Your New Editor In Chief: Joris

Hi, I’m Joris, and I’m going to try to give you more signals while reducing the noise. I want to thank Sarah for all of her hard work and dedication to this site. I can only hope that I can make a similar impact as Editor in Chief going forward.

I see myself as a kind of business development person for 3D printing itself. I’m continually trying to advance the technology in any way I can through a realistic hype-free assessment of the possibilities. I’m very interested in the applications that are emerging and what is possible now as opposed to shiny new renderings and overclaim. I’m obsessed with the technology and continually try to learn more.

As a small child in Kenya, I had this ongoing thought experiment where I would imagine by what magic we could turn trash into new things. Even at 8, I was a bit sceptical about burning all of our trash at the bottom of our yard. When in 2004 I read a paper on using 3D printers to make robots and batteries (by Hod Lipson and Evan Malone) I was blown away and realised that with this technology we could as humanity have our cake and eat it too. We could consume and then recycle old 3D prints in a closed loop at home. It seemed to me to be the only longshot opportunity that could let a people addicted to things work towards saving the planet. It took me four years of obsessive reading of papers before a job was available at Philips on what became Shapeways (It was called U-Design.it first, really happy we didn’t run with that).

Later on, I had the opportunity to work at Materialise, Ultimaker, HP, Formlabs and lots of other firms. For the past few years, I’ve been doing consulting for the 3D printing market. Mostly I do market research, competitive analysis, track machine sales and new developments. I’ve worked for OEMs to help them position their printers, worked to develop 3D printing materials in FDM and SLS, worked to create new business models and new high volume applications for 3D printing. I gave trainings at multinationals and helped large businesses track relevant developments in Additive Manufacturing. I’ve done technical due diligence for VC and helped PE investors find their footing in the market. Uniquely I’ve worked across the value chain for 3D printing and have empathy with and knowledge of all the main types of players in the market.

The reason for me to take this job is explicitly to bring more realism, analysis and truth to the 3D printing publications. I want to increase the quality of the information on 3D printing that is available. I want to edit out the bull, the opportunists who add no value, the chancers and the “me too’s”. The quality of some publications is just ridiculously low. As a voracious consumer of 3D printing blogs, I’m tired of reading nonsense. The more that you the reader know, the better our industry will solve the manufacturing challenges of a fast-changing world. In times of uncertainty, it is the well informed and agile that can make a difference. I, therefore, see my role as being a filter that makes you more likely to know what is going on and relevant in 3D printing.

Bioprinting is an area that I’m hugely interested in. I’m very sceptical of all the house printers but look forward to them building things that won’t collapse while hoping that they take into account frost, QA and layer adhesion. I hope that desktop SLS machines won’t kill people either. I’m obsessed with PEEK, PEKK, PPA’s (polyphthalamide), Ultem, Hastelloy, ASA, ceramics, reducing part count, soft robotics and manufacturing with 3D printing. Variable density insoles and shoes intrigue me.  I think that internal topology optimization, crystallization on the fly and tunable infill will be breakthroughs for 3D printing. I have a bias for SLS (powder bed fusion) and FDM (material extrusion), for manufacturing. I still don’t believe in food printing or 3D printing fashion, but I do believe in wearables. I don’t understand why anyone would want to print chocolate.

I have an Ultimaker, a Formlabs, two Overlords, and a few Prusa i3 clones at home. I mostly print tensile bars but also am making lamps and jewellery. I have my own blog, which I never update, where I’ll put things too esoteric for here. The material I use most often is ASA. My favourite software is 360, Cura, MakePrintable and Magics. My dream 3D printer is an EOS P110, or maybe an Arcam Q20. I’d love to have a MetalFab1, but I’ve checked, and it won’t fit in my house.

I’m very direct and can be very sarcastic, acerbic even. I’m a very curious person. I talk an awful lot but can also go into quickfire question mode. I try to be funny far too often. I hope that gives you a good idea of where I’m coming from and the type of person I am. I’ll do my best to serve you well. I love feedback and want to make this into your dream 3D printing resource. Please email me directly at joris (at) 3DPrint.com should you have any questions, ideas or suggestions.

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