3DPOD: Insight from 3D Printing Pros

Xometry ( Nasdaq: XMTR ) is a fast growing and, now, publicly-traded marketplace for manufacturing services. We talk to CEO Randy Altschuler, who came from finance to build and grow companies. What exactly is the role of Xometry? How does it aim to grow and scale up even more? What markets is it expanding into? How does it ensure that good manufacturing partners make parts well? How does it contro...

In this episode of the 3DPOD, we talk t o Mandaná “Mandy” Moshiri, Technology Manager at the LEGO Group. Far from the maddening crowds, the hype, and the promises of 3D printing, she and her colleagues are using additive at the famous toy block-maker. What technologies does LEGO use? What future additive processes is Mandy excited about? What is holding 3D printing back and what are it...

Steve Grundahl started Midwest Prototyping in the very early days of 3D printing. On this episode of the 3DPOD, he tells us about how he got financing, how he grew his business. what technologies and applications he relied on, and how he kept growing. Steve also tells us why he opted to sell his firm now and how the future of Midwest Prototyping under the umbrella of Prototek will look. As well as...

A 3D printing double unicorn , Formlabs is one of the most talked about and followed startups out there. The firm pioneered desktop stereolithography and the professional desktop segment and now has released an entry level powder bed fusion machine , as well. We speak to founder and CEO Max Lobovsky about the early days of Formlabs. How did the company get funding? Well, it started with an overhea...

Luis Baldez is Senior Manager of Market Development for HP , but he’s also the Executive Director of the 3MF Consortium . 3MF is trying to get the 3D printing industry to ditch the much maligned STL file format for something better. The team wants to establish .3MF as a new standard to get more accurate files that can convey more information. If we want to produce colorful or gradient parts,...

MeaTech 3D ( NasdaqCM: MITC ) is the Israeli startup rocket ship that is aiming to commercialize and industrialize 3D printed meat . Ethical meat uses fewer resources, less water, less land and creates many fewer emissions than regular meat does. But can this development actually work at scale? How much will it cost? And how do you make 3D printed meat? We look into the future and at the possible...

Jochen Loock has trained over 1000 professionals in Additive Manufacturing through the Additive Academy at Fraunhofer Research Institution for Additive Manufacturing Technologies (IAPT). He now performs business development with automotive companies for the prestigious German research institute. Jochen has been instrumental in several groundbreaking 3D printing projects for end-use automotive comp...

Carlos Zwikker has long been involved with AM. He was a great influence on Shapeways when it started and has advised many other firms, as well. Previously at Electrolux and Philips, Carlos now deploys his expertise and talents at AM-FLOW . AM-FLOW is a company that uses machine vision and machine learning to automate 3D printing . AM-FLOW’s solutions automatically detect and identify parts s...

Julien Cohen worked for Stratasys Direct and Eaton in Application Development before joining 3DEO . He takes us through what application engineering is and how it helps customers. We also have a lively discussion about the relative merits of various technologies and approaches. Additionally, he explains 3DEO’s unique binder jetting technology and how the company is using it for serial produc...

Jason Fullmer is the COO of Formlabs . We spoke to him about the company’s global supply chain, including sourcing, interruptions, reverse logistics, shipping, quality assurance, quality management and many more topics. Operations and supply chain are super important to businesses, but we often overlook this importance and focus on the more obvious sides of a businesses, such as their market...

Gordon Styles is a true 3D printing pioneer. He bought a stereolithography machine very early and built the UK’s biggest service bureau off of it. After selling said business, he moved to China to start Star Rapid , a leading 3D printing and low-volume manufacturing service. Gordon tells about the very early days of the 3D printing industry. He also discusses entrepreneurship, building a bus...

Nadav Goshen is the CEO of MakerBot . He talks to us about how the firm has developed from a scrappy startup to a part of Stratasys , including Makerbot’s identity and role. We discuss the education market, the business of catering to engineers, and Makerbot’s offering. We also get into manufacturing with clusters of desktop 3D printers and the future of 3D printing. Nadav explains wha...

Cory Doctorow is a sci-fi author who is passionate about privacy, digital rights, makers, internet freedom, copyright and, also, 3D printing. In this talk, although we do get the distinct feeling that Cory is now mega-passionate about internet rights and less so about our industry, Cory gives us good tips on how to foster collaborative, open learning communities and make sure that open stays open....

