Formnext is always at the dawn of a new age in AM

Clichés exist for a reason, we might as well use them: “new era” is often used as a mere marketing term and it may in fact be an “error” to always talk about new “eras” in any industry, including AM. “Eras” are defined as “long and distinct periods of history”, which in geology can last millions of years; they are subdivisions of “eons”, that are indefinitely long. Two years may seem like a long time, but with the pace at which AM technology is evolving, it may not be possible to say that a new era of AM technology can emerge every two years.

The AM industry experiences significant changes over the course of two years. These usually manifest themselves at Formnext. This year is no exception (or perhaps even more so since it has been three-years since the last full-scale event). However, this year’s changes may be influenced by AM maturing into a production manufacturing technology, the lingering effects a unprecedented (in modern times), global pandemic, as well as the macroeconomic challenges that affect all manufacturing, from supply chains and unpredictable demand.

There is a lot more uncertainty ahead. This is not a good thing if you need to sell expensive machines during a recessionary economic climate. It is a benefit if these machines can be used to generate rapid profits (and revenue) in an uncertain economic environment. It’s a great idea to work with manufacturing companies to address unpredictability in demand. In some ways, additive manufacturing should view the generalized global political uncertainties and macroeconomic uncertainty as an opportunity for optimism.

Most of the largest companies that have bet big on AM – HP, Nikon, GE, Siemens, BASF, and Jabil among others – are plowing ahead with investments and bullish long-term visions. They can do so because they have very large shoulders which will enable them to cruise through any rough seas ahead (that’s good for the AM industry as a whole). Some are also pulling out (Xerox Covestro, Mitsubishi), but this is mainly due to a lack of understanding about AM. The mid-size ones, which in many cases are also AM industry market leaders (Stratasys, 3D Systems, EOS – and we also include Desktop Metal among these) are doubling down on AM. They’ve seen AM hype cycles come and go many times already (that and the fact that AM is what they do).

We have also seen a few AM cycles come and disappear. We have seen recessionary cycles come to an end. Fortunately, we have not seen full-scale global war cycles and we hope (and are confident) that it won’t come to that. Technology and industries are stronger and more resilient after a terrible conflict. AM can be the technology that helps the world overcome the many challenges ahead. In order to be that, to do that, AM users need to come up with – and continue to raise awareness around – applications, use cases, case studies, and solid value propositions.

We look at AM as the technology of the future but really it’s already the technology of the present. Formnext 2022 proved that AM processes can become more efficient and automated and that AM parts are possible to be larger. AM technology itself is no longer a limit to productivity (if it ever was), the limit remains in terms of visualizing, designing and making the materials available for a much larger – by at least two orders of magnitude – range of applications. Most core AM companies’ booths (by core AM companies we always mean hardware, materials and service provider companies) had a few dozen applications representing the tens or at most hundreds of applications they work on with their clients. To fulfill AM’s goal of evolving into a valid production solution there need to be (and could be) thousands and even tens of thousands of different AM applications. Not only more part units for the exact same applications, but also more applications with many different types and parts.

Polymers: Consumer products

According to major core AM operators, polymer companies see the consumer products segment of the market as a major growth area. These companies are: EOS and Siemens concentrate on the eyewear business. Carbon (with partners Oechsler Dedem and Erpro), works on the midsole business (millions produced and growing). HP continues to grow both footwear and sportswear (custom-made ski googles and backpacks). Materialise is concentrating mainly on eyewear (midsoles) and footwear (shoes). Incidentally, most of these companies – along with several others – are aggressively targeting the dental aligner business but that’s a topic that will require a specific in-depth analysis in our upcoming Medical/Dental AM Focus next February.

Stratasys, which remains the AM industry’s market leader, is working on a bit of everything: high productivity automation on the Origin photopolymerization platform, greater material accessibility on the Neo SLA platform (after the Covestro AM materials acquisition) and even high-speed thermal PBF applications. At the same time, Stratasys is the only company taking a multicolor PolyJet approach to end-use consumer products: from textiles and fashion products to pens and perfumes, this technology’s possibilities have truly only begun to be explored.

