3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing

---

• FATHOM’s Vision for Consolidating 3D Printing Services: A Talk with CEO Ryan Martin
• Airbnb Alums Join House 3D Printing Startup Mighty Buildings
• Siam Cement to Distribute COBOD Construction 3D Printers in Southeast Asia
• 3D Printing Luxury Goods On-Site? Selfridges Has the Robots for That
• 3DPOD Episode 101: 3D Printing Conductive Inks with Brett Walker, CEO of Electoninks

FATHOM’s Vision for Consolidating 3D Printing Services: A Talk with CEO Ryan Martin Posted: 13 Apr 2022 06:30 AM PDT The additive manufacturing (AM) industry is in the midst of an enormous upheaval in too many ways to count. Just one of those ways, however, is the consolidation that is occurring. Another is the increase in publicly listed companies. Yet one more is the industrialization of 3D printing. One firm that symbolizes all of these trends is FATHOM (NYSE: FATH). The service provider, whose largest shareholder is CORE Industrial Partners, recently released its first quarterly report after its IPO, with promising numbers for the high-growth firm. To learn more about its transformation from a series of fragmented 3D printing services to a single business under the umbrella of CORE, we spoke to Ryan Martin, FATHOM CEO. The original FATHOM business started 35 years ago as Midwest Composite Technologies (MCT) was founded in 1984 In Hartland, Wisconsin. MCT was one of the earliest adopters of additive technology. In 2019, CORE acquired ICOMold and Fathom, Oakland and moved future acquisitions under the Fathom brand.. Moreover, it wasn't until the acquisition that it grew to become one of the largest digital manufacturing bureaus in North America. Fathom Manufacturing Facility at Hartland, Wis. Headquarters. Image courtesy of Fathom. Martin himself comes from a major industrial and finance background, working almost 14 years at GE. The majority of this time was spent at GE Capital, where he served as a senior vice president and became managing director of Industrial Finance. Martin then became managing director and general manager of GE Additive. "[At GE], I had an opportunity to travel the country and really what I saw was a very fragmented industry: a lot of very strong regional players, but these regional players would have expertise in only a single manufacturing process. Even in 3D printing, you’d have a lot of service bureaus that were just focused on metal or just focused on plastic. And then they’d go to somebody else for CNC or sheet metal or injection molding. It was a lot of these smaller, regional entrepreneur family-run businesses that were really serving these large enterprise customers," Martin said. This fragmentation meant that enterprise customers lacked a single source for their third-party manufacturing services. For that reason, Martin left GE and partnered with the team at CORE, who had a similar vision for a consolidated service bureau. Such an entity could enable the industry 4.0 transition currently taking place in manufacturing. Fathom Manufacturing CEO Ryan Martin at the company’s headquarters in Hartland. Image courtesy of Fathom Manufacturing. "Our goal has never been to be everything to everybody. It has always been to provide that unique, differentiated manufacturing technology and process to the largest, most innovative enterprise customers in the world." To achieve this vision, we've seen a number of firms rolled up by CORE, some of which are being consolidated into the FATHOM business. FATHOM has integrated metal 3D printing, injection molding, and precision sheet metal service bureaus. A page from Fathom’s website reaching out for acquisitions. AS CORE becomes a powerhouse across the emerging digital manufacturing space, FATHOM serves as a growing force to be reckoned with, as well. By purchasing smaller regional firms, it extends its own reach, while also bringing more commercial and digital strategies to their businesses. Our goal is to buy great businesses and then help take them to the next level through our commercial, digital, operational, financial, and people processes.  We get these businesses ready to compete in an industry 4.0 world as part of Fathom, according to Martin. "Typically, the smaller, regional acquisitions that we have acquired aren't making the investments into the digital side of things," Martin said. "We built our highly scalable Smart Quote(Registered Trademark) tool to help create that digital experience for all our customers. We also have an injection molding business, which is a world-leader in providing 30-second plastic injection molding quotes. And, so, we can pull that all the gather and then with our ERP system be able to really look at the businesses as a whole and make better decisions faster." At the moment, there is a minor revolution taking place in the world of manufacturing execution systems (MES). Just a handful of startups are developing MES software to integrate 3D printing and other digital fabrication tools into larger production environments. This has led to almost half of these businesses