Paul Heiden, senior vice president production management, Ultimaker, talks to Madelaine Cornforth about additive manufacturing, technology and localised production.
3D printing, or additive manufacturing as it is otherwise known, is becoming increasingly beneficial to the manufacturing industry as the technology becomes more reliable. OEM of desktop 3D printers, Ultimaker is a leading company in this segment of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The company originally started with a wooden 3D printer and in 2016 released a machine called the Ultimaker 3. Suddenly, within a month, this machine was adopted within the professional world, mainly used for sampling and prototypes as well as spare machine parts, which now is the integral part of additive manufacturing in textile production.
Ultimaker’s most recent technology release is the Ultimaker S5. Paul Heiden, senior vice president production management, Ultimaker, explains: “We quickly saw a big change happening. With the S5, we were literally doing market research every day, both qualitative and quantitative. We found that, although people found it the best machine in the market, there was still a lot to complain about. Everything that we could find that people were complaining about, we tried to optimise, to do better, in this machine. Priority number one had been reliability – simply the certainty that, if you push the button in the evening, you have [a printed product] in the morning.”
The other thing that was important for companies, such as BMW, Ford and Volkswagen, was the availability of printed materials. Companies want to be able to use whichever materials they see best and change their materials whenever they need. However, Ultimaker has an open-system, so this is not a problem for them. Heiden says: “People can use any material they want. But, if you adopt a material it might take time just to get it right, you’ll fail every now and then and we didn’t want that to happen. In 2017, we established an alliance with the largest material suppliers and said if they bring filament to market then we will make software available for them, then they can create printing profiles and this combination will ensure that users have reliable print results on an Ultimaker machine.” Companies such as DuPont and BASF have all worked with Ultimaker in this way. “This is why I think that, with this machine, we will really see an acceleration of adoption in the industry,” adds Heiden. “Reliability and supported openness for materials are the two things that I feel will create an evolution in the adoption. That will accelerate beyond what we were used to.”
Ultimaker S5
The Ultimaker S5, the latest expansion of its professional 3D printer portfolio, is fully optimised to fit seamlessly into existing workflows and delivers reliable results. With its larger build volume, the Ultimaker S5 is the ultimate professional solution for printing functional prototypes, manufacturing tools, and end-use parts, according to Ultimaker.
The machine has fully integrated hardware, software and materials configuration, as well as optimal settings alignment, designed for professional users that require full geometrical freedom capabilities, industrial-grade material properties, repeatability, high uptime and an integrated workflow, says the company. With an optimised touch screen for better user experience, it features a 330 x 240 x 300 mm build volume for printing larger objects, dual extrusion, and an improved feeder system with a filament flow sensor that auto pauses and resumes when materials run out, leaving print quality untouched. The enhanced bed leveling ensures a perfect first layer and continuously compensates the print bed while printing, which allows unattended use of the Ultimaker S5. The machine unlocks new applications and can print with a wider range of materials, from PLA to advanced engineering plastics like Nylon and PC, the company adds.
Ultimaker has also recently introduced two additional products designed to make professional 3D printing even more accessible and easier to integrate into any workflow. These are:
- Ultimaker Tough PLA – A technical PLA filament optimised for printing models at larger sizes such as functional prototyping, tooling and manufacturing aids, with no delamination or warping. With an impact strength similar and higher stiffness compared to Ultimaker ABS, Tough PLA is less brittle than regular PLA and gives a more matte surface finish
- Ultimaker App – The Ultimaker App allows users to stay updated on the print’s progress from a phone or tablet where ever they are. The free Ultimaker App notifies users when a print job is ready or when a printer needs special attention or It will be available for Android and iOS and works with Ultimaker S5 and Ultimaker 3 machines.
“The development of the Ultimaker S5, in combination with the new material solutions and the Ultimaker App, sets a new standard for smart and accessible professional 3D printing,” says Jos Burger, CEO of Ultimaker. “Our commitment to building a complete 3D printing solution, from hardware to software and materials, offers our growing professional user base an increasingly integrated, automated and reliable print process with a very high succession rate. The time needed to configure this new 3D printer is lower than ever, which allows users to fully focus on the creation of functional prototypes, larger objects and other designs and models that require full geometrical design freedom capabilities. Combined with our continuously updated software and our global sales and service network, we have made local digital manufacturing a reality.”
Lars Bognar, research engineer additive manufacturing at Ford, uses the new machine. He says: “In automotive, every second counts, so we are pleased to see that the Ultimaker S5 has a larger build volume which allows us to print larger jigs and fixtures or multiple manufacturing aids at once. Combined with the automated, reliable print process and the ability to now print with a very wide range of industrial-grade materials, the Ultimaker S5 allows our engineers and designers to fully iterate and test certain functional prototypes against real conditions without scaling. After conducting successful tests, we also use our Ultimaker 3D printers to create the final end-use manufacturing aids that continuously help us to improve our workflow."
And Luis Reis, pilot plant engineer at Volkswagen, adds: “In 2017, we estimated that we avoid around €325,000 of costs by 3D printing multiple tool and fixtures with Ultimaker 3D printers. The enhanced feeder on the Ultimaker S5, designed to print with advanced technical plastics such as composite materials, allows us to print reliably with an even wider range of industrial-grade materials, which is a great benefit for us.”