Other polymer companies are also taking advantage of the aerospace market. One of these is Stratasys. It leverages the reliability and trustworthiness of its F900 FDM system, which has printed some Artemis parts on route to the Moon. Although it costs more than other comparable systems, it remains a top-selling system that allows OEMs and aerospace suppliers to rest easy. In an increasingly uncertain market, that is worth a lot. The aerospace market is still a key area for flame retardant material development by the leading SLS companies.

Aerospace for metals

Most metal companies are focusing on the aerospace segments. The Space Tech Expo was held in Bremen during Formnext’s days, which meant that many companies had to double their efforts to achieve less effective results. Space and aerospace are clearly the most important areas for all metal PBF companies. It is exciting to race to space and it is requiring larger single parts that can only be made in AM. Rocket engines, nozzles and other complex fluid or gas flow components cannot be matched by any other technology. Between NASA’s SLS rocket finally heading to the Moon as we write, powered by largely 3D printed RS-25 engines from Aerojet Rocketdyne, SpaceX serially manufacturing increasingly optimized and increasingly printed Merlin engines, and dozens of other NewSpace companies internalizing their AM, space is on its way to becoming one of the largest vertical segment for AM adoption. Many of these applications can be applied to civil aircraft, as well as space and defense. It’s not a question of If As much as When It is still a mystery why so many plastic parts are flying on commercial aircraft. Some metal parts are also starting to fly.

The aerospace industry wants large machines because that’s where AM’s value proposition (of integrating more and more subassemblies into single parts) is clearest. “There is so much interest around our technology and we’ve already sold two large Sapphire systems to Aerospace companies in Europe,” Mr. Dirk Rathsack, Managing Director at Velo3D, revealed during our chat at the Velo3D booth. “There is so much interest from aerospace and aviation but also from oil and gas – even some from automotive tooling. We now have a good infrastructure and are ready to address OEMs as well as all others through our network of contract manufacturers.”

One of the most evident “battles” during Formnext was the one on large format metal PBF between Velo3D, SLM Solutions, EOS (via AMCM) and the rising Chinese hardware OEM Eplus3D. Velo3D is a relatively new entry and has rapidly built a solid position after going public, while SLM Solutions was taken off the public stock market as a result of Nikon’s acquisition, one of the biggest news in AM this year. SLM created a custom system to produce parts as long at 3 meters in celebration. EOS continues its exploration of larger custom systems through its AMCM partnership. Eplus3D currently has the largest “standard” system on the market, the EP-M1250, with a build volume of 1258 x 1258 x 1350.

While large metal 3D printers represent the fringe in metal PBF development, and a battle” between giants like Germany, the US and China, there are also several metal AM hardware companies that are growing by establishing a base in their country of origin and expanding globally via unique USPs. That’s the case of Prima Additive in Italy for cost/quality ratio, AddUp in France (and in the US) for productivity, or Renishaw in the UK (as well as in India and around Europe) for reliability, just to mention a few.

Oerlikon, a metal AM service provider, is leading the charge in bringing together the AM industry through the highly successful AMTC Conference. Aerospace industry veteran Giulio Feliziani, now in charge of Business Development at Oerlikon, showed us what could be achieved by presenting Oerlikon’s ongoing work with Airbus Defense and Space and the company’s own capabilities for quality assurance through full redundancy and transparency through the entire AM production process.

Electronics for everyone

Metals, but more so polymers are also interested in applications in the electronics sector as a key area of growth. Some companies have more success than others. Fortify’s new CEO, Lawrence Ganti told us about the company’s unique and interesting approach to focus specifically on high-value opportunities in the electronics and RF segment. His experience in more established, high-margin segments such as biotech had led him to view 3D printing with high initial skepticism “Fortify started from a material-centric approach to use composites for high-value applications and then identified their novel photopolymerization AM process as the ideal production method – he explained – which helped to make the material stronger. Now my job is to focus in order to successfully scale and in order to do this we identified high value, low volume parts: right now that’s the RF space.”

Nano Dimension is a company that has been able to capitalize on the promise of complex additively manufactured integrated electronic parts, and offers a holistic approach to electronics AM. It may still be a long time coming but the company’s vision is to combine AM processes such as its proprietary AME electronic printing capabilities, Admatec’s ceramic and metal AM capabilities and Nano Fabrica’s micro SLA capabilities, with AI software and automation systems, to directly produce finished products.

