Episodes

Today, Max and I got to chat to Benny Buller, CEO of VELO3D. His company is shaking up the metal powder bed fusion market and Benny lets us in on the company’s strategy, how VELO3D’s technology works, and his vision on running and growing a business. Benny tells us about how he got to where he is today, as well. Benny also discloses that he wants VELO3D to be a public company. While he did not comment on the current rumors that he is in talks to merge with Barry Sternlicht’s Jaws Spitfire Acqui...

Sumeet Jain is the Senior Director of 3D Printing Worldwide for Arkema. Previously Sumeet headed up Sartomer, the company’s DLP and SLA resin brand, for seven years. Sumeet discusses with us how they make custom resins for applications and customers. Now, he’s also responsible for their sintering powders, including the bio-based Rilsan polyamide 11, Kepstan PEKK, and Kynar PVDF, among other materials. We discuss Arkema’s approach to the industry, its go-to-market strategy, and how 3D printing f...

After studying at Loughborough and MIT he worked on making snowboard components for Burton, Mike Vasquez started 3Degrees. There, he’s not only a 3D printing consultant but also has his own podcast. So, as a first for us, we’re doing a collab where you and the 3Degrees audience will be able to listen to our joint show. Ignore the MIT degrees and the vast knowledge, as well as Mike’s silky smooth voice, please, and stick to our program! Max and I again enjoyed this discussion and Mike’s vision o...

I’m a huge nScrypt fan and love the firm’s technologies. The way they’ve defined their “line in a tool” approach to additive is really inspiring to me. With nScrypt machines, you can print electronics, polymers, micro dispense, mill and aerosol jet, all in one machine. The company is the only one that is working on combining bioprinting and electronics and is far ahead of anyone else in electronics 3D printing, as well. At the same time it leads in high-tech, rugged printers that can be used in ...

On this episode of the 3DPOD, we go into bioprinting. With us is Hector Martinez, the CTO and a co-founder of CELLINK (CLNK-B.ST). CELLINK is a bioprinting rocket ship which took off only a few years ago. A small passionate team began selling bioinks and have since grown the company into a leader in bioprinting. CELLINK is publicly traded and has a wide array of printers from the affordable to complex machines and from extrusion to DLP and holographic machines, as well. Martinez tells us about ...

The affable and knowledgeable Dr. Ian Gibson is a professor of Design Engineering at the University of Twente, as well as the Scientific Director of the Fraunhofer Project Centre there. Dr. Gibson has written many papers on various areas in 3D printing across a long and deep additive career. He’s also a co-author of the 3D printing textbook Additive Manufacturing Technologies. Working in the UK, Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore, he truly has a global perspective on additive technologies. Fro...

An often little understood key element of the 3D printing equation is powder. Powdered metal is the material in powder bed fusion and binder jet systems. We write, read, and hear a lot about machines and parts, but not often do we learn much about powder itself. One man who can teach us a lot about it is Carpenter Additive‘s Ben Ferrar. Carpenter (NYSE: CRS) is the Medical/Dental Sponsor for 3DPrint.com’s upcoming Additive Manufacturing Strategies summit, taking place February 9th and 10th. Ben...

Max and I had a really great time talking to nTopology CEO Brad Rothenberg. Brad started nTopology as a series of tools for creating lattices, but it became much more than that with a new way of modeling and simulating using signed distance functions to form an equation describing a shape. Also called volumetric modeling or implicit modeling, this technique makes shapes easy to describe and modify. This compares to the the cumbersome way through which STLs describe all the winding triangles in ...

Today, we’ve got the whirlwind that is Sarah Goehrke on the 3DPOD. Max and I had a great time talking to the former 3DPrint.com Editor-in-Chief about her editorial business, Additive Integrity, along with her work in 3D printing journalism, predictions for the next year, and a brief look back into the last year. Most of the time, however, we spoke about Women in 3D Printing and the enormous flight that this organization has taken. We discuss their upcoming conference and other events. We also t...

Today, we talk once again with John Barnes, but we also have Jennifer Coyne of the Wabtec Corporation joining the program. Wabtec is a huge Pittsburg-based train company that makes all manner of trains and train parts with 27,000 employees and $8 billion in revenue. Coyne leads their 3D printing efforts, which are mostly based around spare parts, but she discloses that they’re already working on parts for new trains, as well. She openheartedly and concisely discusses the opportunity for additiv...

Edouard Moens de Hase talks to us today about Aerosint. For the last few years, they have been working on improving powder bed fusion. The company has an innovative drum roller that can recoat layers of powder selectively. This means that the company can mix several metals, polymers, or ceramics in one layer or build. The company can also make gradient materials or bimetallic parts. Aerosint’s path to market is also unique in that it is focusing on its drum-based recoater technique and not in m...

This time, Max and I got to speak with 3D Systems’ CEO Jeff Graves. Graves has spent over 17 years in corporate leadership roles and now will helm 3D Systems into a new era. We really enjoyed talking to him as he explained the current state of 3D Systems and what it’s like to be at the company now. He also is open about divestitures, changing margins, future activities, and the focus of the firm. 3D Systems’ acquisitive past has meant that it became quite amorphous and Graves is trying to chang...