ROI
As discussed in these examples, the adoption of 3D printing technology sits mainly in the areas of prototyping, functional prototyping and printing small replacement manufacturing parts, to be printed if something breaks on a machine and forward-thinking companies in the textile industry are doing this too, not just the automotive industry. For example, manmade fibres producer Oerlikon is in discussions with Ultimaker and is starting to use 3D printing in a distributed manner. “They have these [fibre manufacturing] machines standing all over the world, accompanied by the 3D printer, and if something breaks they just send the software to the printer and print the part out,” says Heiden. And this business model is especially important when it comes to transportation costs, shipping, reducing Co2, and downtime, for example. Heiden adds: “50% of our market is huge companies making small parts for manufacturing quickly. It all simplifies the operation of the machines,” for example knitting machines or weaving machines. The ROI on the Ultimaker machines Heiden describes as ‘ridiculous’. “The machine costs €3500 and the new S5 will cost €5,500, investors will earn it back in a week! One customer says that in 2017, they made savings of €325,000 – with two machines, which is just €7000 of investment,” says Heiden.
As well as ROI, Heiden also says that Ultimaker offers financial stability where, if you invest in tooling and not just in terms of buying some machines but also in getting people trained, making it an integral part of development, you want to be sure that we are there next year and the year after and for several years after that.” This is secured by private equity firm NPM Capital who acquired a share in Ultimaker in October 2017. At the time, the company reported that this will “allow Ultimaker to accelerate product development and invest in additional sales, marketing and R&D resources, which will help Ultimaker to expand on its global market position.”
Speed
In the past, additive manufacturing technology has been criticised for being too slow and with its new machine, Ultimaker has not sought to increase the speed of its technology. This is because, Heiden says, the speed of the machine ‘is not the point’ because, even if printing a machinery part or a sample may take one night, this is still quicker than ordering a new part the traditional way. “If you look at, for instance a manufacturing part for a car, if you would have this built in a workshop it would take 20 days, with a 3D printer this will take one night,” says Heiden. And then there is also transport and delivery costs to think about. “It might be slow to print but compared to other manufacturing processes it’s incredibly fast – I think that is the real story. Customers are not asking us for faster machines,” adds Heiden. “They are consistently asking us for reliable machines, with which they can use the materials that they choose.”
Software
This year, Ultimaker has also partnered with the likes of HP and Siemens. The company integrated HP scanning software with its Ultimaker Cura to significantly simplify the workflow to 3D print scans from HP's Sprout and 3D Structured Light Scanner Pro S3. As well as this, Ultimaker has created integrations with, among others, Siemens NX and SolidWorks, to ensure seamless 3D Printing workflows from CAD and PLM systems.
Cura is an open source software compatible with every 3D printer and is the software that Ultimaker uses to prepare a toolpath, so that the printing itself should not take any time for the end-user. Heiden says: “If you look at the creation of a 3D-printed object, it is safe to say that 95% of the time and knowledge is spent with CAD systems, designing something. What we try to do is make that into perhaps 99.9% and that’s why we collaborate with the likes of Siemens, HP, SolidWorks. The operation software Cura currently carries about 10-15 plugins, small integrations with 3D software and that will only grow.”
With 3D printing, just like in digital textile printing, there is the substrate or the filament, the printer and the software that carries the data as the blueprint of what needs to be printed and how. Heiden explains: “We get the design file, the STL file from Siemens for example, then we create a new file. We turn it into something that can be read by a 3D printer. That’s pretty sophisticated because you have a design which is then sliced, the software then determines the co-ordinates to have the machine run that, and then you have about 350 additional settings to determine what machines really must do – speed up, slow down, fan higher, slower, to cool down, all sorts of things. This is why 3D printing was slow to be adopted in the professional world because this tweaking took too long. That’s the part that we took out and, either we do it, or the chemical firms do it.”
Distributed production
With the software and speed of additive manufacturing streamlining the production process and the impressive ROI, 3D printing is helping to develop the smart factory and this is mainly through the development of what Heiden calls ‘distributed production’. He explains: “In the long-term, we need to think in terms of very distributed production. If users could save the designs centrally they can send the software instead of the product, that’s a lot cheaper [and faster].”
In fact, the Dutch navy, among others, now has Ultimaker machines onboard their vessels so that if something breaks down somewhere centrally they can have the design saved centrally to just be printed when needed. “That’s cost-saving in many terms, not just for stock,” says Heiden, but also in terms of logistics and transport as well. “That comes with the accessibility of the printers,” Heiden adds.
The company uses a technology called FDM (fused deposition modelling), which creates a product by melting plastic layer on top of layer. However, there are other methods such as resins and powders, but these cannot be used on a ship because they can be poisonous. Whereas FDM, according to Heiden, is much cleaner with no post-process. This may also make it more suitable for textile manufacturing facilities.
Additionally, use of the technology is growing, as manufacturers become more aware of its benefits. “People are not scared of the technology anymore as it is so user-friendly and easy to use. It inspires more people to think along and experiment with it,” says Heiden, who hopes that the technology will help to enable localised manufacturing and consequently reduce manufacturing and transport costs, time, and increase efficiency in manufacturing facilities.
