuesday morning, on the first day of the show, one of the stands I walked past first was adira. I was still finding my bearings on the show floor, which this year was across two floors, four storeys apart. (For the record, I never found them). Relatively speaking, it was one of the small / medium sized stands at Formnext and I’d say 80% of it was taken up by a very large machine. I did a double take and this time noticed the strapline on the bridge platform that allowed visitors to see inside the machine, which read: “The World’s Largest Metal Part Printer!”

I remember thinking ‘that’s a bold claim’ (and tweeted something to that effect) my second thought was, who is adira? I had no idea. But tucked it away to follow up later, because Tuesday was soon to become a whirlwind of back to back press conferences and meetings — with not a few escalators and near accidents involved in the to-ing and the fro-ing.

GE Additive Press Conference at Formnext 2017 - Photo Credit: GE Additive.  

In fact, the first press conference of the first day of Formnext was hosted by GE Additive. They had this prime time slot to reveal – to a sprawling crowd of press and visitors – the first beta version metal additive manufacturing (AM) machine of the Project A.T.L.A.S.* programme, which GE is referring to as its “meter-class, laser powder-bed fusion machine.” This is because the machine that was launched at Formnext has an XY build plate of 1.1 m x 1.1 m with a Z axis up to 30 cm. But this is just the beginning, according to Mohammad Ehteshami Vice President and General Manager of GE Additive and scalability is the key here, the GE team were keen to point out that this can go much bigger in the Z axis. This scalability is courtesy of the process set-up, whereby the powder bed is moved across the build plate to deliver the material layers.

The machine is branded as a Concept Laser machine, developed and produced in Lichtenfels under the direction of Frank Herzog the CEO and Founder of Concept Laser, now a GE company, since GE Additive acquired a majority share-holding (75%, I believe) last year. The Lichtenfels facility is all set to increase in size and capacity to accommodate the Project ATLAS programme.

At no point did I hear any of the GE team refer to the ATLAS beta machine as “The world’s largest ….” Although, with the consistent emphasis on the Formnext machine’s scalability, it was certainly implied.

Throughout the announcement, adira was still buzzing away in my brain, and once the GE press conference ended, I took the opportunity to corner a few of the people I knew that were also present to ask if they’d seen the adira machine, or even knew who adira was? Invariably the answers were no and no. I kept asking the questions wherever I ended up that day of other trusted contacts. Nothing concrete — and more than a few raised eyebrows at my line of questioning and the reason behind it. So come Wednesday morning (was that just yesterday?) and I was on a mission, and I headed straight for the adira stand to find out more.

The machine is called AC — addcreator — and the process, I noticed this time, is called Tiled Laser Melting, a registered trademark. Also prominent on the machine were two new poster additions – one large one stating “SOLD” (to Poly-Shape) and a smaller one highlighting a partnership with Siemens, which looked very much like an endorsement, in reference to the process controls and software.

I first sat down to speak with Francisco Cardoso Pinto, Executive Vice Chairman of adira, and after introducing myself together with a brief backgrounder on why I was interested, he laughed and said “Press! I have to be very careful what I say then.” I tried to reassure him I just wanted to understand about the company and the machine and how it fit into the AM industry.

He told me that adira is headquartered in Canelas in Portugal, with a 60+ year history in sheet metal forming machinery. Since 2000, the company has developed and commercialized laser machining solutions and three years ago began R&D into additive manufacturing. The company has been flying low under the radar, but the AC concept was apparently introduced last year at the Euroblech Hannover event, and had press coverage from TCT Magazine in November 2016, when it was presented as a conceptual platform, but it does a nice job of explaining the process.  

Adira is claiming the AC is a production machine, that the company holds global patents and its primary IP is on the environmental controls of the the powder delivery, to ensure conditions are optimal to control spatter and prevent oxidation, according to Tiago B Faro; adira’s Technical Director. Francisco passed me over to Tiago as quickly as possible, with plenty of instructions delivered in Portuguese before he spoke to me.

But now AC is a commercial entity. And, perhaps the most pertinent point to note is how remarkably similar it sounds to the way the GE machine works.

