In the cutthroat and competitive world of business, one 3D printing company stands out as a collaborator. With 25 years in the 3D printing industry, Materialise has partnered with such printer manufacturers as Arcam, EOS, Renishaw, SLM Solutions, Felix and Leapfrog to provide its software solutions for 3D printing. Now, as the industry begins its absorption into the mainstream manufacturing supply chain, Materialise has leveraged its history of collaboration to partner with two of the biggest names in tech: HP and Microsoft.
At RAPID 2016, Materialise announced that HP’s new Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) 3D printers would rely on Materialise’s Build Processor as a part of its Open Software Platform. Akin to a print driver for 2D printers, the Build Processor is meant to streamline the 3D printing workflow by allowing print management tools to communicate with a given 3D printer. In this case, the printer is the much discussed MJF platform from HP.
In an interview with ENGINEERING.com, Bryan Crutchfield, vice president and general manager of Materialise North America, described the software in this way: “Just like when you push ‘Print’ on your Word document or whatever word processor you’re using, you'll have a set of preferences that you can pick from. That's exactly what the Build Processor does. It allows you to deeply and finely control the printer and, in some cases, pull some very detailed data back from the printers and archive it.”
While Materialise has provided its Build Processor at various levels of customization for various manufacturers over the course of its long history, HP is the largest company for which it has done so. Crutchfield explained that the relationship between HP and Materialise was a natural one, given each company's experience within its respective fields.
As a business with one of the longest histories in 3D printing software, Materialise was an ideal choice.
In addition to its Build Processor, the company has been a pioneer in a wide variety of data management and preparation for 3D printing. For instance, its software has been implemented in aerospace and the medical field to prepare files for some of the most critical applications, such as patient-specific, 3D-printed implants. Now, much of this software can be found in one package, as Materialise’s complete Magics software portfolio has been bundled into the Magics 3D Print Suite.
In addition to developing software, Materialise is also a substantial supplier of 3D printing services, with over 140 printers in-house, another reason that Crutchfield believes HP turned to them. As Materialise is involved with a number of different verticals, Crutchfield suggested that HP also saw them as an expert in 3D printing applications.
As a service provider, Materialise has continued to grow, opening a metal 3D printing factory in 2015 and obtaining certification for the production of end-use parts for aerospace. On the consumer-facing side of its services division, Materialise has also announced a partnership with Microsoft. Through Microsoft’s simple 3D modeling app, 3D Builder, users will be able to 3D print their creations directly through the cloud-based 3D printing platform i.materialise. Powered by the Magics 3D Print Suite, i.materialise allows anyone to upload 3D-printable models and have them produced in 19 different materials and more than 100 color and finish combinations.
At the same time, Materialise is a part of the 3MF Consortium founded by Microsoft to develop a universal 3D printing file format. The .3MF format would, ideally, be capable of capturing all of the data in a CAD file that is necessary for it to be used on any 3D modeling tool or 3D printed on any 3D printer.
In the past, Microsoft has used its widespread influence to monopolize software by employing a strategy dubbed “embrace, extend and extinguish.” The strategy has seen Microsoft introduce new tools and standards, extend the capabilities of these tools through the use of proprietary Microsoft products and, as a result, make competing products obsolete. While it has been implemented in a number of ways, one example is Microsoft’s embrace of AOL's instant messaging protocol at the turn of the millennium. The company then extended the tool with its own proprietary add-ons so that it was no longer compatible with AOL's software. This resulted in the extinguishing of AOL Instant Messenger, as the tool could no longer use Microsoft’s patented protocol.
That being said, Microsoft has recently begun to redefine itself as a company, once again pioneering new technologies like the HoloLens, so it remains to be seen if the “embrace, extend and extinguish” strategy has itself been extinguished. If so, the consortium could bring about a much more robust file format for 3D printing. Regarding Materialise’s work with the consortium, Crutchfield said, “Coming up with the file format is easy. It’s adding the next layer of data—that’s what the consortium is working on. The group is actively working on bringing new features and benefits to the file format for further releases so that you can use it in future applications, like the HP system.”
Now that the consortium has such high-profile members as Dassault Systèmes, Autodesk, Siemens PLM and GE, Materialise has found itself as a leading player not only in the 3D printing space, but also potentially in the wider future of manufacturing, as each of these massive companies has embraced 3D printing in its own right.
Describing what Materialise does as building the “backbone of 3D printing” by connecting any CAD application to any 3D printer through the Magics 3D Print Suite, Crutchfield concluded, “When you think of Materialise, something we like to tell people is that we have spent 25 years building up the technologies that form the backbone of 3D printing and connecting any CAD application to any 3D printer, including new releases like the HP printer. We’re doing it in a wide variety of verticals: aerospace, automotive and medical. Even within our own walls, we’re producing millions of end-use parts per year. That’s really the future of the industry. And we’re here to support everyone in an open and neutral way.”