Stefanie Brickwede’s efforts at Deutsche Bahn and Mobility Goes Additive are herculean and will have a significant impact on our industry. Through Brickwede’s efforts, Deutsche Bahn has already 3D printed thousands of parts from polymer items to help the blind to large metal parts in critical applications. Seeing that the challenge of industrializing 3D printing for rail was too big for even the huge Deutsche Bahn, she cobbled together an alliance of railway firms and partnered them all with ser...

Al Siblani is a 3D printing pioneer who got his start over 19 years ago. He worked with layered object manufacturing—the paper, and laser technology—which is a leitmotiv of our podcast and was exceedingly problematic at the time. Subsequently, Siblani founded EnvisionTEC, whose digital light processing (DLP) technology has been a major player in manufacturing, especially for jewelry casts, hearing aids, and dental applications. We speak to Siblani about his history in 3D printing and how he man...

Alessio Lorusso built his first 3D printer at 17 and went on to bootstrap his company Roboze. His enthusiasm and drive really shine through in this episode of the 3DPod. The founder talks of Roboze’s expansion into the U.S., where it will hire a lot of staff. He also discusses their parts service, Roboze’s work in materials and their Argo printer. Lorusso discloses that Roboze wants to produce its own materials and that it has done a lot of work characterizing them. He talks about finding the ri...

I think we can all agree that, so far, this year has been incredibly taxing and confusing for us all. Some of us have had their working lives affected in a much more fundamental way still. Industries such as aviation, automotive, and hospitality have been adrift on a storm of uncertainty and changing information and realities. One of the most affected fields is the convention industry. Dependent on international guests, air travel, people mixing up-close, and a wish to grow business has driven ...

I met Jos Burger when I was working for Shapeways years ago. He’s astute, very bright and a natural leader who later worked at Ultimaker while I was there as well. Naturally, we discussed what Burger calls “Ultimaker’s romantic period,” or the chaotic period between hobby and hyper-growth that he stepped into. We talked about going direct versus indirect for production, Ultimaker’s European loan, the private equity investment, the number of printers the firm has sold to date (over 130,000!), an...

Fried Vancraen is one of my favorite people in 3D printing. It was a pleasure working for him years ago, as well. I was therefore especially happy that Vancraen chose to come back to the 3DPod once again, as Max and I really enjoyed his initial talk. This time, Vancraen talks to us about some past things that he’s experienced in terms of exciting moments and career highlights. Max asks him if he thought Materialise would be as successful as it is. Vancraen also talks about Materialise’s Five Ye...

Todd Grimm has been working in AM and 3D Printing for 30 years. He has done a lot of work for Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG), and is a frequent guest speaker at conferences. So, naturally, we spoke about the conferences in the COVID-19 era. As a team, we even developed an exciting new conference idea. We also looked at the past of the industry. Grimm’s work as a consultant has given him a lot of different viewpoints on and through our industry. Grimm was reserved and weighed his thou...

In this episode, Max and I spoke with Eric Pallarés of BCN3D. BCN3D is a Barcelona-based material extrusion 3D printing company. Having started on the desktop, BCN3D now is moving toward enterprise and the factory floor. The company is working on developing an ecosystem of tools including software, settings, and machine. The firm’s new Epsilon 3D printer is meant for engineers and has two independent extruders, carbon and HEPA filtration, as well as a large build volume. The company is entering...

I’ve known Alexander Oster a long time now. He joined FIT at 16 to work on making a printer and later writing code for the leading service bureau. This eventually resulted in one of the first online price quoting tools. He then wrote one of the first software packages for creating lattices. This effort, in turn, morphed into Netfabb which was later sold to Autodesk and is now a part of Fusion 360. Now, Oster is the Director Additive Manufacturing at Autodesk. He’s also the Chairman of the Techn...

Tuan is known universally by his first name alone. Like Madonna and Beyonce, everyone knows hi by just that one name. In Tuan’s case his fame is 3D printing specific and stems from his long history in 3D printing. Tuan has been working in our industry for over 17 years. Having started at color binder jetting company ZCorp, he later worked for 3D Systems, then Objet; he went over to Stratasys, when that was acquired, then on to Arcam (GE Additive). Later on, he moved to Desktop Metal and, now, he...

Twikit is a mass customization startup that hopes to make many things parametric. With their software, companies can let consumers customize electronics, car parts or orthotics to their liking or fit. Martijn Joris is one of the co-founders of the Belgian firm. We spoke to him about mass customization, including the applications that have a high degree of interest, such as the automotive market and things like braces and jewels. We also discussed less well-known applications such as sporting goo...

John Barnes is a key figure in industrializing 3D printing for aerospace. His career had him at key roles at key times for 3D printing at Honeywell, Lockheed, and Arconic. Now, with his own firm, The Barnes Group Advisors, Barnes wants to aid companies in the qualification of parts, manufacture using 3D printing, as well as implement the technology across organizations. Recently, we discussed how they were collaborating with the VA on the Austere mask. The Barnes Group Advisors also runs traini...