When I asked GE Additive’s Comms Leader, Neil Siddons, about this, he acknowledged he knew of the adira machine on the show floor, but would not be drawn on anything further.

There’s definitely more to come from this story — I certainly haven’t got to the bottom of it.

It could be a coincidence, certainly. A massive one — quite literally. Of course, there are plenty of historical precedents, even in 3D printing land, and further afield, that support the same “things” being developed independently in different parts of the world. It may well turn out to be the case here and I’m over-thinking this?

*Project A.T.L.A.S (Additive Technology Large Area System).

A Review: Frankfurt for Formnext

For a short while early in 2015 many in the 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing sector believed that the annual tradition of heading to Messe Frankfurt just before Christmas had ended. After last year’s 20^th edition of Euromold in Frankfurt at the end of November, its organizers, Demat, announced a change of dates and venue; this year hosting the event in Dusseldorf in October. But then Mesago, in partnership with TCT Events, announced they intended to keep the Frankfurt tradition alive and plug the gap on everyone’s calendar with “formnext powered by TCT.” This event took place over four days this week, a little earlier than usual to accommodate the Thanksgiving holidays in the US, among other things.

Even knowing I was going to the inaugural edition of formnext, I have to confess as I prepared for the trip to Germany, I was still kind of expecting a re-branded Euromold — along with the vast scale and the sometimes overwhelming hustle and bustle that entailed. And I was not alone it seems, at least two people that I know of arrived at formnext in Hall 3.1 of Messe Frankfurt after a detour via Hall 8/11 (Euromold’s old home). But this was not Euromold, indeed, I am reliably informed, Euromold is not Euromold anymore — there’s gossip there, but I’m not at liberty to divulge. However, while Demat and close partners reported success back in October, the general consensus seems to be that it did not live up to its reputation as a huge global manufacturing show garnered from its hey day in Frankfurt. And while I personally would deem formnext as achieving success, particularly for a 1^st edition, similarly I would not currently categorise it as a global show. The scale of the event was impressive, this courtesy of some heavy investment from some of the main exhibitors, and together they almost filled hall 3.1 of the Messe Frankfurt. The vast stands of some of the big AM companies were certainly reminiscent of Euromold, although I suspect at least one or two of them were still getting a ROI on stand investment. That said, the brand new Stratasys stand was the biggest stand I have seen at any show, ever, to be frank! And SLM Solutions went large with a brand new aerospace theme too.

I think what struck me the most was that this was clearly an additive manufacturing industry event — it may not seem like it but I chose those words carefully. The dominant (if not singular) focus was on industrial developments and applications of additive tech for the manufacturing sector. Once again drawing parallels with Euromold this was a whole different ball game, as Euromold’s origins were firmly rooted in tooling and moulding, which subsequently successfully evolved a huge additive manufacturing and 3D printing following. The tooling and moulding was visibly missing from formnext. It might be a tad unfair to keep harking back to Euromold and drawing comparisons between the two but when the orgainsers very intentionally moved to capitalize on the hole that Euromold left in Frankfurt, it cannot be unexpected.

The overall impression that formnext 2015 left me with was a very well organized show of moderate scale that was well received by exhibitors and visitors alike. The exceptions here were a few international visitors (US and Australia) that had been expecting the old Euromold. These people were of the opinion that they could garner the value that formnext offered much closer to home, one of them telling me: “this is just a regional additive show, with big stands.”

Being a touchy/feely type of person, I have to say that the “feel” of the show was brilliant — the buzz was tangible and there was a great deal of positivity and engagement. Companies and individuals all contributed to this and I was delighted to be part of it for two out of the four days — I literally don’t think I stopped talking and listening the whole time I was there, with the exception of about five hours sleep. And in this regard there is much to report.

As I mentioned above, at formnext there was a heavy emphasis on industrialization — in terms of the position of the show, the new offerings from exhibitors and the interest of visitors. I believe this is actually reflecting the shift across the whole sector this year but formnext crystallized this and provided visitors with a clear view of the direction that additive technology is taking for the manufacturing process chain. Thus it should come as no surprise that metal processes were dominant on the show floor, and the German OEMs were there in force — EOS, Concept Laser, Realizer and SLM Solutions occupied great swathes of the floor, together with newcomer Trumpf and alongside Additive Industries from the Netherlands, Renishaw from the UK and Arcam from Sweden.

