AM Radio

What is qualification, and what does it entail for additive manufacturing applications? In this episode of AM Radio, Dr. Tim Simpson joins Additive Manufacturing Media editors Pete Zelinski and Stephanie Hendrixson to talk about various issues around qualification in AM, including: the difference between qualification and certification; the expense of qualification activities; how standards are developed; and the opportunities additive can realize with qualified procedures.

Find related links and the transcript for this episode on AdditiveManufacturing.Media.

This episode is brought to you by The Cool Parts Show.

Mentioned in this episode:

• How RP+M manufactures aerospace parts for major OEMs and helped to create NCAMP Document 89085
• NASA STD 6030
• American Welding Society's AWS D20
• ASTM standards on additive manufacturing
• SAE's AMS standards for additive manufacturing
• FDA's Technical Considerations for Additive Manufactured Medical Devices
• Würth Additive Group's work to develop digital inventory solutions
• Series from The Barnes Global Advisors on qualification in the rail, defense and space industries
• Another Giant Leap for AM — New Standards by Tim Simpson

In the last episode of AM Radio for 2023, hosts Pete Zelinski, Stephanie Hendrixson and Fiona Lawler look back on Additive Manufacturing Media's top 10 stories by pageviews for the year. The list reveals some interesting trends including the ramp up in additive manufacturing "factories," additive adoption that necessitates more sophisticated downstream processing, and a heavy emphasis on metal 3D printing. In the second half of the show, the hosts share their favorite stories, regardless of ranking, written by someone else.

Find photos, related links and the transcript for this episode here.

This episode is brought to you by Additive Manufacturing Media. Never miss a story.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Top 10 stories by pageviews for 2023
• AM Factory issue of Additive Manufacturing Magazine
• United Performance Metals Is the One-Stop Build Plate Shop for Production AM
• 3D Printing Project to Advance Medical Device Customization
• New Zeda Additive Manufacturing Factory in Ohio Will Serve Medical, Military and Aerospace Production
• Next-Gen Horse Trailers to Be Built With Robotic 3D Printing
• ConocoPhillips Sees Oil and Gas Supply Chain Opportunity With Additive Manufacturing
• 6 Considerations When Launching an Additive Startup

The world's largest trade show for additive manufacturing technology featured more than 800 exhibitors across the entire AM value chain. Additive Manufacturing editors Peter Zelinski and Stephanie Hendrixson discuss what they learned and discovered at the event in this episode, including the rise of copper, the introduction of new processes for 3D printing in metals, equipment upgrades that don't rely on hardware, reduced barriers to entry for AM and much more.

Find photos, related links and the transcript for this episode on AdditiveManufacturing.Media.

This episode is brought to you by THE BUILDUP.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Formnext
• Coverage of the 2022 show
• Reinforce3D's postprocess reinforcing technique
• Horizon Microtechnologies' functional coatings
• Machine Improvements That Don't Rely on Hardware
• Renishaw's Tempus system for simultaneous laser scanning and recoating
• EOS's Smart Fusion for controlling the melt pool temperature
• AI Build's toolpath and slicing software for robot-based systems
• Dyndrite's LPBF Pro
• New Metal Processes
• Additec's Liquid Metal Jetting Process, now part of a hybrid machine also offering laser wire DED and machining
• Valcun's Minerva machine for Molten Metal Deposition
• Cold Metal Fusion
• Headmade Materials
• MIMPlus
• Nexa3D
• The Rise of Copper
• 6K Additive's Unimelt process
• Metal Powder Works' method for producing metal powder from solid stock
• Lithoz's CeraFab Multi 2M30 for multimaterial parts
• Lowering the Barriers to Entry
• Evolve Additive Solutions STEP Parts Now (more about how STEP works)
• Nanodimension Giga machines
• 3D Systems SLS 300
• Formlabs Fuse Blast for automated SLS depowdering
• Freemelt eMelt production platform for EBM
• AM Navigator from Siemens, Dyemansion, HP, ForwardAM, BASF, EOS
• Castor software for identifying AM parts
• Resurgence of Tooling Focus
• Demo part formed on 3D printed tooling with material from Airtech, printed on a Hans Weber machine
• Machine tool builder and now LFAM printer supplier Breton
• Markforged FX10 3D printer
• HP's partnership with INDO-MIM
• Tool Changing in AM
• Stratasys F3300 with four extruder heads
• nLight programmable laser
• Prolay FFF printer for Progressive Layer Thickness Manufacturing (PLTM)

Additive manufacturing "factories" and other facilities that have been built from the ground up to serve this process are becoming increasingly common, but a purpose-built space is not a necessity for successfully applying AM. Stephanie Hendrixson and Fiona Lawler discuss Fiona's recent trip to visit a newly established Protolabs facility dedicated to laser powder bed fusion, and swap stories of other AM spaces--from a 3D printer tucked under the stairs to a rented office space all the way to buildings acquired or built just for production additive manufacturing.

