MISSION ADDITIVE END OF YEAR QUESTIONS – WELCHE 3D-DRUCKTECHNOLOGIEN UND TRENDS
April 27, 2021
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CEO Yair Alcobi shares his insights 80 days after taking the reins at XJet
Yair Alcobi recently began his tenure as XJet CEO on May 1st. Since then, he has already (almost) been around the world. Traveling to North America and Europe, he has participated in leading industry conferences, met with XJet customers, and held discussions with partners, investors and other stakeholders in the AM ecosystem.
Yair recently sat down with Dror Danai, XJet’s Chief Business Officer, to share his initial thoughts and insights about XJet and its promising place in the AM industry.
What are your key takeaways on the AM industry?
The additive manufacturing market is big and is growing very fast. According to industry analysts, it is projected to be worth about $120 billion in 2030, with an impressive annual growth rate of some 25%.
On top of that, the market still has a lot of potential. While the adoption rate is getting better, today most of the world is still using AM for prototyping. The big promise is the move to at-scale manufacturing, which will make manufacturers more competitive and agile.
There are many players, and they are bringing different AM technologies to the market. Despite these numerous AM technologies, there actually is not much competition between them as each provides a solution to a different need. The main “competition” is today’s traditional manufacturing techniques, which in some cases have been used for decades, while the main potential lies in bringing traditional manufacturers to AM.
When it comes to ceramic and metal AM, only a very few technologies provide a solution for producing complex geometries while meeting Industry 4.0 needs of high levels of automation, repeatability and productivity. Since XJet does in fact meet these needs, I am very optimistic about our future. Another reason for optimism is that the ceramic and metal AM segments are growing at least as fast as the overall AM market.
Again, the big transformation has not yet happened. Yet I believe the tipping point will happen in the coming years, and XJet is uniquely positioned to be an active leader in large portions of the ceramic and metal AM segments.
What have you learned from XJet customers?
I’ve received great feedback from several customers and industry partners. Customers have shared some stories about amazing applications that have opened my eyes to the great potential of the market. These customers are hard at work developing groundbreaking applications such as tips for surgical tools and heat sinks for supercomputers. We work with our customers on developing new capabilities and applications that can then be scaled.
Translation done with DeepL – English below for reference
Welche 3D-Drucktechnologien und Trends werden das Jahr 2022 prägen und warum?
Da die Weltwirtschaftwieder das Niveau von vor der Pandemie und sogar darüber erreicht hat, werden viele Unternehmen wieder in AM-Systeme investieren, nachdem sie diese eine Zeit lang auf Eis gelegt und sich auf Bewertungen und Lernprozesse konzentriert haben.. Die Unterbrechung der Versorgungskette in Verbindung mit den Auswirkungen auf die Umwelt und COP26 zeigt, dass AM eindeutig ein guter Weg ist, um Abfall und die Abhängigkeit von Lieferungen und Lagerbeständen zu verringern und die Produktion näher an den Verbraucher zu bringen.. Vor der Pandemie gab es auch viele Entwicklungen in der Keramik, und wir glauben, dass 2022 das Jahr der keramischen AM sein könnte, wenn die erste Mehrheit die Technologie aufgreift.
- Welche Herausforderungen muss die additive Fertigung noch bewältigen, um ihr volles Potenzial auszuschöpfen?
Die additive Fertigung muss noch Herausforderungen bei der Automatisierung der Arbeitsabläufe von Anfang bis Ende bewältigen. XJet zum Beispiel bietet Automatisierung in allen Produktionsschritten – von der automatischen Erzeugung von Stützstrukturen bis zur automatischen Entfernung des prämierten löslichen Stützmaterials mit dem SMART-System.Eine weitere Herausforderung besteht darin, Materialeigenschaften für Teile zu erreichen, die genauso gut sind wie bei Nicht-AM und gleichzeitig das Hauptmerkmal von AM zu erfüllen, nämlich keine Kosten für Komplexität.. Man muss in der Lage sein, die Details, die Genauigkeit und die Glätte des Teils wie entworfen zu erhalten und gleichzeitig die richtigen Materialeigenschaften zu erzielen.
- Wird AM-Know-how für industrielle Hersteller unverzichtbar oder “nice-to-have” werden? (Bitte begründen Sie dies)
Wir glauben, dass AM keine Raketenwissenschaft sein sollte, um es zu einer gängigen Methode in der Fertigung zu machen. Bei XJet geht es also darum, es einfach zu machen und nicht von den Kenntnissen des Bedieners abhängig. Mit diesem Gedanken im Hinterkopf ist unser Prozess so weit wie möglich automatisiert. Durch die automatische Erzeugung von Stützen entfällt die Notwendigkeit, zu raten und zu testen, wo die Strukturen zu positionieren sind und welche Stützstrukturen zu verwenden sind. Auch das Entfernen von Stützstrukturen ist mit dem SMART-System automatisiert, so dass man kein Experte für das Entfernen von Stützstrukturen werden muss.. Da wir Tinten in versiegelten Kartuschen und keine Pulver im System verwenden, ist der gesamte Druckprozess, vom Einlegen des Materials bis zur Entnahme der gedruckten Teile, einfach und erfordert nur Handschuhe. DfAM (Design for AM) ist eine Fähigkeit, die weiterhin erforderlich sein wird, aber sie wird mehr in der Ausbildung der Industrie verankert werden, so dass wir davon ausgehen, dass Ingenieure irgendwann in der Zukunft standardmäßig automatisch für AM designen werden.
English:
- which 3D printing technologies and trends will shape 2022 and why?
With WW economics getting back to pre-pandemic levels and even higher, many companies will go back to investment in AM systems after putting things on hold for a while and focusing on evaluations and learning. The disruption to supply chain coupled with the impact on the environment and the Dublin climate convention illustrates that AM is clearly a good way to go to reduce waste and dependency on shipments and stock, and to bring production closer to the consumption. Before the pandemic we were also seeing a lot of development in ceramics, we think 2022 could be the year the of ceramic AM when the early majority start to pick up the technology.
- what challenges will additive manufacturing have to overcome to reach its full potential?
AM still need to overcome challenges in automation of workflow from end-to-end. XJet for example is offering automation in all the production steps – from automated generation of support structures to automated removal of its award-winning soluble support with the SMART system.
Another challenge is reaching material properties for parts that are as good as non-AM while delivering on the ‘holy grail’ of AM which is zero cost of complexity. At the end it is all about the details. One has to be able to get the details, the accuracy and the smoothness of the part as designed while also getting the material properties right.
- will AM know-how become vital or ‘nice-to-have’ for industrial manufacturers? (Please provide reasoning)
We believe that AM shouldn’t be rocket science to make it a common method in manufacturing. Thus, XJet is all about making it simple and not dependent on the expertise of the operator. In light of exactly this thought, our process is automated as much as possible. With automated support generation, which eliminates the need to guess and test where to place support structures and which support structures to use. Our support removal is also automated with the SMART system, so one does not need to become an expert in breaking support without breaking the model. As we use inks in sealed cartridges, and no powders inside the system, the entire process of printing from loading material and all the way to taking printed parts out, is easy and only requires gloves. DfAM (Design for AM) is a skill that will still be required, but this will become more and more ingrained in education for the industry, so we guestimate that sometime in the future engineers will, by default, automatically design for AM.