Two big themes dominated — automation of the additive processes as part of end-to-end manufacturing solutions (the so-called “factory of the future”) and new standalone metal machines.

Both EOS and Trumpf introduced new metal additive manufacturing platforms at formext. EOS’ M100 is a product of its partnership with Cooksongold on the M080 for precious metals. This is a similar set-up but for the EOS range of metal materials and slightly bigger. Trumpf’s new technology is a new proprietary metal powder process offering from this traditional machine manufacturer. Two different sized machines were being exhibited — the smaller of the two is commercially available immediately, which makes a nice change, and the larger, more complex version will be available middle of next year.  

Concept Laser and Additive Industries both revealed new concepts for “the factory of the future.” Despite sounding like a cliché the concepts themselves were both very impressive, if similar and showcased how modularity and automation can maximize the potential of additive technologies as part of an effective, efficient and economic production line. Along similar lines, but not as comprehensive, Renishaw, SLM Solutions and EOS were demonstrating new in process software for quality management. Renishaw in particular seems to be on to something here, according to the feedback I’ve heard from 3^rd parties.

I plan on doing some more in depth posts on the progress of additive metal developments and automation for Disruptive Magazine, as well as a post providing more insight on the two new laser sintering machines (from Ricoh and Prodways). Not enough time or space here, so watch out for them next week.

A final point on “traditional” additive metals though, the US metal OEMs were notable, to me at least, by their absence — nothing from ExOne, Sciaky or Optomec was visible at formnext.

However, there was a significant presence from the big traditional printing/imaging companies all entering the 3D realm imminently. The biggest splash by far came from Ricoh, which introduced its new industrial laser sintering machine. It was exhibited on the show floor and it was running. Furthermore, there are beta machines heading out the door and it will be commercially available mid-2016. This approach contrasted starkly with HP, which had a small stand at formnext with a corresponding number of personnel handing out a white paper on the company’s Multi-Jet Fusion technology. The plan, I was told, is still to launch at the end of 2016 but no further details or insight. Personnel from Canon were also present, but not on a stand. The Canon R&D in Japan is notoriously secretive and nothing (NOTHING!!) will be revealed until the proper time. After attending Canon Expo in Paris last month I already knew this, but God loves a tryer, and I do keep trying …. On Canon though, I had an interesting chat with a 3D Systems insider. Without actually saying it, they implied I was certainly on the right track with my suspicions about a Canon acquisition. I may or may not have been heard trying to subdue a squeal! 3D Systems did have a presence at formnext, very understated by their usual standards. That said, we all know the company is in a state of flux, but my source tells me that it really is in hand. I pressed for more … “IT. IS. IN. HAND. You’ll see.” Patience is a virtue, but not one I’m blessed with.

As I expressed to my 3D Systems friend, the most frustrating thing about them, as I see it, is that the company has all the right component parts, they are just very badly put together and don’t work properly, with too much superficial marketing. No comment, just a wry smile that referred me back to the above. I did get to see a very interesting metal part mind you — again, showing real potential but no evidence of execution in the market place — yet!

And then to the formnext giant — Stratasys’ stand was “mahoosive” dwarfing every other stand on the show floor. Obviously an intended tactic, but it kind of worked, and despite its size it was constantly full of people. At the heart of the stand serious business meetings were numerous, while on the fringes, where all of the tech demos were staged, Stratasys personnel were introducing newcomers to the full Stratasys ecosystem. Upstairs the high level executives were conducting high level meetings, at least some of them with investors I noted. They were all there — David Reis (CEO), Elan Jaglom (Chairman) and Scott Crump (Founder). I attended David Reis’ keynote presentation at the formnext conference ahead of a one-to-one interview. The presentation went well enough, its message key to the company’s industrial strategy but lacked somewhat in its delivery. But when I got him alone, that all changed. He was animated, gracious and open during our chat. Indeed, as I mentioned on Twitter, I came away believing it was one of the most honest interviews I had had with a CEO in my whole career. We talked shareholders, MakerBot, corporate strategy and the future and he held his hands up to mistakes and some slow responses to market conditions — some corporate, some his personally with plans to rectify them. What I didn’t know as I spoke with him and found out about 10 minutes after I departed, was the raft of redundancies that had been implemented across Stratasys hours before — globally and top to bottom. My source, who doesn’t want to be named, understandably, did not receive one of the brown envelopes but was visibly shaken and has yet to work out the repercussions for their role. I went to seek out a couple of other trusted Stratasys sources to get their take on it, but I backed off in the end because they were all still processing the news themselves and were obviously quite distressed behind the rehearsed, still professional smiles. It was not good, particularly when all I could offer was hugs and an anonymous voice IF they wanted to talk at a later date.