This is a longer-term vision, but AM in electronics can be achieved by 3D printed polymer, dielectric components for circuitry, and enclosures. AM has been used in electronic housings for more than a decade. “We see tremendous growth in aerospace and in the electronic sector,” said Moritz Kügler, Vice President Polymer Materials at EOS, “there are quite a few companies that are looking to customize their housings for all electronic applications, making it easier to customize geometries but also compatibility across different geographies and systems.

Other relevant trends

Formnext 2022 did not have any groundbreaking innovations, but there were some interesting trends. This is not surprising given the show had a staggering 802 exhibitors on 51,148 square metres and a remarkable 29,581 professional visitors.

Automation and production of polymer AMs

It is now clear that automation and efficient workflows are the only way to lower the cost of each part, especially in polymer manufacturing. That’s much easier said than done. Solukon and AMT, post-processing hardware experts, have proposed solutions that only part of the equation. Some AM hardware companies (starting with HP and Carbon, and to a lesser extent Stratasys) are proposing their own automation solutions.

Some of the most innovative new technologies this year included new polymer AM production methods. The PBF process from Evolve, in particular, promises high throughput of extremely precise parts, but also resin-based material jetting processes such as those from dp Polar (now 3D Systems) and Inkbit’s Vision Controlled Jetting are looking to increase batch count dramatically.

Only one company is working to bring it all together. It has taken some time but the AM Flow vision is finally starting to come together, as an ideal – and necessary – solution for automating AM in those regions where the cost of labor is high and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find qualified personnel. The most important missing part to AM Flow’s system was introduced this year with the AM Quality hardware, to rapidly evaluate the quality of a part. Theta Technologies’ RD1-TT system is the only company offering a quick and accessible NDT solution in metal.

New materials

New materials are required to support new applications and the adoption of AM. It takes time to develop, qualify, and optimize a new material. But, things are moving. There are many Formnext exhibitors that offer AM materials in all of these categories. It is impossible to list them all here. We can highlight some highlights.

Metals

Copper and aluminum alloys continue to be the most popular metal AM materials. Constellium’s CP1, now qualified for Velo3D systems, is the latest in a growing line of aluminum alloys developed specifically for AM, extending all the way to Ricoh’s strategic focus on aluminum binder jetting. Representatives from Mitsui Kinzoku, another Japanese company, stated that they were drawn to Formnext because of the growing demand for copper powders. That’s also not a surprise: ever since Trumpf showed it could be done on PBF many companies have come along including EOS – where Markus Glasser, Senior Vice President EMEA confirmed the skyrocketing demand, especially for space applications, Velo3D and GKN (with the GRCop-42 alloy) GE Additive (with Arcam EBM) and many more. A few years ago it was considered an impossible material to print; now it’s considered the ideal material. This is a very important lesson.

Plastics

The number of polymer materials is growing, although not at the speed that some would like. EOS’s Kügler highlighted how PA6 is a material that automotive customers ask for but it is not an ideal material to print. Therefore, the industry must create printable materials that have the same properties. Jabil, for example, showed us the PK 5000 ketone powder. This powder was created internally to be more eco-friendly and provide greater strength, chemical resistance and resilient in comparison to common-purpose nylon materials. Other companies continue to be concerned about the sustainability of their polymer products.

Ceramics

Ceramics are an incredible family of materials for AM. It is not surprising that the segment is growing in terms technology availability, accessibility and material availability. Ceramics are used in 3D printing in many areas, including aerospace (including casting), medical products, and dental. The fact that ceramics are sought after is also confirmed by the fact that 3dpbm’s Ceramic AM market report continues to be in high demand.

So do ceramic AM applications. Lithoz, 3DCeram and other technological leaders are expanding their reach through new products and materials. Lithoz introduced the new LithaBone HA 480 medical material for patient-specific bone replacement implants made from bioresorbable ceramic as well as glass micro 3D printed parts using Glassomer’s glass material. 3DCeram continues its focus on high productivity in its industrial systems, while also introducing the 3DCeram Tiwari M.A.T.’s high versatility (in terms if available materials). Multi Additive Technology extrusion system.