being acquired. Martin explained that the company uses a "hybridized" approach that combines FATHOM's own software with packages from other firms. The challenge seems to be in the fact that most MES platforms are directed to additive manufacturing. "To get an MES system that works good for additive but doesn’t work good for other manufacturing processes isn’t going to be effective for what we’re offering our customers. We have 25 different manufacturing processes that we offer around four core tenants: additive manufacturing (both plastic and metal), CNC machining, injection molding, and precision sheet metal fabrication," Martin said. "Our key is to be technology-agnostic and then offer our customers the best solution for what they’re looking to achieve. In many cases, that’s going to be 3D printing. In other cases, it may be CNC, machining or maybe injection molding, or maybe a combination of all those, but that’s what we see as our value to our customers. As it relates to MES systems, we need to create a system that can work across multiple different manufacturing processes. We use some out-of-the box software and then we use some of our own internally developed. So, it’s really a hybridized internal software." Fortunately, what we've heard from MES developers is that they are ready to begin moving beyond additive. Perhaps in a couple of years' time, this could mean another acquisition for CORE to create a manufacturing-wide MES product. Fathom’s quoting engine. Image courtesy of Fathom. So far, what FATHOM has built up so far has been more than enough to tackle the right applications for some massive customers. This includes stop-gap measures to overcome supply chain challenges brought about by COVID-19. Martin relayed the story of a large agricultural manufacturer that was unable to access a $1 injection molded mounting mechanism for a tractor that was being built. "They called us up at, on noon on a Tuesday and said, 'We know that, on Wednesday at 4:00 AM, in the morning, we’re going to have a line down situation because we literally can’t source a one-dollar injection molded part.' We’ve been a long-time partner with them. We help them a lot with different development projects. And, they said, 'Could we redesign this part for 3D printing?' We looked at it. We worked with their engineers, and, in about 60 minutes, we’d re-designed this part. Over the next 10 hours, we printed 500 of these parts. They actually flew one of their corporate planes up to Wisconsin, had a courier meet our second shift supervisor. We quickly printed 500 of those parts. During that day, they flew those down at 4:00 AM. Those went onto the manufacturing line and kept their manufacturing line up and running." Over the next several weeks, FATHOM 3D printed about 2,500 more of these parts to keep the business up and running. This led to further collaboration, in which the service bureau began identifying parts that would be suitable for 3D printing. And, as AM technology progresses, so will FATHOM's capabilities. The company will be the first user of Evolve Additive's unique technology, capable of 3D printing batches of thousands of plastic parts at once. Just as the 3D printing industry is only at the beginning of its upward trajectory, so too is FATHOM. In just over a decade, it went from a husband-and-wife 3D printing service to a consolidated digital manufacturing corporation. With the backing of CORE, we can expect it to continue to grow quickly. As it does, will it continue to operate as an independent business? There are plenty of corporate giants now operating in the service bureau space. Both Siemens and BASF offer 3D printing services. Given Martin's own background with GE, one wonders if he will meet up with the legendary U.S. conglomerate once again in the future, perhaps resulting in the sale of FATHOM to GE. For now, however, the future is wide open for the company. The post FATHOM’s Vision for Consolidating 3D Printing Services: A Talk with CEO Ryan Martin appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Airbnb Alums Join House 3D Printing Startup Mighty Buildings Posted: 13 Apr 2022 06:30 AM PDT Mighty Buildings, an Oakland-based additive construction (AC) firm, recently announced three key hires that fill crucial leadership positions at the company. This comes at a time when Mighty Buildings is in a transitional moment from startup to "scaleup": according to the venture capital group NEXEA, "A scaleup company is essentially a high-growth business. …The scaleup phase is usually the most rapid and substantial stage of expansion, as well as the most challenging." AC startups have entered a new growth period as of late, while the technology, on the whole, seems to be once again attracting more interest around the globe. To put itself in the most advantageous possible position to continue its upward momentum in the current business environment, Mighty Buildings has added decades of experience to its team, bringing on three executives with some of the tech world's most successful growth companies on their résumés. For