Kenneth Jiang’s The Spaghetti Detective uses machine learning and vision to analyze your FDM prints . Relying on Octoprint, the tool looks at your 3D printer to determine whether or not it is printing spaghetti. We manage to belatedly ask Kenneth what causes spaghetti, but most of the podcast is us brainstorming with Kenneth about all of the types of things his tool can do. Machine learning...

Olaf Diegel is a professor at the University of Auckland who specializes in all aspects of design for additive manufacturing (DfAM). He also 3D prints guitars , other instruments , and eyeballs to try to fool Apple’s facial recognition software . Olaf’s lab sometimes builds heat exchangers along with all sorts of other parts . We have a conversation with him mostly about DfAM, includin...

This time on the 3DPOD, we get to chat with Major Travis Tubbs of the U.S. Space Force . Surprisingly, a lot of the conversation was about plants, but we also discussed satellites, farming from space, farming in space, terraforming planets, 3D scanning plants, and a lot more. We were also super curious about the brand new U.S. Space Force. We asked questions about what it’s like working ther...

Clement Moreau founded Sculpteo and led the 3D print service for ten years before selling it to BASF . In this episode, we follow his journey, discuss what made Sculpteo successful, and how the company changed along with its market. We hear of an initial consumer focus that was replaced by one focusing on European businesses. Now, as a part of BASF , how will Sculpteo fair? And what is Sculpteo&#8...

In this episode, Max and I fall all over ourselves to ask questions of Douglas Hofmann, Principal Scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) . We also listen intently as Doug explains the ins and outs of bulk metallic glasses (aka “amorphous metals”) and why one would use these materials. With high wear and chemical resistance amorphous metals can be used for gearboxes that do n...

I’m unabashedly a Domin fanboy . The UK-based company makes high-performance hydraulic valves in Poland using powder bed fusion. These optimized products are high value and outperform traditionally manufactured systems in many metrics. It seems that the valve world is ripe for digitization and may forever be changed via 3D printing. Domin CEO Marcus Pont shimmers with ambition and has a lot...

Byron Kennedy is the CEO of SPEE3D , an Australian firm that develops cold spray metal 3D printing. After a successful exit in powertrain components, he and his business partner Steven Camilleri were exploring 3D printing and new technologies. They found an existing 30-year-old technology, cold spray, and decided to make it additive. The result is a machine capable of producing 30 tonnes of metal...

This episode is a blast, as we descend into the mayhem that was the early days of MolyWorks . A team that tries to make a gas atomizer on a founder’s lawn inside a shipping container and survives is a lucky one indeed. And now, years later, Chris Eonta’s company is more mature and shipping its Greyhound containerized atomization facilities worldwide. These can turn scrap into low-cost,...

Jeff Mize is a veteran entrepreneur who sold his firm NAVTEQ to Nokia for $8.1 billion and his Climate Corporation to Monsanto for $1.1 billion. He now heads up PostProcess Technologies. There, Jeff wants to help 3D printed goods become a reality through a number of post-processing solutions. With a variety of technologies with exciting names, Post Process helps remove SLA supports, de-powder SLS...

Technical ceramics keep on working when a lot of other materials fail. If a part needs to be in a very hot or very chemically abrasive environment, or if you need incredibly high abrasion resistance, then technical ceramics will continue to work where polymers and metals would have long since failed. In a lot of applications, they’re lighter, as well, and have great properties for very speci...

Brent Wright is a prosthetist and orthotist who uses 3D printing to help people regain function in their lives. Max and I both found talking to him to be super inspiring. Brent works for EastPoint Prosthetics & LifeNabled , as well as Additive America . In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about HP Multi Jet Fusion, prosthetics sockets, wear, posterior cruciate ligaments, VarioShore TPU...

Pia Harlaß is the Head of Global Marketing & Corporate Communications for DyeMansion , a leading post-finishing company that offers machines that can depowder, create a uniform surface texture, and then color powder bed fusion parts. Now expanding beyond sintered components, the company is a key enabler in turning parts into products. I’m following the post-processing industry very close...