The increasing availability and acceptance of ceramic 3D printers is another interesting development. Photocentric, a leader in photopolymer materials, and an LED 3D printer manufacturer, has introduced ceramic slurries into its visibility light 3D printing process. It has very interesting results, including the ability to print dark ceramics like silicon carbide. ExOne’s Sarah Webster confirmed to 3dpbm that silicon carbide is by far the most requested material for its ceramic binder jetting systems (something this writer had accurately forecast a few years back when adoption was almost non-existent). Israeli nanoparticle jetting company XJet also confirmed that its “accidental” venture into ceramic AM remains a strategic asset for the company’s growth strategy. BOSCH Advanced Ceramics was at Formnext in its largest ever presence.

Massive deposition for all

As we have already mentioned, there is a clear trend to go larger in both metals and polymers. A way to increase part size in metals is to build larger PBF systems for metals with more lasers. Another way to increase your productivity and decrease costs is to use metal binder jetting. The third, and most cost-effective, way is wire-based WAAM. This is in addition to all DED technology. According to our Metal AM market report, 3dpbm in WAAM technology growth is rapid. WAAM systems such as those from MX3D (the M1 now in use at a major automotive manufacturer) and WAAM3D’s finally available RoboWAAM are finally coming of age and industrial adopters are starting to respond. Insstek, a Korean company, is a promising company in the DED segment. It offers systems for multimaterial metal parts, custom alloy deposition, and the ability to mix different metals in real time during the build.

Polymer companies are also seeing a rise in the production of larger parts. We’ve highlighted this after JEC World: companies like Caracol AM, CMS, Massivit, Ai Build (with Kuka), CEAD and Camozzi (Ingersoll) are dramatically altering the perception that AM is ideal for small intricate parts. AM’s ability to produce large, single-part parts or very large tools is one of its greatest strengths. The rise in the use of LFAM technologies using composite pellet material in a variety of sectors, including aerospace, maritime, automotive, furniture, and construction, is one of AM’s most important trends. 3dpbm accurately predicted this in our Composite AM market report in 2020. Airtech is the company that most takes advantage of AM-specific composite materials demand. Others, like Sabic or Mitusbishi have been slowly fading away.

Change (almost) never happens overnight 

Before Formnext we wrote in our AM Focus that this would be the “year of the binder”. It was when all the major metal binder-jetting platforms were finally released to the marketplace. This does not mean that metal PBF will be replaced by metal binder jetting, just as AM will not replace traditional manufacturing. Even when it’s moving fast, change inevitably takes time and happens progressively.

Even the fact that HP’s MJF systems are probably among the top selling and that the newly announced 5400 series systems will be able to print white parts does not mean they will replace laser PBF systems. The number of laser PBF units will continue to exceed MJF units in the foreseeable future. Low-cost laser PBF systems like those from Formlabs and Sinterit will furtherdemocratize this technology. Even as François Minec, Global Head, Polymers 3D Printing confirmed that demand of polymer systems remains high, with some larger customers already setting up new factory facilities to be filled with machines, HP understands that change is a gradual process. That’s why the 5400 series was envisioned as a modular system that can progressively evolve by adding new features. That’s also why binder jetting systems such as HPs Metal Jet S100, Desktop Metal’s P-5 and X160,

Next year may be the year that EOS finally brings its LaserPro Fusion technology to the market – Moritz Kügler confirmed that the project is still very much underway – and that could be, once again, the start of a new era in AM. It won’t happen overnight.

Formnext was home to over 800 exhibitors. I wish I could visit them all and the 3dpbm Formnext team grew to five – highly multitasking – people precisely for that reason: more coverage is on the way for those companies that reached out to us or those we discovered. Even without seeing all the products – especially the newer products – up close, we know that most of these are always either top quality or highly innovative products and technologies. It’s the intrinsic nature of AM to be used to make parts that are (potentially) more sustainable and (immediately) better than those made by traditional manufacturing methods. For Formnext 2023, we will be focusing on making sure these better parts are also a better value proposition.