The Impact of IMTS on Big 3D Printing

September 6, 2024 by Christian Cavallo and Rick Neff 3D Printing 3D Printing Events 3D Printing Materials Automotive 3D Printing North America Sponsored

Building Strati

Up to 2014, the largest commercially available printer was 3’x2’, the material cost was $100 per pound, and speeds hovered around 0.5 lb./hour. To succeed, the team, led by at-the-time ORNL’s Dr. Lonnie Love (today fellow at Sandia Labs), had to not only build a new printer but also tune the hardware and software to print parts larger than ever before; not to mention, their timeline was about 9 months, at best.

Project partner Cincinnati Incorporated provided a giant 3-axis laser cutting gantry as the basis of the machine. The team replaced the laser with a custom extruder head and material feeder and installed a heated bed. They had their printer with these additions, but it was only half the battle. They needed to code software for printing and simulation to help guide development.

Prints consistently warped (or “potato-chipped”) during testing, a common yet complex problem for large 3D printed parts. Plastics partner Techmer provided chopped carbon fiber material that helped reduced warping, but parts were still out of spec.

Using internal simulations, they pinpointed the issue to a lack of throughput through the extruder. They designed a screw that increased material flow to 35 lb./hour, which was an unprecedented speed at the time. The screw was machined two weeks before IMTS, and there was no time to test print; the team just had to hope that their models were right and that their production print — on the showroom floor — would pay off.

The car was printed in front of the show audience and was a massive success. Strati’s body was printed in two days, and the team machined it to completion and quickly added a drive train before the week was over. It was driven out of IMTS by Jay Rogers, then CEO of Local Motors and today founder and owner of Haddy with Doug Woods, president of AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, which owns and operates IMTS, in the passenger seat, where people from all walks of the manufacturing community remember seeing it and the fanfare that followed.

Strati’s Successors

Printing a car at IMTS did more than prove out large-scale additive manufacturing – it built new ideas, companies, and global industries.

When discussing the project in a recent , Dr. Lonnie Love said, “I guarantee we accelerated the [AM] technology by five years, just through that nine months of really stressing the system and moving really fast.”

To improve costs and extruding speeds, ORNL implemented Techmer’s short carbon fiber pelletized feedstock, originally used in injection molding, instead of filament for the Strati print. This technique was commercialized by Cincinnati Incorporated’s first customer, Sabic, who bought the first BAAM printer. Techmer and Sabic now have extensive catalogs of 3D printing materials for large-format additive manufacturing, which will be demonstrated throughout the Additive Manufacturing Sector, accelerated by Formnext at IMTS 2024.

An engineer at Caterpillar at the time, Austin Schmidt saw Strati print at IMTS and was inspired. He led a collaboration with Caterpillar and ORNL to make large additive parts, which allowed them to accelerate their prototyping process on a large equipment piece.

After this success, Austin and his partner Andrew Bader started Additive Engineering Solutions, one of the first U.S.-based large-format additive companies, in Akron, Ohio. They aimed to use large-format printing for tooling, mockups, and production parts. Today, they produce using three BAAM systems and a Flexbot system from CEAD (IMTS booth #432430) — who just so happens to be exhibiting at IMTS 2024 ,with a robotic system that can be configured as a small, affordable system or a system that is larger than any BAAM.

Thermwood (IMTS booth #433103) provided all the machining needs at IMTS 2014. Motivated by the show results, they embarked on a 3D printing head for their large 5-axis router. This year, Thermwood returns to IMTS with a line of Large-Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM) printers and a newer technology called Cut Layer Additive, where they can use a traditional flat sheet router to make large tooling for composites.

Jay Rogers, the leader who inspired the moon-shot challenge of a 3D-printed car, has now started a 3D-printed furniture company called Haddy out of St. Petersburg, Florida. They are installing a fleet of CEAD Flexbot printers to support the demand for furniture sold through stores like Room & Board.

A BAAM engineer from Cincinnati Incorporated Michael Parks has co-founded GZERO Additive (IMTS booth #433152). While their systems are smaller than BAAM systems, they fit a niche between the large and small systems that have flourished in the marketplace. GZERO is exhibiting systems at IMTS with 16.3” x 13.9” build plates.

