3D Printing: The Stories We Didn’t Cover This Week — May 21

This week’s news includes much about the business side of 3D printing. Alexander Daniels, a Birmingham, England-based recruiting firm, has added a new division focused on 3D printing, and PostProcess Technologies and Alevo have botha nnounced new CEOs to help expand their 3D printing services. The Navy is testing a 3D printed flight critical part, which is part of its longer term commitment to 3D printing R&D, and Puris has introduced a new titanium powder to the market as well. Finally, full service direct marketing provider Progressive Impressions International, or pii, has moved into the 3D printing space with a new business unit.

British Recruiting Firm Adds 3D Printing

Alexander Daniels, a Birmingham, England-based recruitment firm, provides candidates for the finance, corporate governance, engineering, education and healthcare sectors. Its new venture, Alexander Daniels Global, is based in Barcelona, Spain and plans to add a new US-based office later in the year. The newly launched division specializes in 3D printing. Nick Pearce, the company’s Director, explains how 3D printing, which he equates to a “third industrial revolution,” integrates well with its other services:

“We have created Alexander Daniels Global with a simple vision, to enable the revolution through talent. The global market this year is expected to be worth around $7bn but by 2020, it will be three times as large and it is set to transform a range of processes in industries such as automotive, aerospace, jewellery, dental and medical. We have a passion for this technology and we want to help the innovators and adopters involved to achieve their global growth plans.”

PostProcess Technologies Names New CEO

PostProcess Technologies, a provider of automated and intelligent post-processing solutions for 3D printed parts, has recently announced that Jeff Mize will be taking over as Chairman of the Board and CEO of the company. Mize is well suited for this position since he has a proven track record driving growth in emerging technology markets. A variety of industries from medicine to automotive and defense are interested in PostProcess’ ability to replace labor-intensive, inconsistent manual processes with 3D printing.

According to Daniel Hutchinson, the Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer of PostProcess, there is strong interest in the rapid growth of the company’s technology, which “drives a fundamental shift in the scalability of 3D printing.” Mize adds that PostProcess’ patent-pending technology will further accelerate 3D printing market growth:

“Additive Manufacturing operations are experiencing a bottleneck in the third step of 3D printing – post-processing. Our comprehensive and automated solutions drive a substantial increase in throughput, tremendous consistency and a significant reduction in labor costs. Also, as industrial 3D printing expands from prototyping into volume production around the world, automating these processes becomes essential.”

Previously Mize held positions as commercial leader of the Climate Corporation, which sold to Monsanto for $1.1 billion, and NAVTEQ Corporation, which sold to Nokia for $8.1 billion.

Navy to Test Flight Critical 3D Printed Part

June will be the first time that the Navy tests a “flight critical” 3D printed part. Originally, NavAir wanted the titanium engine nacelle and link attachment developed and 3D printed in three years, but given how expedient 3D printing technology tends to be, it only took about half that time. 3D printing in the aerospace sector is well underway, as evidenced by the fact that by 2020 General Electric’s aviation unit plans to 3D print about 100,000 parts!

What’s interesting here is that the Navy claims that new part development could move much faster if only the certification process went more quickly. According to Elizabeth McMichael, product team leader for NavAir, the part, which was designed for a Boeing (BA) V-22 Osprey, could be printed in three days. Unfortunately, it takes months for the part to be certified. McMichael states: “That’s not right. If I were queen for a day, I would make the certification process weeks or days.”

Puris Introduces A New Titanium Powder: Puris 5+

The Navy knows something about titanium powder in the 3D printing space, and so does the company Puris. Titanium powder is one of the strongest materials in the 3D printing space, and recently, Puris has released a new powder that is a high-strength, low-oxygen formulation. Puris’ powder metallurgists developed Puris 5+, a custom composition of Ti-6Al-4V that meets all the specifications of Grade 5. This will allow customers more efficiency without compromising the strength of the powder itself.

Puris CEO Craig Kirsch explains the significance of this development here:

“The introduction of low-oxygen, high-strength Grade 5 Titanium powder represents a major breakthrough that equips our customers to better control the oxygen pickup inherent in their processes. The result is more efficient utilization without compromising powder strength.”

This will have a huge impact on the additive manufacturing industry, and it also keeps Puris squarely on the map in terms of what Kirsch describes as “deep metallurgy and powder metallurgy expertise.”

Alevo Hires New Management Team

Leading energy storage and services company Alevo recently appointed Per Dybwad as CEO. Dybwad will serve alongside the company’s founder and Executive Chairman, Jostein Eikeland. The development splits the role of Chairman and CEO, allowing the company to better focus on “long-term strategic development and production delivery.” Dybwad has over 30 years of international management experience, and his expertise includes the fields of “energy distribution and storage, medtech and pharma, environmental technology, materials science, financial services and consumer goods.”

Eikeland has this to say about Dybwad’s appointment:

“Energy storage has a massive potential both as a business opportunity and also the benefits it delivers to the world. Alevo has the right IP, the right infrastructure and the right manufacturing approach to lead this market globally. But the ramp up to production calls for the oversight of a dedicated CEO and Per Dybwad has the credentials, knowledge and experience to deliver this.”

Pii Opens New 3D Printing Business Unit

Progressive Impressions International (pii) is a large full-service direct marketing service provider, and it has recently announced it is moving into the 3D printing space with a new business unit dedicated to the technology. This move comes on the heels of pii’s recent investments in 3D printing equipment. Also, it has established a “strategic business development pipeline” to make 3D printing available to prospective clients. The company has put much thought into this project, which has been years in the making.

Jamie Huff, President of pii, explains here how the company plans to integrate with 3D printing services:

“Pii’s ability to serve as a one-stop-shop printing solution, with the resources to design, implement and support 360-degree marketing programs has been hugely beneficial to our customers’ marketing programs over the past 25 years. 3D printing is the new frontier for impactful marketing programs, and pii will work with customers to leverage our massive production capacity and experience to execute on all aspects and possibilities within 3D printing.”

That’s all for this week’s news. Have a nice weekend!

Discuss these topics further in the Weekly 3D Printing News forum over at 3DPB.com.