This episode is brought to you by AM Media. Subscribe and learn more at www.additivemanufacturing.media.

See photos and find the transcript for this episode at on our website.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Fiona Lawler's article on her visit to Protolabs' new Raleigh, North Carolina, metal additive manufacturing facility
• Slice Mfg, medical implant manufacturer in Akron, Ohio
• OMG Additive, Cincinnati-based startup founded by JP Kinerk
• CATCH, the Charlotte Advanced Technology Collaboration Hub located within Siemens Energy
• A tour through Stratasys Direct Manufacturing's Belton, Texas, facility
• Würth Additive Group (feature article forthcoming—subscribe to The BuildUp to see it first!)
• Sintavia's Hollywood, Florida, facility designed for equipment upgrades
• More from Formnext Forum Austin, including what we learned touring Cumberland Additive and EOS
• Pittsburgh's Neighborhood 91 campus for additive manufacturing

Sporting goods, tooling, integration with conventional processes, multi materials — in this episode of AM Radio, Jodee McElfresh and Pete Zelinski discuss the topics that have been popular on the Additive Manufacturing Media website and social media recently.

Mentioned in Episode:

• Snarr3D's 3D printed golf putter shafts article and LinkedIn post
• ActivArmor's 3D printed casts The Cool Parts Show episode and LinkedIn post
• Jodee's post with the EOS 3D printed top
• Pete's post about the America Makes MMX event
• InssTek's rocket nozzle made through DED
• Three major phases in the advance of additive manufacturing
• Airtech's 3D printed automotive tool
• Humtown's sand 3D printed dinosaur egg video and article
• Bauer Hockey's personalized equipment
• RePliForm's electroplating of polymer 3D printed parts article and LinkedIn post
• Subscribe to The BuildUp, our twice weekly newsletter about all things additive.

Formnext Forum Austin, the first Formnext event to be held in the United States, concluded August 30 after two full days of conference programming dedicated to industrial additive manufacturing. The event is jointly organized by Mesago Messe Frankfurt, AMT—The Association For Manufacturing Technology, and Gardner Business Media, the publisher of Additive Manufacturing Media. Along with sessions on additive end markets, production applications, AM technology and design for additive manufacturing (DFAM), Formnext Forum included a lively expo featuring nearly 80 exhibitors plus The Cool Parts Showcase. Attendees also had access to several facility tours and networking opportunities. The event drew more than 900 attendees, including the editors of Additive Manufacturing. Pete Zelinski, Fiona Lawler and Stephanie Hendrixson recorded this conversation for AM Radio shortly after the event.

Find photos and the transcript of this episode in this blog post.

This episode is brought to you by The Cool Parts Show.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Formnext Forum Austin
• Formnext Chicago, coming in spring 2025
• The Cool Parts Show bonus episode on Wilson's airless basketball
• 6K's lifecycle assessment of its Unimelt process for creating metal powders
• Seurat's business model based on developing and using high-throughput laser powder bed fusion
• The Cool Parts Showcase finalists and the 2023 winning parts
• Designfusion's work with startup Rekkie, an example of a small company taking advantage of 3D printing's flexibility for product launches
• Carolyn Seepersad's research on customizable, 3D printable medical devices
• Eaton Aerospace and the additive work being undertaken in South Carolina
• Tangible Solutions (now Marle Tangible) and their journey to AM production
• Elementum 3D's metal matrix composite and A6061 aluminum
• 3DXTECH's Gearbox HT2 3D printer
• Other examples of Fabrisonic's successes with ultrasonic additive manufacturing
• Additive Engineering Solution's production of 3D printed submarine fairings for Dive Technologies
• A past podcast episode including our discussion of LFAM

Succeeding with additive manufacturing from a technical perspective has to be followed by succeeding with AM from an organizational perspective. Additive is a different production process entailing different enterprise, workflow and costing considerations, not to mention different personnel, communication and cultural considerations as well. Dr. Tim Simpson and Peter Zelinski talk about all of this: how to organize for success when additive manufacturing is the production process.