Three other large 3D printing companies exhibiting at IMTS 2024 are 3D Systems (IMTS booth #433129 ), Caracol (IMTS booth #433039 ), and Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies (IMTS booth #432320). The list is longer still, as there is a robust competitive ecosystem for this technology, thanks in no small part to the rapid innovation of the Strati challenge at IMTS 2014.

The Strati-sphere’s the Limit

The global market size for industrial 3D printing is expected to be over $16.1 billion¹ in 2026 at a 14% CAGR, according to AMT, fueled in part by the business generated from IMTS and Strati’s tech show sendoff.

While the original BAAM system and some Strati partners did not survive the chasm between early adopters and the general market, other collaborators have grown significantly. For example, ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MFD) has grown tenfold to become the nation’s leading laboratory for additive manufacturing innovation. Countless U.S.-based partners are producing for industry leaders and seeing considerable advancements in their operations. In fact, ORNL MDF has created a convergent manufacturing platform that combines metal AM with CNC machining and other familiar processes in an innovative configuration. This hybrid configuration will be on display in the AMT Emerging Technology Center at IMTS at the entrance to the North Building in booth #236700.

One of the original Strati team members, Vlastimil Kunc, section head of composites science and technology at ORNL, described in an interview the cutting edge of big 3D print technology in the industry: “We have implemented with our partners a combination of additive manufacturing with compression molding…we have a 500-ton press where we make parts with an extruder that runs at about 150 pounds per hour…in two minutes, we can generate a four-pound part.”

Using this kind of integrated approach, additive builds on established techniques and enhances existing production processes. Kunc said that, “cycle times make sense all of a sudden…you’re starting to approach the automotive cycle times…look at large scale extrusion deposition as a performing technique in a workflow that gets you to a final part.”

All these advancements are largely because of one audacious technology demonstration that took place at IMTS 2014.

Speaking of Audacious

During IMTS 2024, Sept. 9-14, visitors can hear and interact with the people who were part of this audacious team and get up close to the Strati.

Strati will be on display outside on McCormick Square near the entrance to the McCormick Place Grand Concourse. Monday, Sept. 9-Saturday, Sept. 14.
“Automation of Large Parts by a New Wave of Additive and Digitally-driven Technologies,” Lucas Janssen, CEO at CEAD, Monday, Sept. 9, 11:30 a.m.-noon, SPS – Smart Productions Solutions Stage, North Building (booth #236800).
“Beyond Prototypes: Furniture’s Full-scale 3D Printing Transformation,” Jay Rogers, Monday, Sept. 9, 3:30-4 p.m. Formnext Stage, West Building (booth #433010).
“How to 3D Print the Audacious,” panel with the team that printed Strati in 2014. Jay Rogers, Rick Neff, and Gary Vasilash, writer at Shinymetalboxes.com. Thursday, Sept. 12, at 12:30-1 p.m., IMTS+ Main Stage, Grand Concourse.
“Innovating at the Speed of Thought,” with Lonnie Love and Tom Kurfess, professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. Tuesday, Sept. 10, 10:30-11 a.m. Formnext Stage, West Building (booth #433010).
“New AM Processes,” panel with Lucas Janssen, Rick Neff, and Ted Sorom, CEO and co-founder at Mantle. Friday., Sept. 13, 2-2:30 p.m., Formnext Stage, West Building (booth #433010).
“Expert Panel on AM Services,” Ken Burns, VP commercial, GKN Additive Forecast 3D, Michael Parks, co-founder, GZERO Additive, Greg Paulsen, director of applications engineering and marketing, Xometry. Formnext Stage, West Building (booth #433010).

View all sessions on the Formnext Stage at IMTS.

To see the Strati, hear the full story, and explore the forward-moving world of advanced manufacturing technology, register for IMTS 2024, at IMTS.com/Register. To make your itinerary a breeze, use the IMTS Show Planner.

About the Authors

Christian Cavallo and Rick Neff are Contributing Writers for AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, which owns and operates IMTS – The International Manufacturing Technology Show

¹ AMT’s industrial additive manufacturing market size does not include desktop 3D printers, software, hardware maintenance revenue, or value generated by end user production for internal purposes. Additionally, the market size excludes biological, construction, food, and pharmaceutical 3D printing.