Chief Operating Officer (COO), Mighty Buildings has hired Russ Atassi, who most recently headed up research and development at Airbnb. Also working at Oculus, Apple, and Google, among other giant multinationals, throughout his 20 year career, Atassi — in addition to R&D — has a background in global supply chain management and hardware manufacturing operations. Mighty Buildings has hired Rene Griemens as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Griemens previously served in the same capacity at Volocopter, a German company known as "the world's first sustainable air mobility business". Raising over $340 million for a firm specializing in electric air taxis is quite a feat, and this, along with Griemens' 30 years of overall experience, should be a huge asset to Mighty Buildings' efforts to attract investors over the next few years. Finally, Mighty Buildings has hired another alum of Airbnb, Mark Aldrich, as its general counsel. Specifically, Aldrich led the legal team supporting Airbnb's new product R&D, so he comes from the same exact division as Atassi. Adding two executives who already have a working relationship with each other should allow the company to really hit the ground running with its new leadership team. In a press release, Slava Solonytsin, Mighty Buildings' CEO, said, "I'm thrilled to have Russ, Rene and Mark join Mighty Buildings…as we expand our strategy to support our next stage of growth. The enormous experience and expertise they bring will accelerate the roll-out of our platform to enable developers to rapidly scale housing deployments… The opportunity and demand are massive, and today we have the team in place to not only tap into that demand, but to do so with minimal carbon footprint and enviable speed of execution." Having been one of the AC companies making the most headlines throughout the past couple years of the sector's expansion, Mighty Buildings should be an interesting outfit to observe, as a metric of the industry's general near-term status and growth. One final possibility to consider is that, given the background of two of the company's new executives, Airbnb may be trying to figure out how to use AC to its benefit. Images courtesy of Mighty Buildings The post Airbnb Alums Join House 3D Printing Startup Mighty Buildings appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Siam Cement to Distribute COBOD Construction 3D Printers in Southeast Asia Posted: 13 Apr 2022 06:00 AM PDT Additive construction firm COBOD International is on a mission to construct buildings all around the world using automation, robotic construction, and 3D printing. So far, the Danish company is doing pretty well with this goal, as it provided the 3D printers for many of the major 3D printed buildings that were announced in the last two years, included ones by 14 Trees (the daughter company of Holcim), Printed Farms, and PERI, which actually acquired a significant stake in COBOD back in 2018. Now, the company has signed a distribution agreement with Siam Cement Group (SCG), which is both the oldest and the largest cement manufacturer in Southeast Asia and Thailand. SCG will distribute COBOD’s construction 3D printers in the region, and promote the technology there as well. “We are very proud that Siam Cement has chosen to become a partner with us,” said Henrik Lund-Nielsen, the Founder and General Manager of COBOD International. “The fact that Siam Cement has now invested in a 3D printer from us and even want to exclusively distribute our printers is a sign of great conviction in the future potential of 3DCP technology – a positive trend we have seen among cement and concrete manufacturers across all continents over the last 6-9 months.” SCG is a top business conglomerate in the ASEAN region, and has three core businesses—Chemicals, Cement-Building Materials, and Packaging. With nearly 54,000 employees and a revenue of $12 billion in 2020, it’s one of the largest public companies in the world by Forbes standards. In the past, SCG has fabricated prototypes, and supposedly buildings, using other 3D printers, but feels that it’s ready to take a bigger step in regional construction. That’s why it’s turned to COBOD, which has the expertise and equipment to help SCG get to the next level in the construction market. “3D construction printers have been widely used in many parts of the world with excellent results. The technology helps reduce waste and increase construction times with foolproof simulation with minimal numbers of laborers,” explained Abhijit Datta, Managing Director, SCG International. “This is the starting point of this collaboration with COBOD International A/S. Together, we will improve Thailand's construction market with the future expectation of extending cooperation in the ASEAN. With our regional expertise and domestic solid business alliance relationship, we are ready to assist our partner in achieving long-term success.” Now that the agreement has been signed, SCG will be learning all it can about construction 3D printing with COBOD’s systems. Then, the plan is to create