Vendors of 3-D Printers Rush to Keep Up with Innovations
CANTON, Ohio -- In a conference room at the Hilton Garden Inn here, Ian Kimbrell rushes to update the PowerPoint presentation he will deliver in an hour, a presentation that only two weeks before included the latest in 3-D printing technology and innovation but now is out of date.
As president of Boundary Systems, a 9-year-old company whose portfolio includes selling 3-D printers, adapting to ever more rapidly changing technology comes with the territory. “We’re tweeting stuff this week that a month ago we didn’t think was possible,” Kimbrell says, “or that we thought people even wanted to do.”
Boundary Systems, based in Cleveland, is part of the distribution channel for Stratasys, an international manufacturer of 3-D printers with corporate offices in Minnesota and Israel. Kimbrell’s company covers a territory that encompasses Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia.
The biggest challenge Kimbrell faces, he says, is the daily maintenance of a high level of expertise when technology changes so rapidly. “What’s actually driving this is the small users,” he says, and the new applications for 3-D print they’re innovating.
Richard Buker sits in the audience of 90 people who have come to hear Kimbrell explain the advantages of 3-D printing. Although cautious not to divulge too many details, Buker says he can see additive manufacturing playing a role in a project he’s working on in the nuclear pharmaceutical industry. “We’re looking to build the manipulator arms,” he says guardedly. “There’s going to be a lot of intricate gearing, and I really see some advantages in 3-D printing in that application.”
Also in the audience is David Ninni, an industrial engineer with LSI Industries, based in North Canton. Ninni recounts a story where 3-D printing helped his company get a product from prototype to market quicker and cheaper.
“We had a prototype we were working on in our company that had an aluminum extrusion and we weren’t sure if it was going to fit quite right,” he recalls. Instead of producing the part from aluminum, which would go to waste should it fail, Ninni printed the piece.
“It did everything I wanted it to do as far as dimension, size, fit, function. From that point we went into full extrusion mode for prototypes with aluminum tooling,” he relates. “And it was a great steppingstone to get there.”
These are just two of the many ways companies are using additive manufacturing. And because the applications are so varied, there isn’t a manufacturing or design process that can’t benefit from it, says Boundary Systems’ Kimbrell. “A few years ago our talk-track was, ‘It may not apply to everybody,’ but today that’s just not true anymore,” he says.
And that includes meeting the needs of 3-d printer customers and staying within their budgets. One machine, the uPrint SE, weighs 206 pounds, is about the size of a cooler and starts at $15,900.
There also are Dimension 3-D printers that create parts out of ABSplus, a production-grade thermoplastic strong enough to perform just as any other production part. Among the applications are automotive components, consumer products and medical devices. The Dimension printer weighs 326 pounds, is about the size of a refrigerator and starts at $24,900.
One top-of-the-line printer, the Fortus 900mc, is the size of a small car and weighs 6,325 pounds. Capable of printing objects made of the nylon 12 polymer, it costs upward of $400,000.
With such a hefty price tag, Kimbrell says the first question customers usually ask is, “What will be the return on my investment?” While there is no one-size-fits-all answer, he points out additive manufacturing’s ability to accelerate the time it takes to get from concept to market.
“If you get to market faster, most of the time you’re going to beat out your competition and sell a lot more,” he explains
Kimbrell says the possibilities 3-D printing bring make for exciting days at the office as new technology and uses keep the staff on their toes. “It’s funny to see where we thought we’d be a few years ago and where we are today,” he says. “It’s astonishing what people are doing with it.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story first appeared in March edition of The Business Journal, in subscribers' mailboxes this week.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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