Holger Schlüter is one of the people behind SCANLAB, a pivotal company in additive manufacturing. SCANLAB makes the light engines that power a lot of the 3D printing market’s machines. He gives us a look into the state-of-the-art and what is possible. Holger’s vision on additive and his technical perspective are a new way of looking at progress in 3D printing. This is sadly a criminally short episode; some Internet issues on my end made this a very difficult one to complete, so apologies for the inconvenience. Still, it’s more than worth it, given Holger’s knowledge and the importance of SCANLAB to the industry.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by Nikon SLM Solutions, leaders in industrial metal 3D printing. With open architecture platforms, up to 12 laser productivity and global expertise backed by Nikon, Nikon SLM Solutions is helping manufacturers accelerate adoption, scale production, and achieve mission-critical results within additive manufacturing.

Kevin Kassekert has deep experience building factories for Tesla and has worked in the semiconductor industry. He now helms VulcanForms and is looking to scale their high-yield Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) process. Kevin, of course, wants to build more factories. Kevin also tells us a lot more about his strategy, his goals, and how the firm aims to grow. We talk about verticals, cost(s) of quality, materials, post-processing, and much more. Vulcan Forms is a super ambitious firm that wants to make metal 3D printing much more accessible. Kevin tells us what he can about how the company aims to do this.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by Würth Additive Group, industry leaders in digital inventory and physical supply chain solutions. From factory floors to frontline operations, Würth Additive helps manufacturers streamline sourcing and stay production-ready with 3D printing, on-demand parts, and smart inventory strategies.

Dr. Jonathan Morris is the Executive Medical Director of Immersive and Experiential Learning at the Mayo Clinic. He is also the Medical Director of Biomedical and Scientific Visualization and helped set up their Anatomic Modeling Unit nearly 19 years ago. With over 23 years at the Mayo Clinic, much of it working with 3D printing, Dr. Morris has a lot of experience with the technology. He’s not always a happy 3D printing user, but here he passionately explains what it can do for patients and doctors. We also talk about how 3D printed models gained a foothold at Mayo, how they grew in use, and how they’re used today. We talk about Mayo Clinic’s pursuit of 3D printing implants in the hospital and other pioneering work in a must-listen episode for anyone in the medical field.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by Würth Additive Group, industry leaders in digital inventory and physical supply chain solutions. From factory floors to frontline operations, Würth Additive helps manufacturers streamline sourcing and stay production-ready with 3D printing, on-demand parts, and smart inventory strategies.

Hamid Zarringhalam rose through the ranks of Nikon‘s precision manufacturing unit. He’s now a Corporate Vice President at Nikon and the CEO of Nikon Advanced Manufacturing and Nikon Ventures. We’re of course going to discuss LPBF and SLM Solutions in this episode. We talk about the market for large machines, applications, costs, directions, and future scenarios. We even squeeze in some other technologies and strategies. It’s a great episode with a lot of insight.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by Würth Additive Group, industry leaders in digital inventory and physical supply chain solutions. From factory floors to frontline operations, Würth Additive helps manufacturers streamline sourcing and stay production-ready with 3D printing, on-demand parts, and smart inventory strategies.

Peter Rogers is Australian but has worked in Japan since 2009. He has held roles at a Japanese 3D Printing firm, at Velo3D, and at Autodesk. Today, he consults for Japanese 3D Printing firms looking to expand overseas, as well as foreign firms that want to expand into APAC. He also gives marketing and strategic advice to companies worldwide. In this conversation, we get Peter’s insight on the software market, the development of Metal Additive, the broader journey of AM, as well as doing business in Japan. He explains Japan’s slow start in Additive as well as getting the sense that the country is now serious about 3D Printing and growing in the space.

Kory Drake grew up surrounded by the fumes of motor oil and gasoline. With a family steeped in racing and race engineering, he naturally ended up working for racing teams. Now at Arrow McLaren´s IndyCar team. He talks about 3D printing race cars, jigs, 3D printing at races, and much more in this episode. Kory is super down-to-earth and direct about where Additive makes sense and where it does not. He walks us through how they evaluate new technologies and how they aim to stay on top of the latest developments. Car racing and 3D printing go back decades, but here we get a real view of how it’s being used today.

Jake Volnov started DrukArmy to help the Ukrainian war effort. DrukArmy lets individual service members request parts, describe a use case or need, design parts, or order parts. These parts, millions of them, are then 3D printed. A lot of these parts go to make up key components of drones, an essential part of Ukraine´s defenses. 3D printed drone components, along with a lot of sacrifice, have helped the country remain free and will play an important part in every conflict henceforth.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by Würth Additive Group, industry leaders in digital inventory and physical supply chain solutions. From factory floors to frontline operations, Würth Additive helps manufacturers streamline sourcing and stay production-ready with 3D printing, on-demand parts, and smart inventory strategies.

Dr. Habib Dagher founded the University of Maine‘s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, which, with 400 researchers, is one of the leading composites research centers in the world. In 3D printing, the center makes houses out of wood waste and 3D prints boats and other large polymer structures. Habib believes in cheaper waste products over concrete for construction printing. He also details the ways in which we can use Additive in printing composites. But 3D printing is one part of a bigger technology for him. With Convergent Manufacturing, Additive and subtractive processes work together in unison. That is a very compelling vision that we’re already doing with a lot of things, but could really change how we are able to make things. Through working in concert, better toolpathing, QA, and multiple heads could print, mill, add conductive traces, and more to one boat hull all at the same time.

This episode was brought to you by Continuum Powders.

Alex Kingsbury worked at the Australian research institute CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) on Additive before working for The Barnes Global Advisors, RMIT University, and now nLight. Alex is, of course, the co-founder of our other podcast, Printing Money. At nLight, she wants to expand the use of beam shaping in Additive. With beam shaping, we may be able to use more materials, get better part properties, and dramatically speed up build speeds. Alex takes us through the technology, but we also talk about 3D printing in Australia, the cost of 3D printing, and strategy.

This episode was brought to you by Continuum Powders.

Matt Pine is training Marines to use 3D printing in the field and helping deploy the technology globally for the United States Marine Corps. Working primarily with desktop machines, he focuses on MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul), improvised repair, and delivering parts to where servicemen and women need them most. Matt talks about the needs of the Marine Corps, and we explore the differences between 3D printing at Camp Lejeune and in a forward operating area. We discuss which parts are needed, what materials are required, and how 3D printing can be scaled effectively. We also learn how Matt trains Marines to 3D print and which Marines can and should be trained in this process. His experiences overseas and in conflict zones give him a sanguine view of what is needed and what 3D printing can realistically deliver.

This episode was brought to you by Continuum Powders.