a dedicated sales channel for 3D concrete printing, or 3DCP. If we heed what PERI AG’s Global Head of Business Development & Sales for 3D Construction Printing Jan Graumann told 3DPrint.com, this is definitely in line with predictions for the 3D construction printing sector. “Next year and the years thereafter we expect the number of 3D construction printing companies as well as the number of realized 3D-printing projects to continue to increase. The technology as proven its high potential to increase productivity in the construction industry and thereby address the global housing shortage,” Graumann told us. “Additionally, we are convinced that 3D construction printing will more and more become a standard building method over the next years.” The home 3D printed in Oman using COBOD technology and D.fab. Image courtesy of COBOD International. COBOD has an open source strategy, and sets up partnerships around the globe with academic institutions, customers, and other cement makers, such as Holcim, 14 Trees, and Cemex. Sometimes the hype surrounding the 3D construction printing segment can be overwhelming, but COBOD seems pretty committed to backing up what it promises. This winter, the company demonstrated its BOD2 printer live at the World of Concrete convention in Las Vegas in order to showcase the market readiness of its technology, and recently released a 3D visualized configurator for creating construction 3D printers. “Considering only the past 6 months we have seen orders in this segment from Europe, Latin America – and now Asia. Engagement is coming from both global giants but also regional or local players,” said Simon Klint Bergh, Head of Asia Pacific at COBOD. “Overall, among the manufacturers of concrete and cement there is an acceptance and true belief that 3DCP is going to play a vital role for the industry in the years to come. We are thrilled now to be able to count Siam Cement as one of our partners.” Of course, the company may need to be flexible in the future, as continuing research in the sector indicates that concrete is pretty outdated. The post Siam Cement to Distribute COBOD Construction 3D Printers in Southeast Asia appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

3D Printing Luxury Goods On-Site? Selfridges Has the Robots for That Posted: 13 Apr 2022 05:30 AM PDT One of London's premier department stores on Oxford Street, Selfridges, has created the ultimate shopping experience. Thanks to 3D printing robots, the iconic store offers consumers the opportunity to order personalized designer items produced on-site. Sustainable, creative, and bespoke. These three words can describe what the brand calls an "experimental concept store" that relies on recovered marine plastics as input material and 3D printing technology. At Selfridges The Corner Shop, a pop-up store where customers can explore innovative products and new collection launches, the brand decided to create SUPERMARKET. This new four-week concept shop challenges consumers to think about how the goods they purchase are produced and how they impact the environment. The result demonstrates how an ABB robot 3D prints a variety of personalized homeware designer objects made from intercepted marine plastic debris collected by Parley for the Oceans' Global Cleanup network. Selfridges Supermarket at The Corner Store showcases a robot that 3D prints luxury goods on-site. Image courtesy of Selfridges. Throughout April 2022, shoppers can experience the 3D printing process live at the Corner Shop or see the high-end 3D printed products at Selfridges SUPERMARKET online and through social media channels until May 1, 2022. Developed in partnership with the environmental organization and global network, Parley for the Oceans, and innovative design brand, Nagami, the demonstration will use ABB's patented RobotStudio simulation software and a 2.6 meter tall IRB 6700 robot to create a variety of printed furniture, homeware, exclusive Clean Waves sunglasses and other objects made from Parley Ocean Plastic. The robot will work with Nagami's unique plastic extruder to print the objects, which can be selected by customers on a screen and made to order on the premises. One step closer to a robotic revolution ABB's Robotics Division President Marc Segura explained that by re-using plastic from the world's oceans to print designer objects, the collaborative display highlights the vital contribution of robots in creating the sustainable manufacturing processes central to a circular economy. "While expanded choice is great for consumers, it also comes at a cost to the environment, with products and packaging often being discarded with little thought about where they end up or whether they get recycled," says Segura. The ABB robot 3D prints luxury goods at Selfridges Supermarket at The Corner Shop. Image courtesy of Selfridges. Robots are already being used in increasing numbers in inventory and delivery management and in-store services. The Harvard Business Review suggests that companies using retail robots have an excellent opportunity to increase