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78 SMT007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2018 Low volume and complexity is our world in the 3D printing market, it's what we call the additive sweet spot. Obviously no two people are the same, so it lends itself very well to additive manufacturing or 3D printing. A lot of this customization will come into play when discussing prosthetics for individuals or pre-planned surgery/ surgical guides. There are other companies that we are not directly involved with, that are getting into what they call bioprinting. This is where we're taking man made T-cells and introducing DNA into the cells to create tissue samples of individuals. It's an ever- changing market and just the diversity from the medical side to aerospace, to consumer goods and automotive—it's all different in every single facet. Holden: Are some of these plastics suitable in the prototype or short-term to replace metal castings or things like that? Schwarz: Castings would be a little tricky. I would say the jig/fixture applications are where we've made a very, very big impact. Areas like assembly fixturing, weldment fixturing, where some of our higher heat, chemically resistant materials have replaced a lot of traditional metal tooling. Where that makes the biggest impact is usually from a time and cost standpoint for our customers. Traditionally, making metal tooling for either pre-production or actual production can be very costly, especially from the pre-production side just for proof of concept. We have a big impact there because our tooling is a fraction of the cost and the turnaround time is extremely quick. That's where we see the biggest impact on the manufacturing side: in the fixturing market for replacing metal tooling. Holden: From a financial point of view, does 3D printing make sense in today's market where time to market is so important? Schwarz: Yes, for sure. What we're doing with 3D printing that makes sense from a time standpoint is catching the design flaws early on that prolongs going to production. We can make many different reiterations much quicker, which helps with the cycle product lifeline. It also helps with being able to have parts in hand before we move into production. Not only are we catching design flaws, but we're testing our form, fit and function, and we're able to prove the concept out much earlier on. Traditionally, waiting for the tool to show up or creating our in-house tooling and ultimately a product that we still need to prove out has been a downside in pre-production Holden: Are some of these materials flexibles? Schwarz: Yes, we do have materials that are flexible in both sides of the technology. Traditionally, our PolyJet materials were the ones that have been flexible. On the PolyJet side, we use a type of printing style that allows multiple materials within the same build. We can take what they call rubber-like materials and rigid materials and blend them in a physical model, where I can have a rigid component with a rubber overmold around the outside of it. On the FDM side, we are getting into actual elastomeric materials that will be extruded through our FDM process. Holden: I was watching you demonstrate, and the machine was switching to a material that was soluble. Later, I guess it would be moveable or freed up from other parts that were printed? Schwarz: That's correct. On both our FDM and PolyJet technology, our secondary support structure not only adds as scaffolding to our part for any areas that go beyond a 45-degree angle, but it also works as a material to separate moveable components in an assembly. Because were growing the part from the ground up and Scott Schwarz