3DPOD: Insight from 3D Printing Pros

Thomas Feldhausen works at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) on hybrid manufacturing, DED, digital twins, and new manufacturing solutions. For years, he’s tried to marry traditional subtractive manufacturing with additive manufacturing for cost-effective, scalable production. Using simulations to improve results, improve tool pathing, and get better part properties, while using particle accelerators to improve results even more, has also been his bailiwick. Now Thomas is all about convergent manufacturing, and he explains how it differs from hybrid. This is a really great episode, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we liked making it.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by ADDMAN, where advanced manufacturing meets mission-critical production. From additive manufacturing and advanced materials to precision machining and finishing, ADDMAN helps aerospace, defense, and space customers turn complex designs into production-ready hardware, built to perform when failure is not an option.

Alexander Plotkowski is all about developing new alloys. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), he’s the Group Leader for Computational Coupled Physics within the Computational Sciences and Engineering Division. He’s done in-depth research on controlling grain patterns, tried to predict the microstructure of parts, helped develop tools to predict and validate simulations, and developed DuAlumin-3D. We learn more about that material, which is interesting for many different reasons. But we also explore the intersection of particle accelerators, AI, additive manufacturing, and industry.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by ADDMAN, where advanced manufacturing meets mission-critical production. From additive manufacturing and advanced materials to precision machining and finishing, ADDMAN helps aerospace, defense, and space customers turn complex designs into production-ready hardware, built to perform when failure is not an option.

Gordie Folin had deep experience in engineering at Pratt & Whitney, GE, and GE Aviation before becoming the Chief Product Officer at Beehive Industries. Among his achievements, he served as the Executive Director of the groundbreaking Catalyst engine program, which extensively used additive manufacturing. Now at Beehive, he’s in charge of making a family of 3D printed jet engines. Beehive is also scaling, placing significant orders for Nikon SLM Solutions and EOS equipment, buying machining companies, and industrializing the 3D Printing of relatively low-cost jet engines. We talk about how the firm is scaling; we learn about the smart things it is doing to help it grow and the incredible opportunity it’s taking on.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by ADDMAN, where advanced manufacturing meets mission-critical production. From additive manufacturing and advanced materials to precision machining and finishing, ADDMAN helps aerospace, defense, and space customers turn complex designs into production-ready hardware, built to perform when failure is not an option.

Dirk Simon had already spent years in the chemicals industry before joining and pioneering BASF‘s 3D printing effort. We get to hear how that firm looked at 3D printing and entered the market. We also look at Dirk’s time at Farsoon, where he pioneered their early entry into Europe and beyond. Then we talk about FKM and the economics of sintering. We discuss some history and look at when to use additive too before talking about how Dirk now wants to help people generate new businesses and grow new opportunities with his Square New Business venture.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by HP Additive Manufacturing Solutions, leaders in industrial 3D printing. With multi-jet fusion and metal-jet technology, HP delivers speed, design freedom, and cost efficiency at scale, empowering manufacturers to produce sustainable end-use parts and transform how industries innovate.

Stefan Joens of Elnik Systems sells ovens. Their debind and sintering equipment powers a lot of high-volume binder jet and MIM production. We learn about Elnik and its origins. But we also get a deep dive into sintering, debinding, shrinkage, and binder-jet part production. We talk about different parts, part sizes, where binder jet shines, and where it does not. We talk about the future of binder jetting but also of other processes such as bound filament. This is a super useful episode if you want to learn more about binder jetting or sintering in general.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions, the industry leader in large-scale 3D metal printing and operator of the world’s largest wire arc additive manufacturing facility. Backed by Lincoln Electric’s 130-plus years of deep expertise in welding, metallurgy, automation, and process control, Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions helps manufacturers push beyond the limits of traditional part production, enabling greater design flexibility, more agile sourcing strategies, and new possibilities for producing large, complex metal components. 