For anyone interested, I am going to report on the David Reis interview in more detail for Disruptive.

Other notable conversations over the two days with exhibitors were with Prodways, a truly innovative company that is still flying somewhat under the radar, even considering the serious moves the company is making. Some lovely people there too. Materialise is another company that brings a family feel with its personnel even despite its continuously swelling ranks. At formnext the company announced version 20 of its Magics software as well as the certification for flight ready parts.

Off the show floor it was lovely to catch up with lots of different friends from across the industry. Florian Horsch and Chris Volker kept me smiling through the sleep deprived fog – love those guys and excited to hear about Chris’ new adventure with VoxelWorld focused on high level designs for life-style products via additive manufacturing. Other favourites such as Andy Allshorn and Kerry Hogarth ensured I ate properly (something I’m not good at when away from home, and not even then!) and both have brilliant projects ongoing. Andy, as ever, is much in demand with his consultancy and servicing business, which does not surprise me in the slightest. What he doesn’t know about the internal workings of SLA machines and how to get the most out of them is not worth knowing!

I also got wind of some really interesting applications in Sweden, courtesy of an Envisiontec reseller. Hopefully going to get a more detailed low-down on these, NDAs permitting.

AMUG representatives were also at formnext in numbers, it was really lovely to meet Elizabeth Goode in person, finally, after many years of correspondence via numerous channels. And, I had an important chat with Paul Bates who was there for AMUG and as a representative of UL. The safety and training issues around AM, particularly as the production applications ramp up was very timely.

Two other stand-out conversations were with Phil DeSimone and Dana McCallum from Carbon3D, although Dana is also aligned with the AMUG committee. These guys continue to impress me and their understated, down to earth, sincere yet friendly approach serves them extremely well, particularly considering what they are bringing to market. I am reliably informed that beta tests with the M1 platform and, more specifically the range of 16 (to date) thermoplastic materials, is progressing well, with commercial launch of the M1 still slated for Q1 in 2016 — no delays, which is nice. The company has grown significantly in the months since its launch earlier this year with 106 personnel now on the books and working hard towards the same goal in California.

It was just a year since I first had my mind blown by the Carbon3D process, and I doubted it would be topped. Silly me! Will I ever learn? And this year Frankfurt served up another mind blowing moment. I have to be really careful how I go about this. Essentially I was trusted with who, what, how and when but much of it is still well below anyone’s radar and has to stay that way for a few more months.

But, I got to see, by way of a video, a new metal jetting process — this is not conceptual research, this is a working process and I saw more than half a dozen parts. OMGoodness people, mark my words, this could be a deal breaker. It’s working at the nano scale and the process is called NPJ — Nano Particle Jetting. My source, a long time veteran of this industry with a very impressive pedigree, claims this is at least 10 years ahead of the research being conducted at Nottingham University in the same area. After seeing the work at Nottingham in collaboration with OCE, I knew this process was feasible, but it’s here much faster than I thought it would be and from an unexpected source.

So, as usual, a visit to Frankfurt has me waffling on for much longer than I intended. It just remains to say congratulations to the formnext organizers, they have built a solid platform on which to build further in years to come and on a more general note as we approach the end of  2015, it seems 2016 has a lot to live up to in the 3D printing land, but somehow I suspect it just might. It’s not all going to be pretty, but I guess growing pains are part of the natural order.

Stay safe people, you know where I am if you want to talk.