efficiency and accuracy in inventory management. However, ABB says the new demonstration at Selfridges highlights the broader potential of robotic automation in helping retailers attract customers into their stores. At Selfridges, robots are not only used behind the counter but are proving to be an attractive centerpiece on the shop floor, enabling personalized production of goods at the point of consumption, adding what Segura claims is a "whole new dimension to the retail experience." Rethink plastics At its core, the 3D printing robotic display found a way to repurpose plastics that would otherwise end up in the oceans. Parley founder and CEO Cyrill Gutsch says that working with ABB and Nagami, "we can now print on demand anywhere in the world to turn a problem into a solution." And what a problem it is. For example, Parley estimates that eight million metric tons of plastic trash end up in our oceans every year, resulting in plastic marine debris that goes into aquatic life and seabirds. "Parley Ocean Plastic was invented to catalyze change in response to marine plastic pollution and the destruction of our oceans (…) Beyond the huge potential for reducing waste by printing directly inside retail locations like Selfridges, we want to use this technology to empower local communities across the globe – giving them the tools to turn local plastic pollution into business opportunities and useful objects. For the oceans, climate and life," spotlighted Gutsch. Retail strategy Focused on showcasing the role of robotics at the point of consumption, Selfridges offers customers the chance to shop the future now. By exploring future shopping habits through the lens of consumption and ownership, The Corner Shop is a place where products and art are made on-demand or from future-facing materials and innovations. Revolving around the idea of an ever-changing shopping experience, Selfridges The Corner Shop, which opened its doors in 2017, pays homage to the traditional "British corner shop," a small retail locale that carries a limited selection of items. Its latest SUPERMARKET development is one of the most innovative for us. Selfridges even suggests that as it continues to experiment with creative ways of reinventing retail, they invite shoppers to "play with possible futures and explore new ways of being that are kinder on the planet." ABB Robotics showcases the future of retail at Selfridges in London. Image courtesy of ABB. Selfridges site reads: "Enter SUPERMARKET: an experimental concept store in The Corner Shop at Selfridges London with 3D-printing robots creating everything from juicy plant-based steaks to lightweight handbags and recycled plastic furniture on demand." At the store, customers will be able to explore a creative playground, where printing on-demand, cutting-edge materials, and sustainable innovation come together, bringing future-facing fashion, art, and food to everyone. By experimenting with new ideas and models, SUPERMARKET will examine future shopping habits as the brand looks to reinvent retail through its sustainability strategy, Project Earth. The site will host a curation of innovation-leading brands and inspiring collaborations with both established names and startups paving the way. The ABB robot 3D prints luxury goods at Selfridges Supermarket at The Corner Shop. Image courtesy of Selfridges. Now that the Corner Shop has been transformed into an exhibition space, visitors can watch 3D printing in action and much more. But the display will be followed by a series of exclusive innovations, like a first-of-its-kind fragrance that uses repurposed atmospheric carbon and Redefine Meat's range of plant-based meat powered by 3D-printing technology, which will be available at Selfridges restaurants and printed on-site. Hinting at future possibilities with 3D printing, the store is really pushing the limit of what is possible to create with the technology at the point of consumption. But, even more so, SUPERMARKET fulfills the requirements of sustainable manufacturing and is one of the most creative ideas of 2022 so far. The post 3D Printing Luxury Goods On-Site? Selfridges Has the Robots for That appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

3DPOD Episode 101: 3D Printing Conductive Inks with Brett Walker, CEO of Electoninks Posted: 13 Apr 2022 05:00 AM PDT CEO of Electroninks Brett Walker shares a roller coaster of an entrepreneur story on the 3DPOD. His company made it big early on. However, disappointment set in early. Yet, the company managed to build itself a new foundation. We talk to Brett about 3D printed inks, conductive ink, and the elusive 3D printing of circuits. We also discuss Electoninks´ Kickstarter and their development as a firm. Great episode especially if you´d like to delve into 3D printed electronics and circuits. The post 3DPOD Episode 101: 3D Printing Conductive Inks with Brett Walker, CEO of Electoninks appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

You are subscribed to email updates from 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States