This episode of AM Radio is brought to you by Formnext Forum Austin.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Additive manufacturing provider Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing
• New major Zeda additive manufacturing facility opening in Ohio
• Our coverage of the new AM factories
• VulcanForms' approach to digital production
• CIMP-3D, the facility Tim Simpson co-leads at Penn State
• Collins Aerospace's use of AM to protect intellectual property
• Episode of AM Radio all about bridge production
• Eaton AM facility, including its strategy for adapting to technology advance
• Aniwaa graphic categorizing known makers of 3D printers
• Previous AM Radio episodes featuring Tim Simpson on the topics of cybersecurity | misperceptions of AM | supply chain | sustainability | the AM workforce

Subscribe to THE BUILDUP, our newsletter on 3D printing for industrial production

As a "born digital" technology, additive manufacturing intrinsically relies on data, more so than any other manufacturing process. That data reliance potentially exposes AM users to data security and cybersecurity issues; efforts are underway to help these users protect designs, print parameters, machines and even 3D printed parts. But beyond the dark side of data, figuring out secure ways of storing and sharing data also opens the door to more freely distributing manufacturing, sharing material and print profiles, and flexible, secure supply chains. Stephanie Hendrixson and Dr. Tim Simpson discuss all things AM data on AM Radio.

This episode of AM Radio is brought to you by Formnext Forum: Austin.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Episode 37 on sustainability
• CyManII and its efforts to protect an additive manufacturing company
• NIST introduces a new "dictionary" for data definitions in AM
• VeriTX's Fortis platform for data assurance
• Senvol industrial AM machine and material database
• TRACEam program from Mike Vasquez
• 3DOS decentralized manufacturing marketplace model
• Xometry distributed manufacturing network | episode from sister podcast Made in the USA featuring Randy Altschuler, CEO
• Dr0wned hacked drone video
• Chris Williams and the Design, Research, and Education for Additive Manufacturing Systems (DREAMS) Lab at Virginia Tech (VT is now also a managing member of CyManII)
• ANSI manufacturing standards for anticounterfeiting
• Work with InfraTrac and Sharon Flank to embed different materials via DED for authentication
• Shape Matrix system created by Shape Operating Systems
• The Cool Parts Showcase 2021 featuring a 3D printed barcode in the Bespoke category (Meet the 2023 finalists and VOTE)
• Subscribe to The BuildUp, Additive Manufacturing Media's newsletter on 3D printing for industrial production

Additive manufacturing is a dynamic space for various reasons: The technology is advancing and application possibilities are still being developed, and as a direct consequence, the landscape of AM companies is subject to change due to investor moves; mergers and acquisitions; and startups emerging from "stealth mode." On this podcast, and in related reporting for Additive Manufacturing Media, we serve manufacturers by covering AM technology and applications — the corporate and financial moves are not the focus. And yet, one realm affects the other. The company moves shape what we cover and affect the choices of manufacturers as they aim to proceed with the technology. In this episode of AM Radio, Peter Zelinski and Stephanie Hendrixson talk about this. They discuss how the corporate and financial developments among AM companies play out for AM users, and where the dynamism of the additive space is likely to lead in the future.

This episode of AM Radio is brought to you by Formnext Forum: Austin.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Stratasys and Desktop Metal
• Other recent company moves: Ultimaker and Makerbot; Markforged and Digital Metal; Shapeways and Linear AMS; Nexa3D and Addifab
• AM provider Zeda opening new facility
• Tangible Solutions built its process on machines from Concept Laser. Concept has since been acquired and Tangible has been acquired.
• RP+M succeeding with FDM, its initial process
• Facilities with space to add more additive capacity: GKN in Michigan; Wabtec in Pittsburgh; Collins Aerospace in Charlotte
• HP binder jetting, and HP Corvallis legacy developments such as first laptop
• Fortify applications to mold tooling and radio frequency devices
• Evolve STEP process
• Stratasys and Origin work together, then join
• Dayton Horvath on AM investor shift toward applications

Subscribe to THE BUILDUP, our newsletter on 3D printing for industrial production

Additive manufacturing offers significant promise for strengthening and simplifying manufacturing supply chains.

We glimpsed this during the pandemic, when 3D printers provided a quick response for needed medical components for uses such as ventilators and personal protective equipment.

What are the ways AM can answer supply chain problems longer term, and how close are we to realizing this promise?

In this episode of the AM Radio podcast, I am joined by Penn State's Dr. Tim Simpson as we discuss additive manufacturing as a logistics solution, 3D printing for faster lead time relative to casting and forging, AM for MRO and sustainment needs, and other aspects of additive as a supply chain solution.

• Dr. Tim Simpson's additive manufacturing research organization at Penn State University
• Additive manufacturing for personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic
• Sand 3D printing as a way to improve metal casting
• 3D printed TPU seals for GM's Chevy Tahoe
• AMNOW digital additive manufacturing supply chain
• Navy's use of distributed manufacturing for T-45 Goshawk oxygen vent
• IMI Critical Engineering demonstration of globally distributed additive manufacturing for valves
• AM as a spare parts inventory solution for the oil and gas industry
• AM Radio episode on bridge production
• Made in the USA podcast