Ruben Wauthle studied at Leuven University at a very serendipitous time. Through working with pioneering additive professors and surgeons, he entered into a specialty that was emerging. He joined pioneering LPBF firm Layerwise and was a part of the team that did the first metal 3D printed jaw implant. He continued to work in implantology and 3D printing at 3D Systems and FMI. Later he co-founds AMnovis a firm that I’m fascinated by. AMnovis can help you design, commercialize, and get regulatory approval for your implant. This helps innovation in 3D printed implants, but the firm is also very much on the cutting edge of research. By using the Schaeffler Multi Material 3D printing process, they may just do their most innovative work yet.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions, the industry leader in large-scale 3D metal printing and operator of the world’s largest wire arc additive manufacturing facility. Backed by Lincoln Electric’s 130-plus years of deep expertise in welding, metallurgy, automation, and process control, Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions helps manufacturers push beyond the limits of traditional part production, enabling greater design flexibility, more agile sourcing strategies, and new possibilities for producing large, complex metal components. 

Schendy Kernizan worked as a professor and researcher before co-founding RLP (Rapid Liquid Print), a company that extrudes silicone into a hydrogel. RLP allows for pure silicone to be made quite quickly with a lot of design freedom. From medical devices to industrial components, the company is exploring what its technology can do. We talk with Schendy about working with customers, go-to-market, investors, entrepreneurship, and more. What do you do if the possibilities are so vast? That’s part of what we try to answer through looking at this inspiring company.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions, the industry leader in large-scale 3D metal printing and operator of the world’s largest wire arc additive manufacturing facility. Backed by Lincoln Electric’s 130-plus years of deep expertise in welding, metallurgy, automation, and process control, Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions helps manufacturers push beyond the limits of traditional part production, enabling greater design flexibility, more agile sourcing strategies, and new possibilities for producing large, complex metal components. 

Romain Kidd was MyMiniFactory‘s CEO and helped that company grow in a crowded market of people sitting between “the cloud,” communities, and 3D printing. We talk about how MyMiniFactory was founded, grew, and now found a surprising niche in tabletop games and mini figures. A popular fantasy niche became the lifeblood of the site, which is now, because of it, also very vat polymerization-focused. Tens of thousands buy models from the site, and creators can thrive there. When Romain came back to 3D printing, it was to now run Thingiverse. The behemoth has been neglected; how does Romain want to restore it to health?

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions, the industry leader in large-scale 3D metal printing and operator of the world’s largest wire arc additive manufacturing facility. Backed by Lincoln Electric’s 130-plus years of deep expertise in welding, metallurgy, automation, and process control, Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions helps manufacturers push beyond the limits of traditional part production, enabling greater design flexibility, more agile sourcing strategies, and new possibilities for producing large, complex metal components. 

Tom Bakker is a talented engineer who has worked in LPBF, custom machine building, and on semiconductor equipment. Now he wants to make LPBF metal printing cheap. With Metal Base, Tom is developing a low-cost system that will make LPBF accessible. He has already sold 6 to beta testers, and the systems are running there. Now, through Kickstarter, he’s sold 20 more. We hear about how Tom is planning to make LPBF accessible and how far he has come.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions, the industry leader in large-scale 3D metal printing and operator of the world’s largest wire arc additive manufacturing facility. Backed by Lincoln Electric’s 130-plus years of deep expertise in welding, metallurgy, automation, and process control, Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions helps manufacturers push beyond the limits of traditional part production, enabling greater design flexibility, more agile sourcing strategies, and new possibilities for producing large, complex metal components. 

Kris Kleven has spent decades in engineering. First, he did demanding engineering projects for Schlumberger, Emerson, and others in the oil and gas industry. Later, he worked at NBC Universal and other firms in theme parks and Oshkosh in heavy-duty vehicles, and now he does engineering with his own firm. Given his deep flow and industrial additive manufacturing expertise, it’s notable that he also has deep experience with material extrusion, particularly in designing things for the aqauarium community.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by Assembrix, leaders in distributed additive manufacturing with secure print. Assembrix enables organizations to protect IP and scale production across distributed networks through encrypted workflows, real-time monitoring, and full control over digital manufacturing.